Breakfast with tech entrepreneurs

"1) Going faster is not the optimum strategy at all stages of the startup journey for all founders in all business models, nor is getting bigger. Learning, pivoting, getting paying customers to love you is.

2) Preparing for the nene stage of growth can mean needing to re-frame the past in different language, different metrics.

3) Funding should always lead to being able to show you will use the next round wisely, and better still won't need it."

"Thanks for inviting me, it was a very interesting meeting with lots of good conversation and a good level of insight from your cohort. Very difficult to summarise everything in a sentence but I would say that some of the key points were:

1) As an entrepreneur it is a must to wear multiple hats, including the communication one to talk the language of the VCs / investors,

2) VCs (and in general money) are not the solution to develop successful business models - on the contrary, one needs to execute and build track record to grasp the attention of investors (and make their choice easier),

3) Innovation is a what virtually any entrepreneur aims to, however don't forget to look at the value chain where this innovation would be marketed - the ecosystem / value chain needs to be ready to implement that innovation otherwise you might find yourself building a ferrari for a small single lane road... 

4) When you are in the middle of your entrepreneurial journey, it might become difficult sometimes to take the right decisions... even the simplest choices can look troublesome (a knee pad or a table?) - that's why having a reality check with your market / customers as well as a support for detaching yourself from the daily operations (e.g. incubators / mentors / discussion groups) can help challenging your point of view and provide with some good and helpful feedback"

“The Eligent Breakfast meeting on Saturday was a fantastic opportunity to share ideas with mentors and other tech start ups. It was day one post Brexit so one of the topics of discussion was strategy execution in Europe together with a focus on ways to fund your expansion plans.”

“Being able to have our misconceptions and assumptions challenged is one of the greatest assets we can acquire as entrepreneurs. We dive into these rabbit holes of what we believe is the best solution but to have them checked is what drives us in the right direction. We have to continue sharing experiences to drive innovation!”

“I came to the meetup with a pressing question of whether we should seek for investment as an early stage startup. My concern was, do we really need to go faster as competitors having easy access to funds may catch up and replicate the solution. The valuable thoughts on this subject where:

1) In early stage it could be a good idea to grow organically to prove the idea is solid and you can grow a business out of it. Also, the ability to run a business doesn't develop overnight, the founders and the core team should get mature in that sense as well

2) Attracting large investment may even be fatal for a business. If not able to provide adequate returns, the business will accumulate debt and lose the trust of investors

3) Nobody understands your business situation better than yourself as a founder, so listen to opinions but make your own conclusions.”

“Put 30 min a week to observe the bigger picture of what you’re doing and a bi-weekly meeting with a mentor on the same topic.”

"For me the breakfast and a few hours of valuable discussions on topics that I am up to was priceless. "

“Sharing knowledge, experiences and opinions between entrepreneurs without fear of judgment is a great experience.”

“It’s important for startup founders to talk to customers, investors and partners with their own language they can easily understand. Optimise your startup performance by re-evaluating your day-to-day activities - significantly better results can be achieved not through harder work, but through optimised or completely new work approach.”