After launching The Memo in 2015, I made the life-changing switch from tech journalist to founder.
I’ve written about startups for the past ten years, but nothing could prepare me for the rollercoaster life of a founder.
There were highs — we grew to ten times the size of my last website and picked up three industry awards.
And there were plenty of lows (see below).
A year on, we now reach half a million readers.
Now seemed like the right time to share the things I’ve learned from the sleepless nights, long hours and dark times. If you’re reading this with a sense of fearful trepidation — don’t worry — it got better!
1. Don’t hire cheap, hire smart
After we raised funds, we made the same mistake many startups do — we ran before we could walk and hired way too early.
The people we hired (and then let go) were good. They wanted to work for a startup and were happy to take a pay cut to be part of our new venture. But what we needed was experience. As I learned the hard way —when you’re growing fast you can’t afford to cut corners, you need experienced people who can take your take your startup to the next level.
It’s especially hard to find good people in digital publishing. In my journey with The Memo, Mel Jacovou at Propel London played a vital role in our success — who after hearing me out gave me the best introduction I’ve ever had. Mel introduced me to Sarah, my now publisher and the best hire I ever made.
Sarah knows everything that I don’t.
For every problem, she has a solution. And while I’ve got my head stuck in the present, she’s thinking about the future. Make sure you find your “Sarah”. It changes everything.
2. Coworking is worth every penny
Once we had money in the bank, we started to think we were a big company and paid a heavy price.
We started out coworking at Second Home, a beautiful space in trendy East London. But as we started to hire too quickly we outgrew co-working and decided to sublet a space from another company. The rent worked out a lot cheaper and we suddenly felt like a “real company”.
But that move suddenly made us feel a whole lot less agile. It may have been cheaper, but it ended up costing us a lot more. Pound for pound coworking might seem expensive, but it’s worth every penny.
A month later a van crashed into the telephone switch outside our rented office, taking out our broadband for almost a week. And I won’t miss people stealing our milk or having to deal with our staff being locked out because nobody turned up with keys to open the front door.
With coworking all of those small, yet time-consuming things are taken off your plate, leaving you to focus on building your business. As well as all the benefits of being in a community of likeminded people to bounce ideas off.
We’ve now moved back into co-working at the Wayra accelerator and I’m loving every day of it.
3. You are not a robot
In the world we live in it’s near impossible to take time out.
You can check your tweets at a moment’s notice or worse still commit the mortal sin of checking your email in the middle of the night. But guess what? It all catches up with you.
When it comes to checking in, I lack self control and suspect most founders do.
I use a great app called Focus that literally blocks your Mac from email, Twitter, Facebook, Slack and any other website/app that you just can’t stop checking and it changed my life for the better. I set it block everything on my home computer between 8pm and 6am. If it’s that important I should be working on it at the office.
I would pay a lot of money for somebody to build the Focus app for my iPhone. Then Apple can copy it and call it magical.
I’ve also resigned to the fact that I can’t multitask efficiently. I’m not convinced that anyone can work just as efficiently on two things at the same time.
4. Focus, focus, focus
On a related note, my god I wish I’d listened to people about focus earlier. Being a millennial I’m stuck in a perpetual state of FOMO (fear of missing out).
When you work in a fast moving market like tech you got opportunities thrown at you constantly, but you have to not lose sight of the reason why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Which leads me nicely on to….
6. Grow some balls
When you’re an employee it’s so easy to pass the buck if things don’t work out. We’ve all had crap bosses, but it’s easy to blame them and not you when things get tough.
Guess what? When it’s your own business you have nowhere to hide.
I had to learn the hard way to be a lot more assertive.
And something I think all Brits should be taught at school — learn how to say no.
7. Don’t eat crap
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint”
I first came across that expression from a friend of mine who ran a brilliant bar in Osaka, while he was pouring gin and tonic.
While in that case he was referring to pacing your drinks, it applies just as well to work/life balance when founding your own startup.
There are a million cliches I can roll out about how hard it is to start your own business. But regardless of how many hours you put in or how much “passion” you have, you’re not a machine and you can’t treat your body like one.
Coffee and bags of Haribo are like sticking a plaster on the problem and believe me, it all catches up with you eventually.
Six months in I finally learned to accept the way my body clock works. I am not a morning person and will no longer apologise for it.
I finally found a way around it by keeping fit first thing in the morning.
Never in a million years I thought I’d be that guy running in the park at 6:45am, but it’s the best change I ever made. It means I arrive at the office alert and ready to face the day and no longer need to worry about indulging at a networking event in the evening.
If you’re not a morning person — try running, it changed me for the better.
7. Make time to be around other founders
It’s so easy to isolate yourself when you’re working on a startup in tunnel vision and lose all sense of perspective. I’ve been so bad at keeping in touch with all the founders I met when running Tech City News and I regret not talking to them sooner.
It sounds so obvious — but a problem shared is truly a problem halved. However, in practice it’s a lot harder than you’d think. It takes a lot of guts to take a step back and tell someone you trust when things aren’t going your way. But it is so worth it.
8. Culture is king
Again. Another cliche. But so very important.
Having a great team is what makes it worth coming in every day. Especially one that can find the humour in any situation.
Like this example: At a couple of events people mistakenly pronounced our name as “The Meemo (as in meme). It resulted in our team bursting out laughing in public on many occasions.
To my surprise and delight — the team turned this joke into this brilliant card for my 30th birthday:
9. Tell people you love them
Probably not what you were expecting — but so very important.
I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of friends and family.
When things aren’t going the way you want them to, it’s so easy to shut yourself down for fear of disappointing the very people that care about you. I think this is something a lot founders struggle with.
They may not understand the battles you face every day, but they still care, despite what you put them through. You become married to your startup whether you like it or not, but never forget to tell people you love them.
They’re your rock and they’ll still be there no matter what happens to the company.
Thanks for reading.
If you’re thinking of starting out on your own I hope you find these learnings useful and avoid the mistakes I made. If you already have your own startup I hope reading this has been cathartic or even amusing.
What’s next for The Memo? So much, but video’s been our biggest success so watch out for new series launching soon both on The Memo and Reuters, our content partner — I’ll fill you in with everything we’ll be up to in my next post.
And look out America and Asia — we’re also raising finance for our international expansion.
Interested in being part of our future?
Get in touch: alex.wood@thememo.com
