One of the main reasons I’m excited for my new startup Jude to be part of the Flux Accelerator is to put in place some structure, documentation & processes which, especially in my case, being the sole founder, can only be a good thing if the vision I have for Jude in my head, is to reach anywhere near its potential out in the real world.

The first real “documentation” of this journey I’ll do starts right now. As part of the programme, the Flux team suggest that each CEO (I guess that’s me) religiously put out a weekly update that can be distributed to everyone in the accelerator & wider mentor / network group. The purpose being, to keep people up to speed & engaged, to leverage the wider network & finally create word of mouth & awareness around what I’ve done, what I’m doing & I’m sure in many cases, where & how I need some help.

This update, appropriately titled, Good, Bad & Ugly, is to be submitted by 10am every Friday (sorry Mark, I’m a tiny bit late already) with a debrief later in the day where we can all share in each others Good, Bad & Ugly, hopefully with a view to finding & resolving similar issues I’m sure we’ll all come across at various stages over the next 6 months of the programme.

It’s meant to be an internal update, however for me at least, I think I’ll get greater value if I share it with you. So that’s what this is. It’s “warts & all” documentation of my journey trying to build a global company from some shaky islands down near the bottom of the world.

Each week I’ll put out an update split across 6 categories; Overview, providing a quick summary & some context. Ask, 1 or 2 things that would be helpful, what was Good, Bad & Ugly & finally my Next Steps.

If you see anything you could help with, know someone who could, or simply offer some advice then make sure you do. I’d love to hear from you. I have a feeling I’m going to need all the help I can get …

Overview

A fun, busy first week. Settling into the new digs at The Icehouse & working out who’s who & what’s what. Great to be around like minded people & hear what the other teams in the accelerator are so passionate about building.

Fired out my first real PR of this journey on Tuesday. Amazing response across all channels.

Ask

• If you know someone that may be interested, please share my original post or tweet with them. How did anyone ever scale fast before the internet?
• What “problems” should we try solve first? What frustrates you the most with your “banking experience”? I built what I wanted for me. Who else feels that way?

Good

• Some great leads & offers of help already coming from far & wide
• Met with some amazing potential mentors
• Still managed to go for a run every morning along the beach before coming into the office!

Bad

• Stark realisation of just how much there is to do …
• Need to spend more time on thinking about what experience & skills I need from my potential mentors. What exactly are the skills I am looking for that are likely to accelerate growth fastest?
• Didn’t get to read as much as I’d hoped … FYI, I try to read at least 1 book a week, sometimes 2. Did manage to finish Thinking, Fast and Slow & The Undercover Economist however

Ugly

• Thankfully nothing to report here. I had a pretty stale sandwich for lunch on Thursday … that was pretty ugly

Next Steps

• Narrow in on exactly “where to play”
• I’ve built something that works pretty well for my bank accounts. How, who & where is the best distribution channel in order to scale?

…

Back to work, maybe lunch …

Cheers,

Ben — Founder (& father) of Jude