Is it possible to hire entrepreneurs?

Nice office? If only there was a website full of them.

I’ve always assumed it’s not possible to hire entrepreneurs:

1. to succeed entrepreneurs need grit and focus. Whilst these might be innate characteristics I suspect they are specific to the circumstances of the problem you are working on. The more familiar you are with the problem, the more grit and focus you are likely to have. Inheriting someone else’s startup is difficult as you are more inclined to give up early or to get distracted by something else;
2. entrepreneurs need large stakes in startups to remain incentivised over several rounds of dilution — you don’t want a feeling that you’re working for someone else;
3. if you have what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur then you’re probably already an entrepreneur or will be once you identify a problem you really want to solve.

Recently I’ve been interested in incubators like Founders Factory who regularly advertise for entrepreneurs and accelerator schemes like Entrepreneur First that “make entrepreneurs” with some success. Would successful entrepreneurs that have been on such schemes have become entrepreneurs were it not for the programme?

deskcamping

Mint is part owner of deskcamping, probably the UK’s best established and longest running office sharing site. It exists in a large market and it has good natural (free) search traffic. However to move it on it needs to raise a seed round but it doesn’t have an entrepreneur behind it to do that.

Could you be the entrepreneur-elect to move deskcamping forward? If so we’d be very keen to hear from you. We would be happy to do a deal that provides you with the majority of the equity. Here is what we are looking for:

1. Preferably a software developer (it’s written in Ruby on Rails) who wants to raise money to grow deskcamping immediately. If not, someone other than a software developer who wants to or can raise money immediately;
2. Preferably someone with deep domain knowledge of the commercial property sector;
3. A UK resident;
4. Someone with a plan to grow deskcamping.

In return you will get a majority of the equity and the support of Mint and Nick Couch, the man who originally brought deskcamping to the world.

So important is the fundraising that we would require that we can claw back the equity if you fail to raise funding at an agreed level by an agreed date.

If you’d like to apply please fill out this short application form. We will get back to successful applicants and meet with them before choosing one if we find the right person. Please do not make an application if you do not meet the criteria.