10 years — 10 tips for your venture

Attending the 10 Years of Orange Grove event was a time of reflection on what has been accomplished and what we’ve learned. Here’s my top 10 tips that every venture should think of.

1. Define Your Purpose

Before diving into the intricacies of your product or service, clearly articulate your ventures purpose. Owning your own company is unlike any other employment, it needs to resonate with you, make you enjoy getting up in the morning and even enjoy the frustrations you will inevitable face. Your passion of ‘why’ will reflect in your product and then with your customers. Mindset is key to everything and serves as your base. Choose it wisely. After all if Oil companies had had the mindset of being energy companies, they would have led the way in the transition away from fossil fuels rather than spending money to fight it.

2. Market Research Matters

Thorough market research is the compass that points your startup in the right direction. Many great products were built because a personal need was not being met in the market and so you built it yourself. Of course! Because you are an entrepreneur at heart. Alas, a customer size of 1 will not be enough to sustain your business. So please do the market research. 99.9% of the time, the original idea gets shaped with market research.

3. Build a Strong Team

A successful startup is built on the shoulders of a strong team. As you succeed and grow, the skills needed to build a strong team are vital. Even as a solo founder you need to know how to build a team such as with your key suppliers. Surround yourself with individuals who share your vision but bring varied skills and perspectives to the table while still holding a similar sense of purpose.

4. Customer-Centric Approach

From day one, prioritise understanding your customers. Listen to their needs, gather feedback, and adapt your offerings accordingly. Everyone complains about customer service, if you can do that well, your brand is well on its way with free word of mouth marketing.

5. Embrace Failure

“Fail fast” is sometimes stated as adaptability. Embrace the learning because there will be something every day. The chaos of this journey is part of the package and those that can do this well are at the front of the essential skill of overcoming challenges and seizing new opportunities.

6. Effective Communication

Clear communication is key to all relationships, either with a vendor, your customers, a team mate or even an investor. Ask for feedback on this so you can hone this skill with time to your best tool.

7. Financial Savvy

Develop a solid understanding of your startup’s finances.Cash flow is the biggest reason for failure in the first years after product/market match. It seems so simple on the surface, forecast costs and bring in revenue, but cash flow is about staying on top of the timing of those. A great sale can often require cash flow for a small business that puts cash balances low until the revenue from that comes in. It’s an art to stay on top of it well. It’s not an accountant that you will rely on, the sooner you can be an expert on those numbers the better.

8. Oversight

Whether you will take on outside investors or not you have shareholders and the most important one is you. The sooner you incorporate KPIs that you track the better. These can be quickly turned into management reports that can be used for monthly and quarterly meetings. Have an advisory board if you have no formal board. The practice of holding the meetings and creating targets to report on will be extremely helpful in keeping you on track and holding your business accountable. Time flies so quickly otherwise.

9. Network Strategically

Networking is more than just exchanging business cards. Cultivate meaningful relationships within your industry, seek mentorship, and attend relevant events. A strong network opens doors to opportunities, partnerships, and valuable advice. A collaborative mindset will serve you much better than a scarcity one.

10. Stay Resilient

Building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. Challenges will arise, setbacks will happen, but resilience is your secret weapon. You must pay attention to your own health and well being first. Resting and recharging is a must if you are to stay able to handle that roller coaster you are on.

At Hippo Seeds we deploy a Living Systems Lens approach to entrepreneurship and so I’d like to add in two more points for consideration.

• Living System Lens — Everything we do touches something else. We are not always in control of it but it’s our responsibility to make note of it. Let’s take electric cars, scooters e-mobility in general. Living systems lens would map the harmful mining practices and the fact that the current batteries are not recyclable, making it a scarce resource, and seek out scientists and investment opportunities towards a recyclable battery, while supporting new products such as Mazi Mobility and BaaS (Battery as a Service) as an example.
• Sustainability — as we used to invest in scalability we need now to think of replicability. Supply chain oversight, materials innovation, livable wages, non exploitative purchase policies and tearing down the decision makers tables,