Being a Founder is like ice-cream
Being a Founder is colourful, tasty, always different, many flavours, varieties, generates so many feelings.
You’re inhaling that ice cream, and loving it.
Small brain freeze.
But it’s so delicious, you just want to keep on eating it.
As you’re really enjoying your ice-cream… a smug asshole (read: Kanye) comes along on his bike. (You’re still eating it, fast before it melts). And he knocks the ice cream out of your hands.
But never mind, Joe the ice cream man appears around the corner where you’ve dropped your ice cream with a van full of NEW ice cream.
And you get a bigger and better ice cream. With sprinkles.
That NEW ice cream comes with FREE fairy floss. And, BONUS flakes to stick in your ice cream.
You eat that whole ice cream. And the FREE fairy floss and all the BONUS flakes with such joy.
Then you get a call from your doctor. Test results in.
You’re lactose intolerant.
I became a founder because ice cream, is generally awesome & you can choose whatever flavour you like.
And because I:
- Wanted & needed to do more than work for someone else, forever.
- Want to leave a mark in this world, make a difference.
- Solve a pain point I & others have. Because I can do that.
- Can make others lives easier, provide convenience.
- Wanted to create a working environment for my team that doesn’t conform.
- How I became a Founder? I ******* QUIT to leave a world I didn’t want to be a part of anymore, an industry I wasn’t passionate about; Advertising.
Some lessons learned so far:
Sometimes, you can eat ice cream too quickly & you get a brain freeze.
Or, not quick enough & it melts.
- Do what YOU think, create & follow your own path, your gut, your own story.
- Take advice where appropriate, but stick to what you fundamentally believe in.
- Everything is based on time — think fast, act fast. But don’t rush everything.
- Being a Founder takes endurance, persistence, courage, optimism & resilience.
- Women can be their own worst enemy.
- Having a Co-Founder that compliments your skill set, works with you & you trust helps, a lot.
- The people you surround yourself and who join you along the way are so very important.
- Don’t be afraid to talk to people. Be personable, be original.
- Believe in yourself, you’re the only one that will set your own alarm each morning.
In the last three months, a Kanye hasn’t knocked ice cream out of my hands (to be fair, I also haven’t ridden a bike in the last three months). It’s actually been a chocolate flavoured, tens and thousands sprinkled on top of couple of months.
AFTR will be joining Chinaccelerator in Shanghai as the first Australian start up to be accepted and we’re pretty stoked. Not only because of the copious amount of dumplings that will be within reach, but for the opportunity this will create and already has brought us a company — new hires, central team location, rapid market expansion, and we’ll be mentored by some of the most well respected guys in the industry. Pretty sweet. As sweet as Cookies and Cream ice-cream.
看到你在上海 (See you soon, Shanghai)
