Tech and digital leaders across the North recently united to hear from a fresh panel of founders who candidly shared their lessons, highs and lows of growing a business and raising funds.
Popular event series Founder F*ck Ups, in partnership with Praetura Ventures, returned for another evening filled with brutally honest founder stories and a glimpse behind the scenes from leaders who have been there before and learnt their lessons the hard way.
Hosted at Bruntwood SciTech’s No.1 Circle Square on 10 September, the panel discussion was chaired by Ben Davies, group marketing director at Praetura, who shared his own fair share of mishaps and learnings across his extensive career.
This event series is designed to be a judgement free zone, encouraging open conversations where founders can feel safe in sharing their battles, mistakes, and insights from which attendees can all learn a little from. With that in mind, this is a stripped back review of the event.
Ben Davies was joined by Eddie Whittingham, founder of Ministry of Work; Anna Sutton, co-founder and CEO of The Data Shed; Ayaan Mohamed Ali, founder and CEO of Digitech Oasis; and Liam Bateman, fractional CTO and founder.
Davies kicked off the discussion with a simple question: ‘What is your favourite f*ck up?’
From steering away from chasing gimmicks to battles with visas, co-founders or equity, the four leaders have been through almost everything you can think of as founders.
It is a “huge decision” bringing the right co-founder on board, with the panel agreeing that leaders should make the time to vet potential staff properly. Even if someone might be your friend before going into business together, they might not be so happy when you have to make tough business decisions.
Despite these f*ck ups, one founder said you have to “fail to keep going” with plenty of “sacrifices” along the way.
On their most embarrassing f*ck ups, one leader shared how they had to do relay races around the office at 3am just to stay awake when building their company. Another had to deal with the fallout from losing access to a large chunk of funds sitting in a payment platform – and eventually had to ghost a potential investor once they were quizzed on where the funds were.
The most ‘embarrassing’ moment for one leader, was when they recalled being reduced to tears by ‘brutal investors’ as they were asked a barrage of questions. In agreement, the panel urged those in the room not to just say ‘yes to everything’.
The discussion turned to the importance of being upfront and honest with investors, especially with figures on pitch decks. With tight-knit investor circles, they’ll soon find out the truth: “They all know each other, so they will talk!”
On their biggest learnings, the leaders agreed securing IP early on as a founder is vital, the importance of having a good culture for retaining staff, and being daring enough to fire a client if necessary. “If it looks too good to be true, it definitely is,” said one of the panelists.
For their top tips to other founders in the room, one leader said it was important to find a ‘sh*t hot’ mentor, and to not be afraid of firing fast if someone isn’t a good fit for your business to protect the company culture. Equally, leaders shouldn’t place all their responsibility on one ‘A* employee’ as they might hand their notice in – and you don’t want to be left in the lurch.
Wrapping up the conversation on an important topic, the leaders shared their personal experiences with burnout. They agreed that there is no ‘silver bullet’ as a business owner and how you run a business but agreed it is important to ‘step back’ and ‘take care of your wellbeing’ as the ‘world won’t stop if you don’t send that email straight away’.
