his year marks 10 years of being an entrepreneur for me. Its  a big milestone. Ive spent a lot of time introspecting and asking myself “what would i have done differently if i could go back”

First id like to say that i don’t regret  one minute of the past 10 years.That not to say it was all a bowl of cherries. But even though i could have done a lot of things better or more efficiently had i known what i know today, i don’t regret one moment. Not one bit. Its been an exhilarating journey and i cherish every moment of it – the pitfalls, screw ups and the pain points as much if not more than the happy moments. Those are the moments that define you, that toughen you up. And without those you have nothing to look back to and laugh !

But if i could go back, whilst keeping the journey intact i would potentially change my outlook on certain things. I would trust myself more , my inner instinct and listen less to others  quoting text book stuff thats all good in theory but, as they say, in theory practice and theory are the same, but in practice they are not. continue reading »

I gave a fireside talk earlier today for London Innovators at Google Campus in London to a group of vibrant entrepreneurs which was most enjoyable. A few of the questions I got asked are questions I  keep getting quite often, so I’d like to share the answers I gave  below

How important is it to differentiate yourself when you start off ?

This is obviously a question that preoccupies entrepreneurs quite a lot. Sometimes too much so. I found myself citing an analogy which I often do.

If you were say BMW in the1920s and pitching the idea of creating a car, most likely the response would be “you’re late. Henry Ford and Mercedes Benz have already done that. Go home”continue reading »

PeerReach is a pretty cool tool you can use to understand your Twitter following by peer group, quality, country etc.. and also it allows you to dee the most influential people who are following you by ‘Rank’ so you can follow them back. I have to say its a pretty useful tool,  somewhat bringing order out of chaos given that anyone can follow anyone on social media today, so you really end up not knowing the make up of that following , who your content resonates with and what following / influence they in turn have. The chart below is a breakdown of my following by PeerReach’s quality metric.continue reading »

Lately I’ve had the luck to be approached by a number of startup entrepreneurs wanting to get some insight or advice from my learnings at PeoplePerHour.  The first thing I always say is my no 1 learning myself : listen to advice, but don’t be afraid to act differently. Advisors will be wrong more often that great entrepreneurs as they know their business better than any other. So always take it with a pinch of salt. Same applies here.

That said, there are a few basics which I do believe are very transferrable across most businesses and especially online, regardless of the sector. And its these basics that I see missing more of then than not. Entrepreneurs can often be victims of what makes them entrepreneurs – passion, vision, and hunger. They are impatient by nature and they jump in.

Below are what I think the most important things to think through before  you even start, and in this order.

1.  Figure out your unit economics first

This is probably the most important starting point for me. Often neglected. Don’t just jump in to a business with wishful thinking check the unit economics to make sure you can acquire customers profitably and scale.continue reading »