Entrepreneurs should ensure they have the right mix of people to push their business to new heights.
Start-ups are often one- or two-man bands. In the tech space, partnerships between people with great ideas and tech prowess are essential to getting a business off the ground.
However many companies fall when scaling up – or even at the start-up stage – as the founders struggle to ably commercialise their vision.
Nick Horrocks, a director at advisory firm GP Bullhound, is clear that firms should look to recruit experts in this area.
“Plenty of people that have ideas think that taking an idea and commercialising it means implementing it first, then commercialising it. Those are actually two very distinct skillsets,” he explains.
“When you have people who come up with brainy ideas you have to ask, are they able to implement those ideas and then are they able, from a business point of view, to commercialise them?”
This is easier said than done, says Horrocks.
“There are a million and one routes to market and people mess up. They go through the wrong channels – for example, B2C rather than B2B – or they don’t partner with or recruit the right people.
“There’s an awful lot between the idea and its success that are the actions of the entrepreneur(s).”
To avoid these mistakes, take advantage of the tech community that’s already there, he advises.
“Go to events, meet people, pick their brains, speak to advisors and people who’ve done it before. Nothing happens in isolation.”
Horrocks calls this the ‘soft infrastructure’.
“It exists around places that are successful. It’s probably the same in Silicon Valley because people cluster together so there’s plenty of people to pick their brains,” he says.
“One coffee with someone who’s done something similar or knows the route to market or another contact is worth its weight in gold – worth a cup of coffee anyway!
“You’ll probably kiss a lot of frogs along the way but attend lots of events – they are set up to bring people like that together.”