James Batchelor knows more than most about failure.
Before launching Alertacall, he’d already started 11 businesses, but nothing prepared him for the challenges of building a technology company designed to improve the lives of older and vulnerable people.
“For the first 10 years the key stages were failure, failure, difficulty, failure, failure and more failure and really struggling to get it going,” he told the latest episode of The Naked Founder podcast.
“Compared to the businesses we had beforehand it was probably 10 times more difficult than anything else we’d tried.
“To put that in context, I thought we’d have 10,000 customers after year one. I was absolutely convinced of it. We had 10. I was 9,990 out. What a plonker.”
The serial entrepreneur said he’s learnt far more from his failures than his successes.
“I have failed an awful lot,” he said. “You do learn the most from falling over on your face and picking yourself back up again and trying to figure out what you did wrong and how you would avoid that in the future.
Failure breeds tenacity
“Failure breeds tenacity. We had lots and lots of things not go to plan but I think that’s the experience of every single founder everywhere surely.”
Inspired by his grandmother Eveline, Batchelor sold his first home to fund Alertacall and spent years battling to make the business work.
More than two decades later, Alertacall employs 110 people and has been acquired by Canadian technology giant Volaris Group.
Following the deal, Batchelor took to LinkedIn to explain why he’d decided to sell.
‘I am okay’ inventor sells Alertacall to Canadian tech giant
“Alertacall has been approached, without exaggeration, every single week for several years – for some kind of merger or acquisition conversation.”
He said he was persuaded to accept Volaris Group’s offer because of its reputation as a buy-and-hold business.
Batchelor plans to step down as chief executive once a replacement has been found.
“On the point of stepping away there is one other factor which is important,” he said. “The chief executive of a business in particular could do with changing now and then.
“I think Alertacall genuinely would benefit from somebody else being the CEO if they can get the right person. A new wave of energy. Somebody who might be able to see opportunities I’m blind to. We develop blind spots.”
Under his leadership, Alertacall has provided its technology free of charge to thousands of people living in social housing.
Batchelor has also helped plant tens of thousands of trees in the Lake District and mentored other socially focused entrepreneurs.
You can listen to the latest episode of The Naked Founder here.
The Naked Founder is a BusinessCloud podcast produced by Dan Brown at Renowned.