There is one ingredient any successful business cannot do without from the start.
No, not a ‘groundbreaking’ idea: you can iterate and improve on what’s already in the market without blazing a new trail.
A product tailored to the market? That will come once you’re up and running.
Money, money, money? It helps – especially as you scale – but there are plenty of bootstrapped businesses which didn’t resort to giving away equity (any many others who found out the hard way that teaming up with the wrong investor can kill a business).
Ambition; drive; desire? We’re getting closer…
It all comes down to people. Those at the helm of the business; those creating the technology; those brought in to grow the operation; those – potentially – who finance it.
The greatest mind could create the greatest technological product the world has ever seen – but without people to sell it, market it and buy it, what would become of it?
And while people are needed in a very practical sense to drive forward a successful business, the nuance comes with how these people come together, interact – sell to one another, of course – and share knowledge. Which is what brings us to this idea of ‘community’.
When my BusinessCloud co-owner Chris Maguire and I launched TechBlast, ‘community’ was the word we kept coming back to. Along the sometimes brutal timeline of launching, raising, revenue, P&L, pivot and exit – or, sadly, liquidation – are people in need of advice. How could we facilitate those connections which might make a difference?
TechBlast has evolved to focus on innovative events: FUEL Manchester and FUEL Liverpool brought together high-profile speakers, startups, scaleups, investors and other key figures in those communities in an intimate setting, and is planned to launch in other regions later this year and next.
Many of the connections made in our Ask Me Anything masterclass pods have led to continued relationships, both among the businesses which took part and the experts who offered their knowledge and experiences.
The ‘power of the cohort’ can be cemented further in incubators and accelerators, with founders sharing their experiences as they work simultaneously to grow their businesses. And when – for example – GM Business Growth Hub takes its maiden ASCEND cohort to Web Summit in November, those 25 scaleups will gel in even more ways even as they meet global investors and make international connections.
Upon returning as CEO earlier this year – you can read more about why he resigned here, and why he moved Web Summit from Dublin to Lisbon in our 2016 interview here – Paddy Cosgrave said his time away had motivated him to make Europe’s largest technology conference “more intimate, convivial and community focused”.
More than any big-name keynote speech on the main stage, that is what excites me about reporting from Web Summit for the first time this year (look out for our dispatch newsletter at the conclusion of each day). Among the startups, speakers and investors will be thousands of stories worth sharing – all looking to add to their own community network.
It will be interesting to see exactly how Cosgrave puts his ‘community plan’ into action. What is clear is that there will always be a need to bring people together, in intimate ways, to spark ideas then grow the businesses founded to realise those visions.
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