Top 3 lessons I’ve learnt building a company

5 years ago, I quit college to start Parkpnp and ParkOffice with my co-founder, Garret. Needless to say, the journey since then has had its ups and down. Some things that remained constant were the lessons life taught every step of the way.

A few of the most important lessons were from our early days of our startup. Mostly because the odds were against us. We had a short runway to acquire customers, prove our business model, we had limited funds and a small team to make it all happen. We’ve come a long way since then, and when I sit back and think about past five years - 3 major learnings (and the most important) from my first year come to mind.

1. You can’t do it on your own. Build a team.

When we started our start-up journey, all of us did everything and anything that needed to be done. I was the hero developer — hacking out everything we needed, designing graphics, UI/UX, marketing graphics — I was the guy for anything digital. My co-founder Garret was the business hero — he talked to the right people, raised investments and got sales. In fact, our whole company was made of such hero people. We were a small team, but energetic enough to do it all.

As we grew, we realized that each of us had to focus on what we did best and not do everything. We needed a team that could scale things up — specialists for each department. I focused on product and engineering. Building a solid product that customers loved to use which also solved their needs.

We needed specialists and not a general jack of all trades. We began hiring and asking others to join the long journey we were starting on. We hired our head of marketing, head of commercial, customer success manager etc. as soon as we had enough money. We focused on what we did best, but we all still pitched in with suggestions and perspectives as the leadership team. We gave up control and allowed others to do what they did best.

You are only as strong as your team. But not all teams are made equal. We picked the best people we knew, who could deliver our expectations. You can have your own ideas and filters about the kind of team you would like to build. It could depend on your personal preferences, the nature of your business or your financial situation.

Our team was made of people who were passionate about what they were doing. Most were entrepreneurial by nature and were therefore willing to take risks. They stood by us through the initial struggle of setting the business up, raising funds, getting the first few clients, etc. They were flexible enough to go beyond their job titles and learn new stuff to keep up with the latest demand of the market. We would not be where we are today without the support and service of our loyal team, who chose us over a conventional job, and kept us afloat through thick and thin.

2. Building a business is harder than winning competitions.

Our company was born into a world that celebrates start-ups. Our lives were filled with glamour - winning all possible awards, getting photos taken and the likes. But that was just the start-up hype. Don’t get me wrong - the hype was important in itself - those initial connections and relationships we built with the people we met then became useful and beneficial later.

Our plan was to create something cool, without focusing on making money. We planned to raise just enough money to keep us going till we would become massive - and then we would focus on generating revenues. We wished to follow the footsteps of the start-up legends - Uber, Airbnb & Facebook. But it was harder than we thought.

We saw ourselves as the cool new start-up founders, having fun and living the start-up life. It felt good. There were speeches to be made and ideas to be presented. A lot of people just loved what we did.

Similar to awards there could also be other visual status you could falling for — the number of followers or likes on social media, number of speaking engagements, etc.

Reality check - we were not in the business to win awards. None of the glamor prepared us for the long battle to build a profitable company. We realised that we had to get clients fast. We needed to build a company that offers services that people would pay for. This was quite different than impressing the judges for an award. Getting the customer to pay, generating revenues and building services required a different set of skills. It is easier to land an award than a customer willing to part with their hard-earned money. Our competition was no longer the other startups in our awards category - we competed with every other company across the world that wanted the same money that our customers had in their pockets.

People who loved our idea were not our customers - they were just awed by the cool factor. Our paying customers, on the other hand, did not shy away from telling us what we lacked, what we were doing wrong and most importantly - what we could do to improve. Our customers helped us build our business and drove us to offer a service that solved a problem to many. And they were willing to pay.

The lesson: Focus on impressing your customer rather than a judge. You need to keep your customers happy and satisfied, so that they keep paying you for your outstanding product or service - and that is what’s most important. Pickup awards/likes/followers on the way to boost your progress.

3. Failure is part of success. Not the opposite.

This is something we’ve all heard innumerable times. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Before starting my own company — I was blind enough to think that this would not happen to me. Why? Because I had read all about how companies failed and was confident that we would not make the same mistakes. And we didn’t. We made new ones. We quickly realized that not everything goes according to our carefully laid plans.

You cannot foresee the future, you can only plan for it and be ready with measures if things go wrong — which they will. You have to accept that there will be things that will be out of your control and try your best to not worry about them. A good example is the current pandemic. In the absence of which we would have been a highly profitable company. Even without the pandemic, months of hard work would go down the drain because some deals fell off. The truth remains that you can only control what is in your control.

What you can do is prepare for multiple outcomes: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. With each step/tough situation you only get tougher and wiser. With each failure, you learn what not to do — which in itself is a very important lesson.

Dispite 2020 not going accroding to plan, our team was still able to pull everything through and keep our company afloat. We are now working with some of the worlds largest Fortune 500 companies and the future more exciting than ever. All because of us constantly learning and improving.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”
— Thomas Edison

These are just 3 of the many lessons that I’ve learnt in the last 5 years. While the journey has had its ups and downs, each lesson has only enabled me to grow. There have been many people who have helped me in my entrepreneurial journey. I’d like to do the same. If you’re building a business that uses tech and you want somebody to bounce ideas off or to offer advice, feel free to get in touch!