The tale of deep, deep breathing

"Does it feel that your life's become a catastrophe? Oh, it has to be, for you to grow, boy" - Take The Long Way Home - Supertramp

The last post I made was following my first public event with Foundry Fuel. Since then two of the pitching founders made contact with technologists to help them with their projects. I couldn't be more delighted as connecting people is what this was all about. I have also been approached by other organisations to do events with Foundry Fuel which is hugely flattering. I'm not doing it though and here's why.

It's called Beta for a reason

Foundry Fuel was created by one person in a room building based on limited customer and user feedback. Sure it also had a lot of drive and passion but the user engagement was really limited to a close group. When I released the Beta version to the public I started getting new feedback. Some was from users I probably anticipated but some was from angles I hadn't event considered. The volume of feedback has been amazing, more than I could ever have wished for and I again have had to make some tough decisions in regards to the future of the platform based on that.

Firstly I should say that most of the feedback was great but not all feedback has been encouraging. Some people really think it's a waste of time, want to break things to show you up or think I should stay out of the tech recruitment space. I can generally have banter with people but some of the feedback was, lets say......not nice. That's me being polite dear readers because some people are just toxic and believe that they have some kind of divine right to own a space.

Broadly speaking, the feedback has shown me that I have...

A) Got something worthwhile
B) Probably over-engineered what I need
C) Have not considered a few things I could do to make it even better

This sort of feedback is fantastic and has made me think I can take the Beta platform down, work on some key areas and bring it back stronger and better as the community platform I hope it will be. So thats what I am going to do. Deep breath, process the feedback and keep on moving forward.

This seems familiar

This experience really recharged me in a lot of ways but it also reminded me of some previous experiences as a founder. In the early days we didn't get very far trying to raise money but when we did we managed to get a promise of significant investment if we managed to get a platform live in three months and get a customer running on it. These were fantastic investors from London. Big time players with a floor in The Shard. Now that's pressure!

As CTO a lot of that pressure fell on me to get something out that would function properly, stay up and process some revenue. I worked with my CEO to get a way forward, agreed on the goal and how we would do that. Now we did all that, we managed it, but wow did we make loads of mistakes. We probably were too ambitious in the scope, we didn't manage our time as well as we should have and we had a lot of people to keep happy during that tight period.

Like my recent experience we had loads of feedback and some of that was amazingly toxic looking back. Nothing gives you motivation like partners or peers telling you that you cannot do it. I can still here the words "you'll never do it" and "we're getting in bed with the devil" echoing in the background. Well we did do it and some would say we did get in bed with the devil but this wasn't then/them. That was later. Those days of grind were special and the investors were fantastic and I can say without doubt that we looked back on that time with appreciation.

The biggest mistake I think we made though was not slowing after that period. We kept running at that pace and velocity and that was something we should have really stepped back on. Success breeds need for more success and sometimes you think you can do anything when really you need to stop, step back, appreciate what you have done and step up again. We also didn't stand up to the toxicity. We ignored it hoping it would go away but it just didn't.

More stories for another time perhaps. :)

Changes on the horizon

Nine months ago I was asked to be an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Founders Lab programme in the Ormeau Labs which I loved. Following my decision to try and spend some time on Foundry Fuel, I was then asked to be Program Director for the second cohort of the program part time while i worked on my platform. I have loved working with new founders, helping them grow their ideas/businesses to that next level, have met some amazing people and worked with some really kind, patient, talented and caring folk in the space. We will be doing our Cohort 2 Showcase on the 3rd of April and I can't wait to present these brilliant founders to the world.

Following this, and the parking of Foundry Fuel for refits, I will be moving on to an exciting new full-time role. This is a brilliant company who I admire a lot and I am honoured to be going to work with them. But more about that next time.

Thank you

What I did want to call out is someone I consider to be a real local hero. Claire Halliday not only runs the Ormeau Baths but for me, and many others I am sure, is that business, building and community. I would not have been able to achieve anything I have over the last year without her support and friendship. She is a true local hero and is a real legend to me and lots of other founders. People don't say this enough anyway, but from me I just want to say a big Thank You.

I think it's fair to say there have been a lot of changes in my life over the last six months and I am really grateful for these but also for the opportunities that people put in front of me. Thats the message here for anyone who cares to listen. Keep looking for the opportunities people, act in good faith and be kind with your time and good things will happen.

I will keep posting thoughts, feedback and experiences in StartUp land as things move forward so again, this isn't the end.

We've got this.
G