What do you want me to say ? There is life after failure.

Filip Maertens @fmaertens  

It sucks ! Seriously. It does. So let’s not glorify things here.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

Project Fail! Company Fail!

May  

2008  

February  

2008  Acquired 27% of the shares of the company and started fundraising

November  

2008  

Got real cool VOIP tech and traction, e.g. AT&T EUR 250k debt trouble came with it

January  

2009  

Raised EUR 500k with one angel investor Bought runway Bought too little

3 revenue streams in excess of EUR 1,5M - 2 profitable, 1 launching Reduced from 11 revenue streams Still had 2 too many

Got EUR 12M in two acquisition offers Dude ! Seriously ? The offer is peanuts. Go fish !

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

November  

2008  May  

2009  

WTF happened here ?

> 1,5M revenue, 12M M&A, good traction … and 20k short

#1 Do one thing. And be awesome in it !

Diversification is high-level management bullsh*t. Focus first !

Growing one business is hard. Two is exponentially harder.

I had 3 business units. 2 too many.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

#2 Buy enough runway. Don’t underfund.

Running out of cash before market-fit is textbook recipe for failure.

Time your fundraising. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

Pivot or die. Always buffer. Don’t settle for anything less !

I required EUR 1,7M. Not EUR 500k.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

#3 Only roll with the A-Team

Hire Fast. Fire Fast. Pick investors that understand your business.

Be intolerant for incompetence. Be brutal to ego’s. Be a lean team.

Don’t get me started…

#4 Release when you feel confident.

Done is better than perfect. Stay lean until growth, then accelerate.

Don’t let anyone push to release too soon. Release stable versions.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

Released Zalloo too soon. Overhead and headaches.

#5 Never give up !

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

Original founding team was tired and gave up.

The founding team must show great passion and resilience.

Push through negativity. Fight as if you’re on death ground.

“ It always gets worse before it gets better ”

On 27.05.2009 I’ve learnt an important lesson:

Lack of cash was never the problem. Lack of passion of the original Founders was.

… and I didn’t see that one coming.

“ In the end everything will be OK If it’s not OK, you’re at the end yet. ”

The fallout…

You become a toxic product to many. You failed = loser.

Suck it up and deal with it. Rebound fast. Don’t isolate.

Be a contrarian. Hack the Belgian mentality. Regain confidence.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

Do whatever it is you have to do. But do it fast.

On failure…

It made me a more determined and seasoned entrepreneur.

It made me fearless and gave me perspective.

You’re in Belgium: Petit pays. Petit esprit. Petit zizi.

Failure is a side effect of innovation. … yet, avoid if possible.

Intro Background Uh oh Lessons learned In recovery

It made me tougher.

Don’t let your fear of failure strip you from your passion

Go big ! Be fearless ! Be passionate !

And me, 28 months later ? Financed VOIP Depot, profitable and growing

Trade-sold my niche cyber-security company

Founded and financed my mobile start-up and awaited app Jini

Happy to be free of fear and working on what I love !

Filip Maertens @fmaertens