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As the year comes to a close, the season ends and with Jack moving on from EAH in 2024, we felt now was the perfect time to bring you a very special episode... one that has been in the works and on our minds for months.
We look to answer the million-dollar question, 'Why do startups fail?'
Over the past 3.5 years running Early Adopters Hub, we have worked with more than 35+ startups, and evaluated over 200 founders... And over this time the key reasons, beliefs, and strategies that lead founders into failure have become more and more clear.
Prepare to have many of your startup beliefs challenged, as we (Yohan in particular) shed light on the reality of startup life, the complexity involved, and how most founders underestimate the challenge ahead!
This episode is all about 'Why Startups Fail', but we made it because we want to see more startups to go in eyes-wide open, and hopefully, succeed!
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Jon joined us for one of the most open and honest discussions we have ever had with a startup founder.
Having built his product alongside the right early users, seeing initial signs of product-market fit and growing through word of mouth... something then went wrong.
We went deep with Jon on the steps that took Hindsight from an app with so much potential, to another member of the startup graveyard... and what he would do differently next time!
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Fehlende Folgen?
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Alastair already runs an extremely successful firm, Flinder, focused on fast-growing businesses. Being at the cutting edge meant running into constant roadblocks with existing tools, and so it was inevitable they'd need to build their own tech solution.
As a non-technical founder, Alastair opened up on the challenges and mistakes he made building his first tech product; overestimating the speed at which things can be done, and underestimating the help they would need.
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Having recently made the hard decision to turn down money, and walk away from his startup for personal reasons, Brett opened up on the startup journey he has been on over the past couple of years - from identifying the problem to pivoting the product, and now shutting it down.
Toward the end of the conversation we explore together what appears to be a 'founder paradox' - the need for startup founders to be extremely confident, yet humble at the same time... A challenge every founder needs to be aware of.
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Having validated their own frustrations with other accountants, Melissa and the Fuse team knew their was an opportunity and took the chance.
Melissa speaks candidly about their slow, steady and conservative approach in the early days which allowed them to remain in control and avoid the need for external funding.
She explains how they've built a team and culture that's enabled scale and growth, in a competitive market, including their latest expansion into the UK.
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As an accountant himself, Liam spent hours looking for a solution to his problem before realising that there was a huge gap in the market.
Liam opens up on his relatively fresh journey as a startup founder. He speaks about his desire to build something others will love, the discomfort of putting himself out there to hear brutally honest feedback, and his plan to focus on profitability and sustainability - rather than raising money.
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Meryl who is best known for her e-commerce bookkeeping and accounting company, Bean Ninjas, has spent a number of years building tech startups too!
Her first, a solution looking for a problem that crashed and burned relatively quickly.
But her second was a success!
Meryl explains how she got it right the second time round, ensuring the startup was built on a strong problem foundation in an area she knew extremely well.
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As an accountant himself, Gavin saw a problem to be solved and jumped at the opportunity, hiring an agency to begin developing it. Within weeks he realised he was burning cash, with no confidence he was building the right thing.
Fast-forward and Gavin is taking a structured approach to product-market fit, building his tech alongside future users - testing himself and his assumptions every step of the way.
Gavin manages to remain confident, yet humble, an important combination for any founder.
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Such a fun conversation with Joyce who is killing it in the accounting tech world right now, and being extremely open and transparent with her build in public approach - which accountants love!
She delves deeper into the differences between product and services companies, what it means to focus on value density (hint, its better to do one thing 90% than nine things to 10%), the importance of finding a technical co-founder, and what to avoid when selling to accountants!
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Guy returns to provide his joint perspective as both a founder who has raised a tonne of money, and an angel investor who has backed many accounting tech startups.
It was a deep conversation covering everything early-stage founders need to know about pitching, communicating and aligning objectives with investors. If you're considering raising money, this episode is a must-listen!
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A legend within the accounting tech scene, Guy provided us a look behind the curtain at Ignition and explained what it took to become an 'overnight success'.
Guy highlights the sacrifices, mistakes, challenges and risks he made to make Ignition one of the most successful accounting tech products of all time. And it all began with the harsh realisation that not everybody thought the same way as him.
"Like everyone who has thought about starting their own software product, I thought it was going to be easy."
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A super interesting discussion about Jonathan Gaunt's journey to co-found, build and exit Xavier Analytics - A toolkit of intelligent data cleanup, bookkeeping and compliance tools designed for Xero Professionals.
Jonathan explains how he and his team, relatively quickly; identified a problem, launched a solution and successfully exited, whilst highlighting for our listeners a numbering of the mistakes he wants to avoid with startup #2 - that's right, he's back for more!
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We had a fantastic and open discussion with Andrew Jordon, Founder of Connect4 - An online meeting platform built for accountants.
Having built an online meeting platform just as covid struck and virtual meeting software became a must-have for all businesses, Andrew shed light on many of the reasons why he feels Connect4 never quite took off the way he'd hoped. He touches on the key technological challenges they faced, the struggle of trying to build a business and raise money simultaneously, and how he decided it was time to hand over the keys over to somebody else.
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An insightful conversation with Francois Henrion, one of the Co-Founders of Paytron - An international payable automation & spend management platform.
Francois explains how he and Jaco (Co-Founder) knew raising capital was imperative as they looked to take on a mammoth and complex challenge, and how accountants play an important role in their strategy.
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We had a great chat with James Rose, Founder of Content Snare - a document and information collection app for accountants (and other industries).
The conversation went in a number of directions, with a spotlight on the process James went through to accelerate his understanding of the profession, which lead him to double-down on the accounting vertical.
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A thought-provoking conversation about the challenges of building a brand new product, littered with deep insights about what makes entrepreneurs tick with Johnny Ridd, founder of RQ - A platform that connects accountants, financial planners, solicitors and more!
Having recently launched his beta product, Johnny gave us a look into what makes B2B beta testing different to B2C, and explains why it's so important to cherish every user. Johnny also opened up on the mindset he utilises to remain focused on adding value to customers, even if it means throwing features or entire product concepts in the bin.
Edit: Apologies, audio quality on Jack's end wasn't fantastic.
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We had a diverse discussion that took a few turns with Simon Langlois, Co-Founder of Stamped.ai - An accounting firm supported by its own tech platform.
Taking a different go-to-market approach to most accounting tech startups, Simon explains where the firm meets the tech, and how they landed on this unique approach.
Simon also shares his experience with a number of different accelerators and startup programmes, highlighting when and how to make the most of these offerings. Plus a few golden insights from his experience with VCs and investment.
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It was a great conversation about the challenges facing early-stage founders, filled with a tonne of practical nuggets, with Robert Davidson, founder of TaxTorch - A product for real-time and proactive tax-planning.
Robert opened up on his decision to part ways with version 1.0 of the product after getting carried away with functionality, and not properly testing critical assumptions.
As an accountant turned founder, Robert knew the pain points himself and knew others who confirmed them, but it wasn't until performing structured, moderated market research that he heard brutally honest feedback - what he really needed to hear.
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We sat down with Kate & Matt, the Co-Founders of Brieff - a platform designed to help accountants scale bespoke advisory services.
The conversation covered a number of the challenges and lessons Kate & Matt faced in the early days, including how they came to terms with the risk and uncertainty of building a startup, getting financial investment through Antler and validating their initial idea with accountants.
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This is our pilot and introductory episode, designed to set the scene for the rest of the series.
We, your hosts (Jack & Yohan), speak briefly about our journey to end up here, and why we felt the need to create an accounting tech podcast for early-stage founders!
Plus, we unveil the meaning behind the 'Accounting Tech Tar Pit'!
