Q: Which is your home chapter?
A: San Diego
Q: Describe what your company does in 25 words or less.
A: Not sure yet… looking for the right idea, looking for the right people to build with.
Q: If you were a hero/villain, what would be your origin story?
A: If I were a hero, my origin story would be that of an underdog from a small country town in Australia, driven by a relentless desire to prove naysayers wrong. Despite skepticism, I taught myself coding and business strategies, eventually moving to the US to co-found and grow successful startups. My mission would be to empower others who are told they ‘can’t,’ using my resilience to turn obstacles into opportunities and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs to achieve the extraordinary, no matter their beginnings.
Q: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made along the way?
A: Getting in bed with the wrong co-founders. The hard thing about this is that the co-founder you first meet may not be the same person years down the road. Another thing is not trusting or backing myself enough. I need to do more of this.
Q: What do you like most about being a founder?
A: Freedom. Freedom to work your own hours, freedom to be held accountable by the results you deliver and not the hours you work.
Q: What is the hardest thing about being a founder?
A: Everything. The uncertainty, the risk, being proven wrong, knowing you won’t make payroll. It’s all hard, but it’s also only the founders who know why we put up with it and why we continue to push through. The magic of entrepreneurship lies with the difficulty of what it is to be one.
Q: What has been the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome as a founder?
A: Finding product market fit. Most startups never find it. Most that do go on to do great things.
Q: What’s your favorite hack for dealing with the demands of running a startup?
A: Time blocking. I know what I am doing at every moment of the next day, before the next day starts. I also plan my week in advance and get clear on what I need to achieve. I also know my workload sweet spot, I know how many hours I can and should work in a week before I start losing my mind and becoming unproductive. Every founder has a workload sweet spot, it’s important to find it.
Q: What were you doing before you started working on your company?
A: I was still living in Australia and was taking a break from building startups, and by a break from startups I mean becoming a freelancer and doing advisory and consulting work. Before that I was building companies, I have now built seven startups in total, not all successful but some very much so.
Q: If you weren’t building your company, what else would you be doing now?
A: Building another one.
Q: What advice do you have for founders who are two stages behind you?
A: Don’t give up, unless you know you should.
Q: How has Startup Haven helped you on your journey?
A: By helping me meet other founders. That’s about all but it’s worth its weight in Bitcoin.
Q: What superhero power would help founders most?
A: Persistence.
Q: What do you need… what’s your “ask”?
A: To meet people looking to build an amazing startup, I am ready to start building again.
Q: What help can you offer to other Startup Haven member founders… what’s your offer?
A: Happy to offer advice to anyone looking for it in relation to startups, being a founder, solving problems.
Q: If you were to found another company (after you exit your current company) and you could choose any real person living or dead to be your cofounder, who would it be?
A: Andrew Chen. I know too many very successful people whose values and attitudes do not reflect my own. Andrew is very different. A very successful and smart person who is also very humble, and I feel he would be an amazing person to build a company with.
