Why a successful outcome in business frequently needs good timing.
He started a recreation enterprise in 2012 and during the moment of launching understood that the Point of Sale (POS) application was too expensive, and asked his friend Paul Walton to create one that could work on IOS operational systems. The POS app became popular and other people were asking for it so a new type of product was created, that’s how the Intelligent Point of Sale (IPOS) appeared and disrupted the market. During 4 years they were constantly growing then bought by iZettle back in 2016, and afterwards purchased by PayPal in 2018 for 2 billion dollars.
After victoriously leaving the IPOS, he and Paul launched a new enterprise, Boundary, with the aim to penetrate the private security niche. But, when staring back in time at his business itinerary and experience, it’s very important to underline the good timing when referring to growing and success. Why it’s primordial to have good timing?
Often, the best moments to launch a business and penetrate a market need a lot of time
Frequently the businessman selects the entrepreneurial idea but in some cases the ideas select them. His initial idea was to start a paintball(leisure) enterprise, not a SaaS product, but the IPOS opened new doors for him and his business partner. They studied the market and understood there was no such product at the time.
They began the work in December of 2012, and by July 2013 had already some customers after launching the app. Then created a landing page, a website and performed some SEO work to make it visible. Afterward, they started to work on some platforms by leaving their contact details and website and had more than 100 contacts in a short time. A couple of them started to test their product and after became clients. They saw the chance and took it.
By the same token, having their new enterprise, the initial strategy is to prepare more and have more time, but it sparked their mind even in holidays and they could not refuse it. In the past, he had an issue with the private security system installed at his home, which brought him the idea of improving these systems and creating a better product.
He shared this with his friend Paul and then they start to work on the new product. In the beginning, there was not a lot of certainty about launching the new enterprise, but they knew they have the opportunity they can’t miss – penetrating the industry that will not always have this form. He started to be very enchanted about the perspective of creating new electrical products that will help his clients avoid the issues he had in the past with other companies.
Understanding when and how to assign tasks is very important
Being a good delegator is crucial. For a long period, Paul was the only developer in the business that has worked on the product – the platform was his little creation. Understanding how to entrust different tasks to other engineers with specific parameters takes time but it’s primordial to build a team that could take the business to a whole new level.
Reiterating that it’s important to mention that human capital is the biggest provocation often in entrepreneurship and it’s very hard to be on top every time. Sometimes they could hire people that weren’t initially prepared for the role, but in time they improved drastically and succeded their better versions, On the other hand, they had employees that were very qualified but couldn’t match the position. that’s why hiring by paper or resume often can result in failure. In time, you have to understand that trusting your feelings might be also important.
Understanding when to search for funding
Considering the experience with the IPOS, they’ve disrupted the market initially. His spouse took over the paintballing business, which helped them financially. They received a loan from the Prince’s Trust, and kept the spending on the low key, understanding that the markups from the software business are high. He took over the business development and customer support while paul worked on the code – it went extremely well.
Afterward, they rented a little office in a business building, and when they started to make enough dollars, they would actually have new colleagues when the need arise. They had around 15 colleagues and 500 customers after they understood that they could benefit from an investment – they’ve received around $660 000 in 2015.
The biggest challenge was to determine how to use these funds properly. It helped them build a management team that could offer them the possibility to grow and be supported with more funds for advertisement, thus having more clients in the end. As they were growing, the quality of their co-workers and their decisions became better and better. In one year, iZettle offered them the possibility to be bought, a thing which they never sought but were very satisfied to receive.
But the next time with Boundary, everything was contrasting. They’ve seen investment much earlier in the enterprise development and they were striving to create an enterprise up to 10 times bigger than previously.
Overall, it’s important to always bootstrap everything to minimize attenuation. The more you can pitch to the investors and prove, the bigger investments you get and higher valuation.
