How to Take Your Company from Good to Great - thoughts on an interview with Anna Gudmundson, CEO Sensate

I've known Anna Gudmunson (pictured) for a long time - more than 15 years now, I think. We first met in the early days of mobile when the industry was a lot smaller than today and more close knit and we quickly became friends. We've remained friends ever since even though we no longer live in the same city, or even country! And I'm really thrilled to see what a success she's having with Sensate. [You can buy it on Amazon here]

I've met many hundreds of entrepreneurs and founders and innovators in the tech start-up scene, and although a lot of them are successful, they're not always able to articulate exactly why. I know Anna has done a lot of work on herself as well as the company and has spent considerable time reflecting on what success means personally and professionally and in this article, she shares her key insights on taking both yourself and your company from good to great. I highly recommend reading it. There's a lot to digest.

There are a few points that Anna makes in the interview that particularly resonate with me and gave me particular food for thought:

On potential burnout (very common amongst entrepreneurs) she says 'Invest in your growth, not only professional, but personal. We can have all the knowledge we need to succeed, but if we're not implementing it, there's little use. Any growth in self-awareness immediately makes you a better leader. Even if you have a university degree in some subject, how much have you invested in the subject of you - the one tool that matters in your life?' That's both profound and vulnerable at the same time. When I worked in a start-up 20 years ago, the senior team's self awareness was not as good as it could have been. Although we did the Tony Robbins thing at the time, in retrospect, that was fairly superficial. Yes, it gave us some energy to keep going under difficult times but I don't know that it helped us know ourselves or each other any better. Ah, the wisdom of hindsight! Still, the good news is that mental health is now a hot topic and more openly discussed so maybe there are new, emerging entrepreneurs who are doing the work on themselves as well as doing the work on their start-up. We live in hope!

Anna reminds us that being a start-up founder is a performance sport and you need to treat it as such. As an aside, that also means it's not for everyone and it also means you will need help - you can't do it all yourself. I would argue that it's a team performance sport as well as an individual sport. That means looking after yourself, keeping your mind and body in good condition. It's about persevering too.

Anna quotes Heraclitus who said in 500BC 'the only constant is change'. I think that's truer than ever with external events beyond our control affecting our day to day lives. Whether that's the war in Ukraine, Brexit affecting trade, energy prices skyrocketing or living through a pandemic. As a business leader, you need the flexibility to deal with that.

Anna also shares her insight about mental toughness - she says 'the most underestimated aspect [of running a business]: the mental strength needed in facing challenges. All responsibility lands on you; there's nowhere else to go.' I know Anna has been through some seriously tough times and she shares one story in the article about the challenge of selling a company under very difficult circumstances. This stuff is hard. There's a lot at stake and no-one wants to fail at something like this. 

So if you're a start-up founder, or thinking about being one or working for one, then do give Anna's interview a read. I highly recommend it.

And for a bonus, why not watch Steven McRae, Principal Ballet Dancer's video about using Sensate and remember to love your Vagus nerve!. 

The FT 1000 - The Complete List of Europe's Fastest Growing Companies 2018

For those of you interested in start-ups and growth businesses, this list will be invaluable. It's a link to the FT 1000 which lists the companies in 31 European countries that have achieved the highest compound annual growth rate in revenue between 2013 and 2016. Note the measurement is revenue not profit.

It's worth a glance if you have any interest in business. The data is downloadable as a spreadsheet and searchable. The FT also shares their methodology.

Top line findings:

• Technology dominates the list with 155 entries and Deliveroo at #1 replacing Germany's HelloFresh
• London has held on to its position as the most popular base for HQ with 74 entries (Paris has 62, Milan 25).
• Fintech has performed well (Good news for London).
• UK, Spain, Germany and France all have a strong presence in the Top 20.
• The lowest average growth rate in this year's ranking was 34.6% vs last year's 16.1%.
• Germany leads the way in the advertising sector as they also do in the Automobile sector. I would have expected the latter but not the former. I wonder why British advertising companies aren't showing similar growth.

I haven't heard of the majority of these companies. Am I out of touch? Maybe. Or is that successful companies very often get there completely under the radar? Or maybe it's down to my focus and visibility of British companies. I'm thinking probably the latter. Something for me to ponder on over a cup of tea...

You can find the list here.

What do you do when your boss is an algorithm?

I was lucky enough to go to Business of Software's great event in London with entrepreneur and best-selling author, Eric Ries, talking about his new book, The Startup Way. The house was absolutely packed which is a testament both to the popularity of Eric Ries and how well Mark Littlewood and his team organise their Business of Software series of events.

I'm still mulling over much of what Ries was saying and I haven't yet read his book. The question that really stuck in my mind was about what workers will do when their boss is an AI or an algorithm. I've thought quite a lot about working with an AI as a colleague. Arguably, we're already doing that to some degree with our use of online tools such as search, productivity tools, graphic design software etc.

My boss is an algorithm
But what if the algorithm is our boss? Ries cited the example of an Uber driver. Who is the driver's boss? Who do they report to? Who tells them what to do? The answer, to all intents and purposes, is an algorithm (putting aside recent UK legislation about their legal status).

Imagine the scenario whereby a customer uses the app to hail a taxi in a high traffic area where there is a choice of driver. The algorithm decides which taxi driver(s) to show that too. That could be based on reviews (perhaps unverified), where the driver was the previous night, how frequently the driver chooses to drive for Uber, how safely the driver drives, who the driver is connected to on social networks and much more. And in that instance, who do you complain to anyway and what could they do? These algorithms are getting ever more complicated and anyway, this isn't a technical bug, this is an ethical question as much as anything.

I'm afraid, I don't have the answers, but I'm thinking about the implications of this in different aspects of work life.

Free book giveaway
Everyone at the BoS event last week got a copy of The Startup Way. I was lucky enough to come away with an extra copy which will be given away tomorrow evening at Swedish Beers in London as part of the Robot Ping Pong challenge. I do hope you can join us!

Eric Ries' Lean Startup talk & BoS archive
You can see Eric Ries's talk for BoS from 2010 when he'd just written Lean Startup. It's well worth revisiting.

Business of Software has archived all their previous talks and it's a fantastic resource. You can check it out here.

Day 21/30 NaBloPoMo (publishing a little ahead of schedule!)