Warming up the Intros into 2022 + 30 pieces of advice to take with you

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to post a quick reflection on the amazing year that Warm Intro has had. 

Warm Intro started from the conviction that start-up founder stories, especially at the earliest stages are important, and should be heard more widely. In a world where stories of Founders raising [$Xm] are even more everywhere than usual, I think this is even more the case.

I hope people read the posts on Warm Intro and are inspired by missions, values and honesty in front of them. And are maybe even inspired to go join the journey or take the plunge and start building something cool. I don't think there has never been a better time to go and build something.

Warm Intro would be nothing without the 30 founders who immediately said "yes!" to sharing their stories when asked politely. They in turn also provided some amazing warm intros to others in their network. I believe that advice is most definitely a gift and so below I’m posting the 30 single pieces of advice that these wonderful people offered up as a gift to everyone. 

If you want to see more of this, hit subscribe here to support the project in a small way and share with some of your friends.

Finally, thanks to all of those people who have been supporting Warm Intro across the year and sending over kind messages.. There’s a lot of you and I really appreciate you all getting the word out there.

Here's to even more of this in 2022!

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If I could tell you just one thing...

Sverre Sundsdal, Lexolve (#001)

The most important lesson of my career happened at my first job. We were developing Streaming MapReduce - the equivalent of Spark in today’s tech landscape. 

We had some amazing technology, but when we talked to customers about adopting our technology, we found that none of them could find a fit with our solution exactly. We were convinced that it was the customers who were wrong and that we had the right solution. 

So, obviously we did not find any customers at all and we failed!

What we were doing was not "Problem solving", it was the opposite, "solution problem-ing". I have seen many teams and young leaders pursuing a beautiful solution, but forgetting to ask what the problem is. I think many people have gone through this, and I always tell everyone I work with about the perils of “solution problem-ing”, in the hopes that they will not waste years of their life pursuing perfect solutions to theoretical problems, but rather solve real problems for real people.

Phil Gooch, Scholarcy (#002)

Be clear about what you want from your startup and what you are prepared to give. I worked for a few VC funded startups previously. These were all fast-paced, hugely enjoyable rides, but I saw the ‘grow fast or die trying’ pressure that delivering 10-100x VC returns from a standing start puts on founders. The VC model is great if your goals and that of your investors are aligned. The bootstrapped approach can be slow and painful, but give you a huge amount of control. As Basecamp (and Grammarly) proved, you can mix both options – build lean and independently, gain initial traction while bootstrapping, and then take investment when you need to cement your success and guarantee longevity. Do you want an exit, do you want a profitable lifestyle business, or can you do a bit of both? 

Levi Epstein, Inflow (#003)

Just start! It’s a shame to think about all the lost ideas, and all the impact they could have had, if potential founders had just started. 

I think taking that initial first step can be extremely overwhelming but try and think about the easiest parts to get started with and work on validating them. This might mean speaking to a potential customer or doing some desk research, even just meeting a friend a few times a week to discuss the idea is a step in the right direction. 

I won’t pretend that getting over that initial hurdle is easy, but I found the best way to manage it was to break each stage into smaller chunks. After that, you should start to see the power of momentum take over! Good luck. 

Hannah Allen, Tinto (#004)

Believe in yourself.

Women suffer from imposter syndrome all the time. And it’s not hard to see why. From venture capitalists to how we teach science in schools, it really is a man’s world still.

A brilliant and inspiring man once taught me the importance of trusting in myself and that if I can do that, then I can achieve whatever I want to.

I used to be terrified of public speaking, but that same person put me on stage in front of 3,000 people to speak at the Web Summit in Portugal.

He never let me give up on myself and wouldn’t even question my ability to succeed… So why should I? Women need to just go for it.

Steven Hamblin, Dyad (#005)

Learn servant leadership, and practice it. And read “Leadership is a gift. It’s given by those who follow.”

Mehdi Benbrahim, SquadPal (#006)

People often wait to get that “one amazing idea” to start a project. The first jump to get involved in a project is obviously the most difficult. Chances are, you are most probably not going to get it right the first time. So why not try faster to fail forward and be better prepared to get it right when that “billion-dollar idea” actually comes to mind.

I am personally convinced that if there is one thing I could have done better at university, it would have been to start a venture back then. I cannot think of a better time to get started. The network effect you can get in university is unparalleled and professionals are much more eager to help university students. The risk at that point is at an all-time low: There is no family to look after, no extravagant lifestyle one might get used to because their salary is already too high. 

Another barrier is the typical “I don’t feel like I know enough to start”. Any founder would argue that they learn more on a daily basis that they have in any previous job.

James Mitchell, Strategic Blue (#007)

We all know that we should “keep our options open”. However, when that isn’t possible, and you’re making your choice, firstly avoid unacceptable downsides, secondly maximise the number of ways you can achieve a good upside, and only then look for the low probability ridiculous upside, as ridiculous upside normally comes with a lot of downside risk too. i.e. hedge your risks.

Christian Facey, AudioMob (#008)

If you don’t know what you truly want to do (I didn’t know until I was around 25), then you can do 2 things.

Thing #1: Work your ass off, and you’ll end up in a good place anyway. This is kind of how I ended up at Google. I actually wanted to go to J.P Morgan or Goldman Sachs Sales and sit on the trading floor. 

Thing #2: Use trial and error to figure out what you want to do. I used to daydream / have thinking sessions about what I might want to do. Instead of doing that, just pick something and try and do it. Even if you’re not 100% sure that you’ll love it. I went through a number of ideas, from setting up affiliate gambling sites, online e-commerce stores , a chatbot start-up etc. When you find the thing you really want to do, you’ll get up at 4am because you want to do it. I simply decided to figure out how to combine my hobbies of gaming and music production. I’ll make mobile games, and stream the music I make / like into the game. I didn’t realise until a couple of years later, but this was the key thing I did which influenced the creation of AudioMob. Trial and error is important. Action is key.

James Cramer, Skunkworks (#009)

You aren’t building a product to solve a problem, you are building a team to solve a problem. The team builds the product, which may fail. As a founder, you should always signal and demonstrate often that the team is far more important than the product and at any moment that you feel the product is affecting the morale or effectiveness of your team, kill the product. When that product inevitably fails, as most products do, what is left is the group of people you assembled to build it.  

Ben Noskeau, Evenly Cooler (#010)

Be yourself, but try and be better all the time. A growth mindset is in my experience the single most important factor in people’s success. You should always be hungry to learn. But also take the bits you like from books, training, courses, mentors etc and incorporate them into who you are. Don’t model yourself wholesale on others: you’ll end up inauthentic and irrelevant. Taking this a bit further, nobody is 100% in terms of having a fixed or growth mindset. This is something I’ve started to recognise more and more as I’ve gotten older. That’s why being aware of your own triggers (normally fearing failure in my case) is so important.

Margot de Broglie, Juno (#011)

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: invest in the stock market, as soon as you can. 

Not through ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ type trading or trying to short the market. I’m speaking about long term, passive investing, for at least 10 years. It’s become incredibly easy to invest in products like ETFs that track the 500 largest companies on the US stock market (that’s actually where Warren Buffet, the king of investing, is putting his entire inheritance). You can automate a small portion of your income, even just £50 a month. If you never think about it again, when you retire, that is likely to have grown to 6 figures, at least!

Nikolina Lauc, GlycanAge (#012)

Pick yourself! 

When you are the first, or not the stereotypical candidate or you’re doing something that nobody else has done before, there will be a very few people that believe in you. 

If you keep waiting for them to find you, pick you, or just for somebody to believe in you, you could be stuck waiting for a long time. 

Take a risk on yourself. Start with you. Dream big. Keep at it. 

Dave Burpitt, Landmark (#013)

Don’t go it alone. Actively go out and find people you gel with. People who share your values and passion. Share the good and bad times together and build long lasting relationships.

Iris ten Teije, Koia (#014)

This blog is called ‘Warm Intro’, and I couldn’t agree more with its premise. What I’d say is: invest in your network and never underestimate the power of your connections. I’ve had amazing business, job and investment opportunities all come in via my network. 

Don’t worry if you feel you don’t know the right people. There are plenty of ways to expand your network, be it via professional networking events, apps like Lunchclub, asking for introductions on LinkedIn etc. 

A good idea is also to ask your colleagues and industry peers what (private) communities they are part of. A lot of my new connections, especially during Covid, came via private Slack and WhatsApp groups. If you really want to put effort into getting to know new people, you can also see if there are any ways in which you can add value to them. For example volunteering to organise an event or moderate community content. As a general rule, always think of how you can add value first.

Michelle Fogarty, PepTalk (#015)

Companies don’t exist. All that exists are people.

Companies can choose to operate differently than they do now. We don’t need to operate with the lowest common denominator in mind. We can treat people as humans, as adults, and hold them to that standard. If we could manage that, we would be truly excited by the potential that exists and is untapped. 

But we are inherently human, and we fear change (even when we don’t think we do).

Let’s take Covid-19 and this great remote working experiment we have mostly all been through. Only 5% of companies globally were fully remote prior to 2020. Despite what we now all think, for the 10 previous years I have sat with C-suite leaders all around the world in different industries who would list to me all the reasons it wouldn’t work. But guess what? When there was no other option, we managed to make it work.

I am not saying this has been without its challenges. But what it does show us is that when we have to change (as a species we are slow and resistant), the actual action is rarely that hard. I use remote merely as an example of one of the many preconceptions about work that are based on largely nothing other than familiarity.

If I could tell you just one thing, it would be to challenge everything you think is the normal way to treat humans at work. Try your damnedest to build a human-first business. It will pay you in spades. All that talk about culture...well, it will just be what you do every day.

Pascal Clarysse, Big Karma (#016)

Since you stole your question from Richard Reed, I’m tempted to steal my answer from Les Brown: “There is Greatness in all of you and it is your responsibility to manifest that greatness.”

In my own words: we are all flawed, we are all incomplete, but we have the capacity to learn and rise above our imperfections. And when we find our purpose, we become truly phenomenal.

Daniel Botcherby, Kalda (#017)

Firstly to join Kalda! 

And secondly (I love this question so much that I’m going to answer it with a fashion analogy): as a Founder, I wear many hats. Some hats I’ve worn for a long time. I know what outfits go well with this type of hat and make the hat (and the outfit) look good. Other hats, however, I am less familiar with and it’s my job to throw together the best outfit I can, walk out onto the catwalk, make that hat look good, and pay no attention to any stumbles in heels and ignore the fact that the brim of this hat covers my eyes.  

And at times, there are too many hats to wear. My role isn’t to wear all the hats, but to find the right models and put together the best damn fashion show possible. Because Founders can’t wear all the hats themselves and they need to trust the models will take care of the rest.

Henry Connell, The Uncommon (#018)

Stay naïve as long as you can so you have the audacity to follow through on what you believe.

Staying naïve means that you can keep working towards a dream that most people in mature industries don’t or can no longer bring themselves to believe. If we listened to all the received ‘wisdom’ so kindly bestowed upon us, we would be nowhere. 

But, as many people before me have said, if you knew the difficulty of getting something like this off the ground, you’d never jump in.

So stay naïve – until you end up making what you want to make.

Andrey Drobitko, SKETCHAR.io (#019)

Explore art! It’ll help broaden your horizons and change the way that you think about the world. By appreciating abstraction in art you’ll start to have a whole new perspective around abstract thought and perhaps even start admiring the relative simplicity of the world.

Zain Khawaja, Challau (#020)

“Scio te ipsum”, which means “know yourself”. Performance can only be built on strength, so know what you are strong at and understand your weakness. Knowledge of oneself comes from self-reflection. Take the time to reflect on your work, your passions, your ambitions, your goals, and your life.

Andreas von Koskull, Vox AI (#021)

I don't like to give advice to other people but if I could have a beer with myself when I was 28 I would tell myself to break down the business plan roadmap into really small measurable pieces and then make hard decisions based on those results.

Ram Rajaraman, CHAI Analytics (#022)

I cannot emphasise enough that “feedback is a gift”. I think that everyone, no matter how successful or accomplished, should seek out honest and constructive feedback. Don’t expect it to always be positive - unflattering feedback is constructive too. In the words of Warren Buffet, “honesty is a very expensive gift; just don't expect it from cheap people.”

Any young or growing company is constantly evolving, learning and pivoting to meet the new demands of an ever-changing landscape - 360-degree feedback from all sources, including users, peers, family and friends, is key to this.

Alma Moya Losada, Aequaland (#023)

My one piece of advice - believe in yourself. If you don't, no one will. The essential difference between a warrior/badass/entrepreneur - you name it, and an ordinary person is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge. Work on yourself, develop yourself, push yourself. Your ability to constantly respond, change and grow is empowering.

For my most recent birthday I wanted to reach Mont Blanc at sunrise. We began with a short hike towards Lago del Miage. We woke early to a quick breakfast and started on the next leg. After dinner we went to bed with the plan to wake at midnight to resume the climb. When we reached the ridge, it was one of the most magical moments: the light, the morning, and its stunning colours. But a strong cold wind slowed our rhythm. I felt all of the typical symptoms of altitude sickness alongside the extreme cold. My mind asked me to stop but I told my body to keep going. Yes I still failed to reach the peak but I realised the power of the mind in that moment. When you master your mind, there are no limits. 

Carolina Reis Oliveira, OneSkin (#024)

Enjoy the ride! Life is too short to not have fun while finding your life’s purpose or building it. 

Mika Peltola, Siffi (#025)

If I could tell you just one thing, it would be the importance of reading books. Sure, I sound like your sixth-grade teacher. I’m down with that. But for the love of god please read novels, fantasy, non-fantasy, fiction or nonfiction. As long as you're reading a book. 

The author of a book has spent years crafting the story or researching the subject. It shows. Please drop google, wikipedia, social media and go to the goddamn library instead. No, seriously.

Ben Rosenbaum, Dent Reality (#026)

My one piece of advice would be to think probabilistically. 

Humans have evolved to think in black and white with heuristics that help us make rapid, confident judgements - i.e. something either will happen or it won't happen. This served us well when survival was the species' number one priority but isn't so great for the complicated world we inhabit now. Thinking probabilistically about different possible outcomes is one of the most helpful things you can do to make better decisions.

I got a headstart on this front from playing a lot of poker as I grew up. It drilled into me the importance of understanding key assumptions, how they impact the odds of different outcomes, and how to judge decisions based on the information that was available at the time, rather than purely on the end result.

Layla Li, KOSA AI (#027)

This is more for all the aspiring female entrepreneurs. 

I read that men apply for a job when they meet 60% of the qualifications, and women apply for a job when they meet 100% of the qualifications. 

So if I could tell you just one thing, you can do it, whatever it is, you’re probably more competent than you think.

Nathan S. Robinson, Gondola (#028)

Curiosity is the best! Not only is it crucial in interpersonal relationships, but I also believe that curiosity is the secret ingredient to long-term success in tech. Things change and evolve so quickly in the tech world that the constant exploration of new methods, processes, tools, frameworks, and the like are a huge competitive advantage and sometimes even a necessity. 

Think of the way you do things today as a software release version 1.0. Are you going to stay on that version for the rest of your life? Or make incremental changes to how you do things and think about the world, based on the latest learnings in your life? Curiosity not only facilitates learning the information to adopt and utilize, but provides joy along the way.

Konstantina Psoma, Kaedim (#029)

If you want to be a founder, an entrepreneur, a driver of change, the secret is to never give up. The winner is the last person standing.

This is generally a lonely role, and people will try to bring you down every chance they get. Build your support network and surround yourself with people who are on the same journey and understand the challenges and the ups and downs.

The journey feels to me very similar to hiking a difficult mountain. The hike up is tiring. You will sweat and feel out of breath. However, once in a while, turn around to admire the view and realise how far you’ve come. You get this primal feeling of awe mixed with achievement from your efforts paying off. Then turn around again and continue your way up. 

On your way, you’ll meet people on their own journeys. Some of them will show you a better path to the top or even give you a hand while climbing.

Kyle Stanger, Boys Get Sad Too (#030)

My piece of advice I would give to anyone reading this: it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, how much money you have, who is supporting you or teaching you, what degree you have or anything else. If you really want to do something and you’re willing to put the work in, it’s 100% possible for you to reach your goals and to make a difference to other people’s lives. 

The power of one really does exist and although the journey is not the quickest and would certainly be quicker with some of the aforementioned things, it is not impossible nor out of your reach to get where you would like to go even when the tide is pushing against you. 

If you find something you truly love and are passionate about you can get there with hard work and determination.

And if you've made it all the way, you should definitely subscribe here.