10 Lessons For Start-Up Success

Yesterday I announced I would be leaving Kineo, a start-up I founded with my colleagues back in 2005. That start-up has become a £20m global company with offices from Chicago to Melbourne. It has been an exciting adventure, hard work but fun. I want to say a big thank you to everyone that supported me and my colleagues over the years.

I have been reflecting on our experiences and what we can pass on to other start-ups. Here are ten lessons which may be helpful:

1. Recruit the very best staff you can afford. At Kineo we were fortunate to recruit a great team of people. With great people you can achieve anything. I was also blessed with four Kineo partners that were passionate, creative, ambitious, hard-working and people you could trust with your life. Further tip - recruit happy people.

2. Customer service is at the heart of everything. When projects get difficult is when you really prove your value. Build long term customer relationships. Simple things matter, do what you say, be helpful and be positive.

3. You are not simply building a business but building a brand. Be clear on your brand, not just the visuals but the values it represents.

4. Be ambitious. In the internet world you should be looking at global opportunities and seek to establish a global brand.

5. You have to keep moving or you will get run down. Change is inevitable and you need to move quickly. Instill in everyone in your business a sense of urgency. Also look at trends outside your industry, often these are most critical.

6. Everybody can become obsolete, you have to keep learning every day. Your skills and experience should be more valuable today than they were last year. What did you learn last week?

7. Give away everything you know. You are what you share. Love really is the killer app. Sharing and being helpful is the most effective form of marketing there is.

8. Stay up later than the competition. There is simply no substitute for hard work.

9. Be flexible, stuff happens. Odd to quote Mike Tyson but he put it well when he said "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."

10. Cash is king. In a small business, cash is your lifeblood. You should monitor sales, margins and customer satisfaction but most of all you need detailed cashflow forecasts every week.

My immediate plans post Kineo are to invest and work with start-up companies, hopefully helping them to grow into successful businesses. My first investment is with my former Kineo partner Stephen Walsh in a start-up venture, a social search engine called BuzzSumo. It finds the most shared content for any topic or domain. It is also free, so give it a try.