The only rule is: there are no rules!

his year marks 10 years of being an entrepreneur for me. Its  a big milestone. Ive spent a lot of time introspecting and asking myself “what would i have done differently if i could go back”

First id like to say that i don’t regret  one minute of the past 10 years.That not to say it was all a bowl of cherries. But even though i could have done a lot of things better or more efficiently had i known what i know today, i don’t regret one moment. Not one bit. Its been an exhilarating journey and i cherish every moment of it – the pitfalls, screw ups and the pain points as much if not more than the happy moments. Those are the moments that define you, that toughen you up. And without those you have nothing to look back to and laugh !

But if i could go back, whilst keeping the journey intact i would potentially change my outlook on certain things. I would trust myself more , my inner instinct and listen less to others  quoting text book stuff thats all good in theory but, as they say, in theory practice and theory are the same, but in practice they are not. continue reading »

Frequently asked questions from entrepreneurs

I gave a fireside talk earlier today for London Innovators at Google Campus in London to a group of vibrant entrepreneurs which was most enjoyable. A few of the questions I got asked are questions I  keep getting quite often, so I’d like to share the answers I gave  below

How important is it to differentiate yourself when you start off ?

This is obviously a question that preoccupies entrepreneurs quite a lot. Sometimes too much so. I found myself citing an analogy which I often do.

If you were say BMW in the1920s and pitching the idea of creating a car, most likely the response would be “you’re late. Henry Ford and Mercedes Benz have already done that. Go home”continue reading »

The early days of insanity

This recent Essay by Paul Graham took me back to the beginnings of PeoplePerHour. I read it with nostalgia remembering those early days of insanity, of doing things that don’t scale and make little sense at the time. Yet make all the sense in the world tpday 5 years in.

PPH began as an experiment from an older business I started which was in essence an offline version of what we do today. We were an old fashioned ‘outsourcing shop’. Initially for consumer services and later for business. We’d go to companies (mainly small businesses) and say “give us all the crap you don’t want to do and we’ll do them for you”. We charged £25 per hour. The model was simple: I hired ex-secretaries, and as long as I kept them busy for 70% of their time I covered their costs. The 30% was my profit.

One day, I had an insane idea. I thought  “why am I paying for these people and hiring them out instead of  creating a website for them to hire themselves out directly?”. It was one of those profound ideas where your next thought is “why on earth didn’t I think of this before”.continue reading »