Entrepreneurship is exciting.
The idea of riding that wave of success and seeing the business you’ve founded come to life.
But it’s never a straightforward journey.
Any amount of promise and potential can fall by the wayside, if you’re only focused on the benefits of your project.
What obstacles?
FanFinders is now the number one supplier of 1st party opt-in data in the UK baby market and operates the fastest growing network of new and expectant mums in the US.
During our growth, we’ve faced numerous challenges.
Like any business, we’ve used these moments to learn and evolve.
To find out more, we caught up with our CEO Alec Dobbie, who shared three examples from our journey so far that might help other startups or entrepreneurs.
Be warned, this is a practical resource.
If you’re looking for content that talks about how you need to be passionate and determined to run a company, this isn’t the blog post for you.
Besides, being passionate about your business should be a given.
Challenge 1: Two-sided marketplace dynamics
“Ultimately, you can’t attract brands without consumers and vice versa.
“We got around this by increasing our team on an equity basis with specialist commercial and ad tech folks.
“Without this team, there would be no business today.”
Challenge 2: Cashflow
“An inevitable challenge of being a bootstrapped self-funded business was working out what our cashflow allowed us to spend and watching every penny.
“To this end, our five co-founders didn’t meet in person for nearly two years as trains, planes and hotels weren’t cheap, but Skype was.
“This was back in 2013, so you could say we were slightly ahead of the game.”
Challenge 3: Recruitment
“How do you know when to start recruiting?
“Becoming the source of someone else’s mortgage or rent payments is daunting without lots of cash in the bank. However, not recruiting can stunt your business growth.
“Collectively, we decided to recruit and that when we did, our employees’ salaries would come before ours.
“This allowed us to make the decision and push ahead.”