The dot-com bubble was a hard time for businesses, a lot of companies especially start-ups went from overnight success to bankruptcy, a few survived while others were left hanging to what was left of their companies.

Even though, millions or perhaps billions were lost during the dot-com bubble, a lot of entrepreneurs also made their name during this time.

One of those entrepreneurs is Nina Hampson, Nina was the founder of Myla, an international luxury lingerie brand founded in 2000 during the dot.com bubble and after 6 years of building the startup into a multi-million pound business decided it was time move on and sold the business.

I recently caught up with Nina as she shares her entrepreneurial story with me and also the story behind her latest startup, Zinc.

Hi Nina, thanks for doing this with me, how are you doing?

I’m well, thanks. Currently in Dusseldorf and I’ve just discovered that it has the highest Japanese population of any city in Germany – which explains why the sushi’s so good.

Can you give us some background information on yourself? How did you get into business?

I wanted to be a wildlife photographer but can’t sit still, so I started out as a management consultant and quickly became interested in customer (rather than animal) behaviour analytics. I moved to a customer intelligence consultancy, a (then) small outfit called dunnhumby and worked as an analyst on the Tesco account. It was the late-90s and we trialled and implemented ground-breaking insight work (such as customer segmented pricing) which had a dramatic effect on Tesco’s business (and on dunnhumby!). It was there that I caught the retail bug, and met both my first, and my current business partner, Charlotte and Susan.

Who was your inspiration growing up and why?

My dad. He ran his own business from the age of 20 and taught me that it’s possible to achieve your dreams, with hard work, some luck and a dose of imagination.

You started Myla in 2000 and sold it in 2006, tell me about that period in your life and your experience running the business? It was during the dot-com bubble, things must have been crazy then?

It was a rollercoaster! Typically, the dot.com bubble burst at the time we were raising money for Myla. Not surprisingly it was a tough market. But Charlotte and I were very focused on what we wanted to achieve- Armani meets Ann Summers – and it took off very quickly. A steep learning curve would have been an understatement! We taught ourselves product development, sourcing, buying & merchandising and retail/mail-order/web management. Inevitably we made a few mistakes on the way, but we worked well as a team and had a shared vision, which was key to Myla’s success.

Why did you decide to sell the company in 2006?

Myla had become a very strong brand. We had great product and had a good UK business, but cash flow is critical in retail. We’d opened our first store in the USA and realised that we were over-stretched. We needed investment from an experienced partner to help us roll out distribution. The plan was to stay and grow Myla with them, but that didn’t pan out….!

What would you say were some of the key things you learnt from that experience?

It’s really obvious but focus on getting the basics right. It’s not always the most exciting aspect of business but it’s easy to get distracted by exciting things that cost you money, rather than make you money.

Invest in your best people. Recruiting good people is hard so when you find a star then develop them. Once you’ve gained their trust, don’t let them down and if you make a recruitment mistake (easily done!) then end the relationship quickly.

Love your customers. They pay your salary! If you work in retail then the best way to learn about your customers is by serving them in-store, if you think you’re above working in a shop then you’re in the wrong job.

Looking back and comparing it to now, what are some of the things that have changed in running a business or in building a successful company?

On the upside, you don’t have to have grey hair and wear a suit to be taken. But, on the downside, I do think we suffer from ‘always-on’ syndrome! So, we insist on retro-meeting etiquette – you know – where everyone actually listens to what’s being said and contributes, rather than looking at emails on their phone or tapping away on their laptop….

Let’s talk about Zinc, tell me how the idea came about?

I was working with my business partners, Susan and Stephen Rose who co-founded the customer intelligence company, 5one. When they sold 5one, we decided to start afresh and launch Zinc with Stephen Jones who is an expert in Change Management.

So many companies collect data yet don’t necessarily have the systems, experience or culture to turn this into customer knowledge and profitable actions. Most consultancies specialise in providing a solution to one of these challenges. We recognise that many businesses struggle to identify what solutions they need (and would make them money!) in the first place, and this is where Zinc’s strength and value lies.

What were you doing before you founded Zinc?

Having a nap on a beach in Devon!

What is Zinc and how does it work?

We’re an advisory firm with a difference, as we believe that all businesses should be built on a strong foundation of customer knowledge. We help companies understand how they can translate their data into customer knowledge, turn this knowledge into real actions and support them through the cultural change needed to sustain this in the long term.

So in non-technical speak, we look at client’s data, show them what they can do with it, tell them what it means and how they make money from it. Then help them change their business processes and culture.

What is your business model?

Staying focused and happy – anything else is boring!

What makes Zinc different from any service out there?

We are world-class experts in our field who provide jargon-feel practical advice that drives bottom-line profitability. A rarity in consulting.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Developing our client relationships and delivering top quality work to them so that they continue to work with us, and refer us to others. We get a lot of word of mouth referral, so we must be doing something right!

Would you say the business has changed from the first initial idea?

Our initial idea of what Zinc would be remains the same, but we are constantly evolving the business. We like to stay ahead of the game so we put a lot of effort into enriching our methodologies and finding new, smarter ways of approaching our clients’ issues.

How have you been able to fund the business?

Our start-up costs were minimal (laptops and phones). We worked from home for the first year and paid ourselves when we had money, so Zinc has funded itself from inception. Having a client from day one also helped!

What has been the highlight of your entrepreneurial journey so far

So many highlights. Opening our first Myla store, winning various business awards (doing the photo-shoot for Vogue’s Superwomen of Fashion in 2005 always sticks in my mind) and more recently, Zinc winning projects over the big management consultancies – a great feeling!

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

More of the same. We’ll continue to build our client base, grow our team and get a bigger office. We also have a few exciting new projects in the pipeline but I’ll have to tell you about these in the future!

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

1. Be focused. Write a business plan with financials – then double the costs and halve the revenues and see if you are still making money

2. Work smarter, not harder. Running a business is hard work, so understanding when you are at your most productive is key. The same task can take me 15mins or 1.5hours depending on my mood. Knowing this helps me plan my day more effectively and now I don’t waste time staring at my Mac when I know I’d be better off in the gym…

3. Have the courage of your convictions. You know your business the best. Know your market. Know your customers. There will still be times when you feel like you’re winging it, this is all part of being an Entrepreneur so enjoy the ride!

Sarah Wood is the COO/CMO of Unruly Media. The Shoreditch-based company not too long ago raised $25m in Series A investment from Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers and Business Growth Fund.

Unruly’s social video platform delivers and tracks active video views for major global brands and their media agencies including T-Mobile’s acclaimed Life’s for Sharing series, Evian’s global Roller Babies hit and Heineken’s Open Your World campaign.

I recently caught up with Sarah as we took a trip down memory lane, talking about her background to her inspirations growing up and finally speaking about how the idea for Unruly Media came about and her plans to grow the business even further.

Hi Sarah, How are you doing, great to have you on YHP?

Thanks for having me!

Could you quickly give us some background information about yourself? Tell me about yourself growing up?

As a child, I was the archetypal bossy big sister – according to Mum, my younger brother didn’t learn to speak until he was 4 yrs old because I did the talking for both of us. At school, I worked very hard to be the best at everything I did, but when I fell short of my own expectations I would get way too upset. As a grown up, I try not to beat myself up so much when things don’t go to plan.

How did you get into business? Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child?

Funnily enough, my father is a trade unionist, so my childhood and teenage years were spent on the other side of the fence – supporting workers and decrying the greed of big business. Both my parents have a very strong work ethic, though, and a stoic determination never to give up, no matter how tough things get. I’ve carried that with me.

Who was your inspiration growing up and why?

Anne Frank, The Famous Five and my teachers. My teachers used to let me hang around them at break times. We would talk politics and bash the Tories. I was a total geek and a political idealist. Robert Tressell’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropist made a deep impression.

So tell me about Unruly Media and how the idea came about?

There are 3 cofounders – myself (COO), Scott Button (CEO) and Matthew Cooke (CTO). Scott and I had been together since university and had run a couple of small businesses after graduating from uni – nothing serious, but we did have a lot of fun and were keen to work together again. I went on to become an academic and Scott joined an ad-serving start-up in the late nineties, at the height of the Internet boom. That’s where he met and got to know Matt Cooke.

When the company (Connextra) was sold in 2005, the three of us decided to join forces and build a technology business. The Web 2.0 phenomenon was getting underway and we were keen to build a business that made the most of the social web. The availability of open source software and the cheap office space we were able to sublet in the Truman Brewery meant that the barriers to entry were low so we started up without a business plan or a commercial model – just a lot of ideas! We hired another developer, built a bunch of stuff, failed fast and learned fast during the first half of 2006.

We became especially interested in the fragmentation of online media, the explosion of social networks and the emergence of the blogosphere – all of which created a problem for any online video junkie: how to decide what to watch and how to be the first to find great content.

In September 2006, we had our first taste of success with ViralVideoChart, a cool-hunting website powered by a proprietary blog-scanning engine that scoured the web for video links and identified the most shared videos on the web. Described by Will.I.Am as “the Billboard Hot 100 of our generation”, ViralVideoChart now maps the dissemination of 300 billion video streams and tracks over 2 million video shares each day.

When brands and agencies asked us to help them launch their own films across the social web, we spotted an opportunity to build a scalable video seeding platform that identified influential sites and bloggers, invited them to run branded content and enabled brands and agencies to launch, optimise and measure their own social video campaigns.

We’re now the leading social video business in the world, with 9 offices spanning the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. Since launching our proprietary platform in 2007, we’ve delivered over 1,400 campaigns, 1.34 billion views and worked with over 300 brands. We’ve had the privilege to distribute iconic campaigns such as Compare the Meerkat, Barclay’s Waterslide, Old Spice Guy, Evian Roller Babies and T-Mobile’s Royal Wedding spoof.

Sustainable advantage comes down, ultimately, to your company’s DNA and Unruly’s DNA combines a fascination with video content, a love of the random and demotic nature of the web, with a big data approach to understanding the who, how, and why of what makes content work.

What were you doing before you founded Unruly Media?

I was a lecturer in American culture at Sussex University. I’ve never lost the teaching bug – now I convene an MPhil course at Cambridge University on Online Video Culture.

Can you explain to me what Unruly Media is and what you guys do? What is the process?

Unruly’s social video platform delivers and tracks active video views for major global brands and their media agencies.  Our distribution network includes more than12,000 blogs, sites, social platforms and mobile apps globally across the social web. We have 9 offices and 120+ employees across three continents and 11 time zones.

We use our proprietary technology to target relevant audiences and identify the brand and content advocates that start conversations.  Our proprietary video player and robust sharing & tracking tools ensure delivery of desired brand engagement across key campaign metrics — Awareness, Attention, Advocacy, Action.

How have you been able to fund the business?

We bootstrapped the business up until the raise, using seed capital from the sale of Connextra to carry us through to profitability in 2009. From then on, we funded growth organically from cash flow.

The headlines reads “Unruly Media raises $25 million” and all of a sudden it seems like an overnight success story, I’m sure you guys have gone through a lot of intense moments since starting almost 6 years ago? What was your biggest challenge during the whole starting up phase?

We’ve doubled headcount every year since 2007, so preserving the Unruly culture that made us successful in the first place is an ongoing challenge. Maintaining focus can be difficult as there’s so much going on in the online video landscape and we’re compulsively drawn to new ideas. There are so many awesome new technologies, bringing with them new problems to solve and new digital ecosystems to solve them – it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur!

Why do you think you were very successful in raising that kind of amount and what was your experience and some of the key things you learnt during that process?

We’re a profitable company, we’re scaling revenues fast and we’re leading the field in a high-growth advertising sector. Industry experts predict that by 2015, half of all marketing campaigns will include video bought on a cost-per-view basis and 75% of video ads on the web will be social in nature. Operating at the intersect of social and video, Unruly is exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of this shift in advertising spend from offline to online.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Entered new markets – opening in New York was a significant milestone – and hired awesome people, with the aptitude to scale as the company grows.

What’s your business model?

We work on a cost-per-view basis. Brands pay us each time someone actively views their ad in the Unruly player and we share the revenue with the sites where the views occur.

Would you say the business has changed from the first initial idea?

Since we launched the platform in 2007, the social video format has certainly come a long way and our platform has rapidly developed to meet the changes in the social media landscape. As well as being a Facebook-whitelisted partner, Unruly’s player is integrated with Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest – platforms that were either nascent or non-existent five years ago.

What advice can you give to other entrepreneurs looking to raise money for their start-up?

Be clear about why your business is unique; be clear about your vision for the company and be sure to know your numbers inside out!

What would you say has been the highlight of your entrepreneurial journey so far?

Ooh, that’s a difficult one to answer. Having the opportunity to spend lots of time in New York, making it into the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For, closing the Series A funding round were all highlights, but honestly, nothing beats the satisfaction I get from delivering kick-ass campaigns that exceed the client’s expectations.

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

We’ll be striving to live up to our mission statement – to deliver the most awesome social video campaigns on the planet, and we’ll be doing that from more offices and for more clients, reaching consumers across more devices and a greater number of emerging social video platforms.  We’ll be continuing to innovate our technology platform and products and working closely with the IAB to ensure we’re leading the sector as it matures.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

1. Choose cofounders you trust; high-integrity individuals who share your values and vision for the company

2. Talk to your customers as soon as possible – the sooner you get your product out to market, the sooner you’ll find out whether it has any legs.  If it doesn’t, at least you’ve failed fast. If it does, then you’ll benefit from having real customers making suggestions as to how you can improve the offering, iterate the product, or solve a larger problem.

3. Invest in a kitchen table – this is the most important piece of office furniture you will ever buy; it’s the ideal place for a team to swap ideas and spend time building friendships with their peers.

Steve Callanan is the CEO and co-founder at wireWAX. wireWAX is the first and only taggable video tool which allows users to add intuitive tracking tags to people and objects in video. So whilst watching a video, you can basically stop, click on anything that might interest you, something you want more information on or perhaps want to purchase – a two click process to the store.

I recently caught up with Steve as we took a trip down memory lane, talking about his background, earlier entrepreneurial ventures and how the idea for wireWAX came about.

Hi Steve, How are you doing, great to have you on YHP?

Thanks Joseph, I’m great, thank you. It’s an honour to be here.

Could you quickly give us some background information about yourself?

Sure, my background is a strange combination of different visions. I’m a Bristol boy and studied an Electronic Engineering degree at Cardiff Uni. In my final year I set up my own TV production company and made a documentary series about first year students for ITV, not engineering related at all. This was followed by a another six-part series about graduates in limbo. I was the youngest TV producer in the UK at the time and I moved to London and continued producing TV content for the next 10 years.

During that time my company also produced commercial online video for brands and publishers and became the production house for all short-form video content for major digital publishers such at National Magazines and Hearst Digital. During that time it became acutely apparent that there was an obvious lack of interactivity in video; the brands whose products we featured grew frustrated by the failure to exploit obvious commercial opportunities. It was at this point that the concept for wireWAX was borne.

How did you get involved in entrepreneurship? Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child?

I wasn’t exposed in the sense that neither of my parents were entrepreneurs but I guess I was always interested in building things and creating something from nothing and they always encouraged that. I suppose in many ways, that’s what entrepreneurship is all about – if you have enough desire to create something unique, you enjoy the challenge of making it work – no matter what – and you get a buzz from seeing others use something you’ve created; you have the makings of a budding entrepreneur.

I was lucky enough to have free rein of my dad’s garage – which was my ‘sweet shop’ – I would spend hours, days sometimes, building something useless. A good example was my first ‘business’ making long-boards for the local skate shop during the summer break – I spent all my time building them and by the time it came to selling them, summer was over. I sold nothing and it was a few years later I turned them all into free-standing bookshelves and gave them away, one of which we still have in the office. Not the best use of my time but a valuable lesson learnt nonetheless.

So tell me about wireWAX and how the idea came about?

Typical of any technology making ripples, wireWAX was a classic case of borne of necessity. Producing short-form video content for brands and publishers it was obvious there was a trick being missed. The products in the video were impossible to buy unless you heard a mention or could see a product name enough to search for that product yourself.

A huge ask for viewers and unless they were determined the opportunity to purchase on impulse is lost. For the first 6 months, wireWAX was a crude prototype being engineered in evenings and weekends but a eureka moment changed everything and we changed focus from production to creating what wireWAX is today. I’m very glad to say I have no plans to go back, production is hard work and I absolutely love what I’m doing now.

What is wireWAX and how does it work?

wireWAX is the first and only taggable video tool. What does this mean? Well, anyone with a video, whether on a desktop, tablet or mobile device can upload it – just like YouTube or Vimeo – but this time faces are automatically detected. Key to wireWAX is our motion-tracking engine which mean those faces are automatically tagged with clickable hotspots or ‘tags’ that lock onto those faces and stay with them as the move around.

You can even add your own tags to other people and objects by simply drawing a box around them. What you then do with that tag is also up to you – link to profiles, text, images, video or other web pages. You can also use any of our wireWAX apps; Amazon (for linking products), Facebook (display a friend’s profile), YouTube/Vimeo (play another video right there in your video), Instagram, Flickr, Qwiki, iTunes, etc., etc. – instantly creating an interactive experience for your viewers.

Just adding one tag makes your video infinitely more interactive and engaging. There is no reason why all video shouldn’t be ‘wireWAXed’. The experience it creates is undeniably powerful.

What is your business model?

Our business model is simple – we have two user types, anyone interested in recording and sharing interactive video with friends and; production companies, brands, publishers, broadcasters or movie studios who want to do something a bit special. We cater for both by offering a free service to everyone and when you want to do more, you pay for those ‘add-ons’.

How did you initially attract users to wireWAX , and how do you do it now?

We’ve not yet done any commercial marketing, every wireWAX video displays a subtle logo at the top right which marks the experience as ours – this is by far the biggest market driver and the start of how people discover us. We also invest a lot of time connecting to fans and, for want of a better term, ‘reaching out’ to potential users on a personal level.

Our first big project was with EMI, I managed to get a foot in the door and a ten minute presentation to the digital team. A week later we’d created an interactive promo for the Kooks where fans could click on the band and enter a competition. We gathered 3000 email address in a week and drove a tenfold increase in traffic to the fanpage – something, we were told, would normally take up to a year.

This was really the start for us, from there other record companies and brands started to show interest. It was the fashion houses such as Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Rip Curl, Oki-Ni and SSENSE that embraced wireWAX the quickest. The fashion industry has always been nurturing innovative and artistic promo methods and was one of the first sectors to discover that online video needs to be as polished as the products they represent.

So, having produced a beautifully crafted, well-executed and expensive video – where’s the return? Where are the results? Where are the sales? wireWAX has an obvious presence in this space – high-end video production, models wearing products, big online appeal and – until now – no method of engaging customers and exploiting commercial opportunities.

We really believe that everyone could benefit from wireWAX and with video playing such a major part in a connected world we feel that people just need to know about it. Therefore over the next few months we’re dramatically increasing our through-the-line marketing – we have a discrete strategy as well as national and international PR plans. Making the tool free to all will help push the technology out to a wider audience too.

What makes wireWAX different from any service out there? What problem does it solve?

wireWAX is the first and only tool for taggable video. And that is the key difference, while there are lots of companies that provide a service (you send them your video and their own backroom guys manually add basic, rarely moving, hotspots and return the video in a few days), we’ve always set out to make wireWAX a simple, self-provisioning and personal experience.

That last point is also what makes us standout. Users can choose there own tag type and most importantly create their own pop-up (what happens when a viewer interacts), in a style of their choosing and relate it to their project, campaign or brand aesthetic – not a fixed and restrictive template. Putting the power into the hands of the users not only means things are infinitely scalable for us but allow users to be more creative with their own interactive experiences.

wireWAX solves a very difficult problem, very easily. Video is the last of the digital assets to be interactive, a computer knows nothing of the content, just pixels. Adding tags and adding a digital reference point to people and objects instantly means that dumb, passive medium is now rich with metadata. All the other content relating to that person or object elsewhere in the web can now be linked to it.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

SEO, clarity and smart pricing are essential to attracting visitors. Keeping interest and then converting them into active users. We work hard at our SEO and do everything we can to let people searching for a tool like wireWAX know we exist. That traffic is essential to our business. Over the next couple of weeks we’re releasing our new ‘front of house’ – our website and most importantly our homepage – the first thing visitors see and make millisecond decisions on whether to pursue or not. We’re also making it much, much easier for users to get started with simple user procedural changes with clear and big calls-to-action.

We trialed a tiered-price subscription model for users based on a very similar model to Brightcove’s. We assumed our client base would be users familiar with video hosting and therefore familiar with a similar pricing strategy. We were wrong, while some appreciated it, a licencing option was just not right for the vast majority of users.

We underestimated how many people would want to experiment before signing-up to a subscription, wireWAX is a brand new technology not a well-understood video-hosting solution where it’s easy to quantify what your money will get you in return. Users look to create one-off solutions in the first instance where they can experiment, distribute and analyse results before committing to something more tiein. We’ve abandoned subscriptions altogether for a free solution with paid-for add-ons. We’re confident it’s a better way to go and we know our users will feel more comfortable and willing to do more.

What was the most challenging part of starting the business?

Staying determined, long hours, difficult clients, difficult employees and technology failure all play a part in everyday struggles but without money, it never would’ve happened. Sourcing that finance was by far the the most difficult thing and in the early days we took ‘bootstrapping’ to the extreme.

Would you say the business has changed from the first initial idea?

The idea was always to create something big, accessible and game-changing but the product is so much better than I would have ever imagined and the business is growing much faster than I expected. If someone had told me a couple of years ago that our product would be used by global power brands such as Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and Rip Curl; and broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4, I don’t think I would’ve believed them.

Who are your competitors?

We have the privilege of being a world first which means our nearest competitors have either changed tack and focused elsewhere or abandoned the concept altogether. We used to be compared to companies such as VideoClix or Clikthrough but they both provide serviced solutions rather than a self-provisioning tagging tool so their business and customer base is very different. Some newcomers are showing some interesting tagging and recognition features such as Veenome but we’re yet to see a working demo and our tech is more advanced.

While we are in a great position, we never take that for granted and constantly strive to improve and evolve everyday. We have just completed a 9-month rebuild of our original tech and back-end infrastructure to make it so much easier for the technology to stay fresh and always adaptable.

What were you doing before you founded wireWAX ?

I ran Wiseguy Pictures for over 10 years producing a diverse range of TV programmes such as Freshers, Housemates, A Year at Kew and Paparazzi as well as hundreds of hours of online video – mainly fashion and beauty – for some of the biggest digital publishers. We also produced movie trailers and lots of motion graphics – the latter of which gave me a very good grounding for vision techniques and user-interface.

It was working with those brands and publishers that spawned the initial need to develop an interactive video tool.

How have you been able to fund the business?

As wireWAX started as an experiment while running the production company, I was able inject a lot of personal finance and channel production revenue to research and development. It grew increasingly obvious that wireWAX was bigger than production and required more time, people and resources; so reducing the amount of personal time on production and looking for investment was the first major step to taking things further. In June 2011 we received earlyround investment from Passion Capital, headed-up by Eileen Burbidge, Stefan Glaenzer and Robert Dighero.

Between ramping down production and successfully closing that early-round, I’d by lying if I said things were easy. Yes, I could redirect production profits but as my personal involvement in that business diminished so did those profits and there was increasing pressure on me to fund things personally and embark on a very hard period of ‘beg, borrow and steal’. I never doubting that wireWAX was worth the pain and when the tech was in good shape and people were paying to use it, there was an overwhelming sense of vindication and it all felt worthwhile.

We started door-knocking investors at the beginning of 2011 and having the opportunity to present at Mike Butcher’s GeeknRolla certainly allowed us to hit a lot of people at the same time and open doors. We were invited to Seedcamp Berlin and a few weeks later we were sat around a table with Eileen, Stefan and Robert from Passion bashing out the details.

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

2012 is a very exciting year for wireWAX. The investment from Passion came with a road-map to develop wireWAX to what it is now. A major overhaul of infrastructure, a complete rebuild of communications, a vast simplification revision of user-interface and user experience; and the start of the biggest commercial application of computer vision in Europe.

Our aim is to make wireWAX the first and only solution to make all video, everywhere, interactive. Doing that means we need the systems in place to cope and the automated functions to reduce almost all user effort.

We launched the first part of this earlier in the year and the new website and user management studio to be launched by the end of April. We’ll always be adding new automated features and improving the technology but as of next week you’ll start to see some incredible stuff, amazing things with video no one has done before.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

I wouldn’t say that I was a successful entrepreneur by any stretch and I can only pass on a few things that have worked for me so far…

1. Persevere. If you really believe in your idea and you believe that it has a genuine use for more than 10 people, work hard and work long – whatever it takes to get it working.

Whatever it takes to get it to your audience. Sometimes your designs or your code won’t work and it’ll feel like you’re killing yourself for a silly idea that never will, but stick at it. There is no substitute and no easy route. Be prepared to sacrifice to make it succeed, but be aware not everyone around you will like you for it.

2. Lists. This is probably an obvious one but make a list, no matter how big and silly it looks and never quit working through it, ignore anyone or anything that tells you to skip tasks or lose enthusiasm. Stay determined at all costs, set yourself a target and get there no matter what. The trick is to never be overwhelmed by the mountain left to climb, set yourself small goals and cross off achievements as you go. You’ll feel good as you work through it and keeping all your tasks in one place will free your mind of clutter and keep you creative. It’ll also ensure you get a good night’s sleep.

3. People. Surround yourself with very, very good people. People who you can rely on and who genuinely share your vision to make your idea happen. Get rid of those who don’t, fast – it may not be immediately obvious but they’ll drag you and the team down. There’s nothing better than coming to work, building something with guys who love it as much as you and having a proper giggle along the way

Liad Shababo is the founder of Shoply, a social shopping marketplace for small brands and local businesses. Prior to starting Shoply, he founded iStay.com, doof and MoneyGaming.com.

I recently caught up him as we spoke about his latest startup – Shoply.

Could you quickly give us some background information about yourself?

Sure, I’m 34, born and bred in London. I’ve run internet companies for over 10 years. I founded MoneyGaming, a skill gaming network and doof.com, a social gaming platform. I’m now concentrating on social commerce and recently launched Shoply.com

You’re quite the serial entrepreneur, tell me how you got into business? Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child?

My father and grandfather were entrepreneurs. They both started their own businesses and worked terribly hard to make them succeed. From a young age I would work with my father on weekends and school holidays and loved it. My father instilled in me a ‘buck stops here’ attitude and that hard work is the foundation of success. Internalising you alone are responsible for your livelihood and possibly that of others is incredibly empowering.

So tell me about Shoply and how the idea came about?

We felt for a long time that selling online was far too expensive and complicated. We could feel the pain small brands and local businesses were going through trying to get a shop up and running and their subsequent frustration being unable to drive traffic to them. We built Shoply to help them out.

What is Shoply and how does it work?

Shoply is a social shopping marketplace which brings together small brands and local business with customers looking to discover and buy from them. We make it quick and easy to open an online shop, generate traffic and make sales. We take away the technical pain and expense of selling online, remove marketing costs by providing free promotion tools and help grow sales by giving sellers access to the Shoply Marketplace, a vibrant sales channel.

For buyers, Shoply is a quick and social way of discovering awesome products from thousands of sellers worldwide.

What is your business model?

We charge 10% commission on sales made through the marketplace. We also offer a premium plan at $29.99 a month which gives sellers tons of additional benefits such as Featured Marketplace Status and advanced analytics.

What makes Shoply different from any service out there?

By providing small brands and local businesses a soup-to-nuts service encompassing software, marketing tools and a strong sales channel we provide them value far above what they can get elsewhere.

For buyers, making it quick and easy to shop thousands of small businesses in one place and wrapping the entire experience in a socially engaging and fun environment offers them a unique online shopping experience.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Assembling a motivated and passionate team and putting our customers at the heart of decisions we make.

Would you say the business has changed from the first initial idea?

For sure. Our product has changed considerably based on feedback received. We follow the classic build, measure, learn, customer development loop. Whilst our product has changed our mission of empowering small business has stayed the same.

How have you been able to fund the business?

We bootstrapped the business initially and funded it from personal savings. We recently closed our first funding round with investors from Europe and the US.

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

We’re going to grow the number of businesses selling on Shoply considerably and broaden the kinds of products and services being sold. We will continue to innovate the social aspects of the marketplace and make the whole experience, simpler, more beautiful and more fun. We also have a few key partnerships in the pipeline which we will announce soon.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

1. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. Have the courage of your convictions. Just do it.

2. Be a heat seeking missile. Seek constant feedback and use it to iterate and improve.

3. Don’t do it for the money. Find something you’re passionate about. Fix a problem which resonates with you.

Andreas Bodczek is the co-founder and CEO of SponsorPay, a leading advertising platform in social networks, virtual worlds, mobile apps and online games.

The idea for SponsorPay was initally conceived by Team Europe, a Berlin-based incubator. Andreas eventually joined the team as CEO bringing his expertise in business development, strategic expansion, company building and financial management to help grow the company further which he has continued to deliver on since joining the company.

I spoke to Andreas about SponsorPay and his journey into entrepreneurship.

Can you give you some background information about yourself; were you the entrepreneurial type growing up?

Although my father ran his own practice as a doctor, I was never directly exposed to any entrepreneurial ventures until I became a member of the Bertelsmann’s Junior Management Programme. There I was able to hone my entrepreneurial skills by taking risks and developing new business models within a controlled environment.

Later on, I would go on to work for Telefonica where one of my first projects was launching a new business into the UK. Armed with a young team, I was able to construct the venture successfully from the ground up, literally starting from nothing.

Tell me how the idea for SponsorPay came about?

SponsorPay is the leading cross-platform in-game advertising company, which provides value for brands, games publishers and users of these games by providing targeted advertising offers. The idea was originally conceived by internet incubator Team Europe.

Eventually, I was brought on as founding CEO to help realize the potential of this idea. Combining my business development, strategic expansion and financial management experience with Team Europe’s expertise in business model development, company building and financing turned out to be a good match.

What is SponsorPay and what problem are you trying to solve with it?

SponsorPay provides advertising opportunities in a space (gaming) where such opportunities are scarce and rarely user-initiated. Our innovative engagement marketing product, BrandEngage, allows for users to interact and engage with brands. The users have a choice of which brands they engage with, as they are the ones who trigger interactions in exchange for benefits in a virtual economy.

Talk me through the first few months of running the business? What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

The most difficult part of starting the business was convincing publishers to accept advertisements within games and social networks. They were afraid to clutter their space with unwanted solicitations. However, once they realize that these ads not only generated more revenue, but also helped to funnel users into becoming paying customers, they quickly warmed up to the idea.

How were you able to fund the business?

Before we were able to secure larger funding, Team Europe was instrumental in growing SponsorPay. Not only were they able to provide the initial funding, they also provided the contacts and relationships to begin building SponsorPay’s network.

Later on, we were able to acquire significant rounds of Series A funding provided by Hasso Plattner Ventures and Nokia Growth Partners.

Tell me about a difficult time starting the business and how you were able to overcome it?

Starting any new business is always a challenge. More specifically, it wasn’t until we launched our services that we realized there was already another German competitor. After months of competing with GratisPay, we were eventually able to buy them out to seize control of the market.

Would you say the initial idea for the company, or that your business model has changed since starting the business?

The value exchange ad model has always been in place and still is, but the depth and breadth of our advertising solutions have continued to evolve. We have since not only added more advertisements, but more formats of ads as well as improved on our targeting, campaign management and reach.

What would you say has been some of the most crucial that you’ve done to build the company to this level now?

One of the most crucial progressions we’ve made is extending our ad formats from direct response to brand engagement as well as broadening technical capabilities from web to mobile.

We also continued to build our reach and proved our commitment to localization by expanding our offices to new locations such as Istanbul, Tokyo and New York.

What has been some of the most valuable things that you’ve learnt so far on your journey as an entrepreneur?

There are many valuable lessons I have learned along the way. But no matter the business or the market, you will be faced with adversity as an entrepreneur because part of being an entrepreneur is evaluating risk and knowing when to take chances. It’s important to know when to cut your losses and when to press on and “just go for it.” This is one of the decisions that excite me about entrepreneurship over and over again.

What’s been your most memorable moment so far on your entrepreneurial journey?

The most rewarding part of my experience has been seeing young, ambitious teams mature, grow together and ultimately deliver on what initially seemed to be too-high-flying plans. It’s great that we have all come together to achieve and surpass milestones month after month. It has been very gratifying to grow an organization from the ground up and go from a little-known entity to an industry leader.

What pieces of advices could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs out there?

Don’t be afraid to fail. No matter how diligent and detail oriented you are, you will make mistakes at times. Entrepreneurship is not for the fainthearted. There will be a time when you will need to pick yourself up off of the ground and keep pressing forward. It’s important that you learn from your errors and stay dedicated and passionate to whatever it is you’re doing, no matter how daunting the task at hand may seem.

In this sense, we can still learn a thing or two in Europe from the US, where failure is considered a common stage of growth on the path of individual development for an entrepreneur rather than a means of shame.

What can we be expecting from you and SponsorPay in 2012?

As previously mentioned, SponsorPay continues to grow at a feverish rate. As we continue to increase our revenues, we are excited to expand upon the mobile side of our business and increase our footprint within the advertising space with BrandEngage.

Alice is the co-founder of LUX FIX, an online platform that does two jobs – (1) It’s new way of engaging with fashion enthusiasts, offering members super-curated luxury deals. (2) It helps designers showcase their products towards a targeted customer base .

Alice quit her job in the city last year having spent most of her time speaking to entrepreneurs as an investor. I recently caught up with her as she sheds more light on her recent journey into the startup world.

Hi Alice, How are you doing, great to have you on YHP?

Thanks it’s great to be speaking to you guys!

Could you quickly give us some background information about yourself? What were you doing before you founded LUX FIX?

Straight after leaving Oxford, where I read History, I worked as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs working on UK Mergers & Acquisitions, followed by three years in private equity at Quilvest Private Equity, where I was involved in the execution and monitoring of direct and fund investments in the UK and Europe. Then I left finance behind to found LUX FIX!

So Alice tell me how you got into business? Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child?

Sitting the other side of the table as an investor at a Private Equity firm, I was always struck by the passion and energy of the entrepreneurs I met and was very keen to join them when I found the right opportunity.

Who was your inspiration growing and why?

My grandmother! She has worked all her life and is at the top of her field (she is a jewellery historian) even today.

So tell me about LUX FIX and how the idea came about?

We felt there was a need for a service offering time-poor professionals cherry-picked luxury, countering the “inventory overload” of the web and rewarding them with special offers each week.

What is LUX FIX and how does it work?

For our members, we are solving the issue of online inventory-overload and making buying luxury online fun and experience led (all our offers are one-off), for our designers we are a marketing platform which drives targeted consumers directly to their own online presences.

What is your business model?

LUX FIX works hand in hand with designers to offer super-curated luxury with members-only deals – like discounts, limited-editions and previews. We introduce brands and their current season to members via our newsletter/blog, engage members through the fun & interactive LUX FIX platform, and convert sales both on lux-fix.com and through referrals to designers’ own websites.

LUX FIX currently generates revenues directly on lux-fix.com and via affiliate sales.

What makes LUX FIX different from any service out there?

We are the only site in the UK where top luxury brands give regular offers on current season merchandise; this is possible because we provide marketing and sales generation for our designer partners’ brands and websites. Our customer is interested in current collections and the provenance behind them, she also appreciates deals and one-off offers to draw her attention.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Building a portfolio of luxury designers from scratch pre-launch was a big challenge — designers are approached by online startups all the time and we had to show them why we were different, all before we actually had a website to demo.

We focused on explaining to designers how Lux Fix differs from other online multi-brand retailers — how we work directly with designers to raise awareness of their brands and grow their own e-commerce sales rather than competing for customers. Also, we showed no compunction in calling brands again, and again, and again, until they agreed to give us a meeting.

Who are your competitors?

Well…we think LUX FIX occupies a unique space in the UK, offering members deals on in-season luxury alongside fresh editorial!

How have you been able to fund the business?

We raised a small initial round from private investors.

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

In the next year we are looking to grow a fantastic team, particularly on the buying side so that we can grow our engaged database of luxury consumers to our next milestone and also to expand our offering cross-vertical and to serve new markets!

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

The best advice we have ever been given? Never take no for an answer and always negotiate! Other than that….Use your network — friends, family, former colleagues, random person you meet at a party, it’s amazing how many people you know will be able and happy to help. Also be prepared to be flexible and responsive — we’re constantly iterating and many of the features on the latest version of the site came from customer and designer feedback.

It’s becoming more easier and faster to build websites online and one platform making sure of that is BaseKit. I caught up with the company’s CTO and co-founder, Simon Best.

The full interview is below.

Could you quickly give us some background information about yourself? Tell me about yourself growing up?

Born in Wales, I was a very creative kid; sketching, painting, and always taking things apart and trying to put them back together again. I was about 5 when I had my first computer for Christmas – a ZX spectrum – and was soon hooked. Technology has always fascinated me, and I guess this is what started me on the path to be a founder of a tech startup.

How did you get into business? Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child?

I was exposed to entrepreneurship as a child via my dad, who had a hugely successful career with British Steel (now Corus), but it wasn’t until university that I was actually taught about business and entrepreneurship. I first went into business with my brother, joining his finance company to create a web application. After that, the tech startup became a growing phenomenon in the media, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. From that point on I pushed my skills in both technology and business to get me there.

Who was your inspiration growing up and why?

From a technology point of view, I was inspired at a young age by the early computer game companies. These were some of the earliest examples of tech startups; young guys working on software that could quickly be picked up by thousands or even millions of users. At the time I didn’t appreciate the business acumen that must have made this happen. From a personal point of view, I’ve always been inspired by creative people, for example artists, designers, and architects. I have huge respect for people who build things from scratch with a combination of their own creative talent, and a healthy dose of blood, sweat and tears!

So tell me how the idea for BaseKit came about?

We know how expensive it can be for a small business to get an online presence. A web designer’s fees can be thousands just to get a website online. Then there are ongoing costs for hosting and maintaining the site. Add to this the pressure to stay on top of the constantly changing technologies like mobile and social. We wanted BaseKit to give small businesses a cheaper alternative that they could build and control.

What were you doing before you founded BaseKit?

BaseKit was originally created to help us to build more websites for less money. I had a web design agency that worked with local small businesses. We quickly recognized that these businesses were poorly served by current offerings, and that there was a huge gap in the market. We pulled all of our web technology skills together to build the first version of BaseKit to build sites for our client base.

What is BaseKit? What are you guys trying to solve?

BaseKit essentially makes it really easy and cost effective for a business to create an online presence. We do this by providing them with a product to put the power back in their hands, so they can create sites that are flexible and adaptable to technology changes. We think we go further than most website building tools as we also enable them to create visible, dynamic and future-proof web sites.

What was your biggest challenge during the starting up phase?

The biggest challenge was proving that we had the potential to turn BaseKit into a global business. This needs to be proved from lots of different perspectives, such as technology, team and market opportunity. You need to hire the right people to ensure that the important pieces of the product and business are progressing at the right time.

A lot of entrepreneurs oppose to working with family, how has it been working with your brother?

We have always had very different skills, with myself being the technical and product brain and Richard being the sales and marketing guru. These are very complementary skills, and in fact startups will often struggle if all founders have the same skills. If anything, the competitive relationship we have as brothers has helped to drive the business faster!

Tell me about Seedcamp, winning the competition and the opportunity it exposed the company to?

To describe Seedcamp, take Dragon’s Den, extend the 15-minute pitch to an entire week, with tens of investors and hundreds of mentors scrutinizing every part of your business. It was a nerve-wracking experience; a baptism of fire into pitching and selling the company to investors. It helped to put us firmly on the map in the tech scene in the UK, Europe and even as far afield as Silicon Valley. It ultimately led to the investments that have been essential to grow the company to where it is today.

You guys have been successful also in raising additional money, what are some of the key things that you have learnt from the raising money process?

Every stage of fund raising is different. In early stages, you need to convince potential investors about the vision, and that the founding team has what it takes to fulfill the opportunity.

Later stages are about proving that your business has the potential to generate revenue at scale. We raised the last round of investment with one distribution partner, and within one year we’ve grown to over 40 signed partners all over the world, with over 40,000 new paying customers coming on board every month.

What tips can you give to entrepreneurs looking to raise money to grow their start-up?

You need to do enough to prove that your team can start a business. Everybody has ideas, but you need to show that you can execute on those ideas. It’s also not just about the money – you should always choose an investor who will bring relevant expertise and experience, active participation in the business, and a network of useful contacts.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

I believe that people are the most important factor in any business. The key to growth is to hire the right people at the right time, to bring momentum to the parts of the business that need to be moving fast. It’s easy to slip into the mentality of trying to do everything yourself, because ultimately every company does begin that way. It’s crucial to make the transition to a team mentality, and make sure everybody is pushing in the same direction.

Would you say the business has changed from the first initial idea?

The original BaseKit product was fairly technical, and we’ve worked hard to improve the usability of the product to make it accessible to a typical small business user. We’re always refining our marketing in order to maximize customer acquisition. In general, the overall vision has stayed rock-solid, but we’ve adapted along the way to grow the business as quickly as possible.

What would you say has been the highlight of your entrepreneurial journey so far?

For me one highlight at BaseKit has been the speed of our global expansion. It’s amazing to be involved in something that is pushing out across the World into many countries. We’re now localized in 10 languages and sign-up 40,000 new paying small business customers every single month.

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

We have some exciting product enhancements, including the ability to buy new items and functionality – like an App Store for your website. We’re currently busy launching the BaseKit Learning Centre, which will be a hub of information about how to run your business online. We’re targeting massive distribution in many countries, and we’ll have over 500,000 paying users by the end of 2012.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

1. Don’t sit on your ideas, act on them today!
2. Get some early users and develop your product based on their feedback.
3. Collaborate with great people to give your business more speed and the best chance of success.

You could easily get carried away trying to write down the amount of projects Ouriel Ohayon is currently involved in.

As he says at the start of our interview below “So I have been in the startup world for a while now, even since it existed”. That’s not an understatement – He was the former editor and founder of TechCrunch France. He is an Ex-VC who is now a co-founder of a french internet fund Isai.fr and I could go on and on, but the purpose on my interview with Ouriel was to speak about his current startup, Appsfire. Ouriel describes Appsfire as an recommendation engine for mobile apps.

The full interview is below.

Can you give you some background information about yourself, were you the entrepreneurial type growing up?

(Too) many years ago I started working in very large non-high tech companies. I was doing marketing for real products, you know? the kind you can touch and buy in real stores? But then i quickly realize i wanted to work in smaller companies and mostly be run my own shop. So I have been in the startup world for a while now, even since it existed. I worked both as an entrepreneur and a Venture Capitalist.

Tell me how the idea for Appsfire came about?

I loved the iPhone from day one. When the App store launched i started downloading apps, but i also started to receive every single day emails from my friends asking for recommendations of apps to install. At the time there was 20 000 apps in the app store. only

I then realized something was broken but also understood that on mobile apps would be the preferred way to consume online and offline content

Discussing with Yann Lechelle (my cofounder) we built a simple prototype of a service enabling friends to share apps. This was the very first app discovery service ever created. As it grew we understood there was a big opportunity and quit our day job to build Appsfire.

What is Appsfire?

Appsfire is a recommendation engine for mobile apps. It serves every single dimension of app discovery for consumers (search, passive discovery, content discovery, social discovery, geo discovery,…) and adds a layer app stores are unable to provide because they are built as…stores: meaning the same for every one. Appsfire is first a set of free mobile apps for iOS and Android to discover apps (think IMDB for apps). You can find them on Appsfire.com

Our business is to work with app developers on the promotion and marketing of their apps. In a way we do for apps what google did for links.

Finally we re building an app discovery network where we provide app recommendations through apps fire to many mobile properties, not just in our own apps. We work with mobile operators, publishers, 3rd party apps and provide the infrastructure for recommending apps.

Talk me through the first few months of running the business? What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

Finding the right angle to start with. Discovery is a very large and complex issue. Most companies who try to solve including big companies like operators fail. we needed several iterations both on the user experience but also on the recommendation engine to make it right. It took us over 12 months to find the right approach.

How were you able to fund the business?

We started without funding and grew the service to 50 000 users. Then we raised 1 million USD from top private investors and recently we raised an additional 3.6 m USD from a top tier VC fund in Europe. Appsfire is now generating substantial revenues and we may never need funding again. unless..

Would you say the initial idea for the company, or that your business model has changed since 2009?

Our business was always to build a marketing company for mobile apps and create the best ad experience to promote mobile applications. The product to get to that vision is changing all the time based on consumer needs and competitive pressures.

What makes Appsfire differently from other similar platforms out there?

We believe we created the best recommendation engine for apps. It is based on deep analytics of what an App store is (we call it AppGenome) surfacing the best apps for a given user. We re the only company who has a 360 degree approach trying to solve every part of App discovery (search, social, promos, …) And we also believe our user experience is the best: this is why we re winning several awards (recently 148apps best app ever) and are often in top rankings with over 5 million downloads of our apps (activated downloads…)

How big is your team now?

We re small. 16 persons between Paris and Tel aviv

What would you say has been some of the most crucial that you’ve done to build the company to this level now?

Building a great team. It all comes down to that.

What is your business model?

We work with developers to promote their apps. They pay us to give them a preferred visibility in our discovery engine.

Is the business profitable?

Our revenues are growing extremely fast. We re surfing on a big market.

What kind of things can we expect in the emerging app industry in 2012?

More apps. More difficulty to emerge from the app store. we re just at the beginning of an app revolution.

How does someone who want to get their app discovered do? In other words, how do you succesfully launch an app? what are the procedures?

It is just not enough to build a great apps. Greats apps compete against great apps. Developers need to have a very marketing minded approach and consider an app like a music album or a movie a constantly market it through its life cycle. There are many free ways to do it (tease, blogs,..) but eventually you will have to buy advertising to promote your app. This is where we fit in.

What’s been your most memorable moment so far on your entrepreneurial journey?

I always love the days we launch something new. Something no one has done before. We innovate all the time. And giving birth to something new is always exciting

What pieces of advices could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs out there?

Build a great team. And select your cofounder carefully. You need to love your idea enough to make sure you’ll stay passionate about it for at least 5 years.

What can we be expecting from you and Appsfire in 2012?

If I told you, that would not be a surprise

It’s certainly not the easiest of tasks raising money for a start-up nor is it easy to meet investors – most of the time you will probably need a warm intro from a colleague that has raised investment from the investor/firm or end up spending most of your time networking at events where you will probably get turned down by investors who do this not out of hatred but irritation of being pitched by a lot of entrepreneur over the course of a day.

After getting an intro to an investor, the job is certainly not done and they are no guarantees, its still a long process before you see those zeros in your bank account.

Dan Somers is an entrepreneur turned angel investor who shares some of his insights about how the investment world works and his story as an entrepreneur.

Here is the full interview below.

Can you give us some background information on yourself? How did you get into business?

I think the short answer was “I had to do it.” I had a great first (and last) job as a management consultant – lots of variety, experience and potential, but it was not in my nature to be an employee. I was developing property in the evenings when I could and bought my first one on a credit card and a mortgage (Once I ran out of money and came into work with paint in my hair!). However I did OK/got lucky enough to leave employment but I didn’t want to develop properties for a living. I set up various ideas/schemes, most of which in hindsight were flawed. VC-Net was the one which worked.

Who was your inspiration growing up and why?

I didn’t really have idols per se. The people that inspired me were people who had overcome adversity or disability, or who pushed the physical limits of the human body such as the legendary explorers and mountaineers. Also historical figures who rose from humble beginnings were always a fascination – Cardinal Wolseley and Thomas Edison spring to mind.

Take me back to the early days of running VC-NET, How the idea come about? What difficulties did you face?

I looked around for problems and trends. It was one of a number of business ideas I thought of, although most of them were non-starters. I had used videoconferencing at work and it was a poor experience and just seemed to be a senior management toy. Yet the technology wasn’t so bad so why didn’t it all work? I figured it was the networks: If a dedicated videoconferencing network could be built, and packaged correctly, then there appeared to be a latent need.

Difficulties … where do you start! I’m sure it’s the same as any other entrepreneur: Money, people, suppliers … maybe the most prominent one in hindsight was that I was a sole founder and had no-one to challenge and improve my thinking.

How was your experience/lesson learned running the company?

Good question. No entrepreneur is qualified for the job they do, so there is lots of learning (i.e. mistakes) on the job, asking advice and trying to figure things out. Picking great people to work with was with hindsight a must and I didn’t always do that. That is one thing I now am religious about.

So tell me about Boundary Capital and why you decided to start it up? What made you decide to get into Angel investing?

From speaking with other entrepreneurs, I think there is consensus that the phase after exiting a business is a paradoxical one. I had been 100% into my business and now there was a void, and I wasn’t going to retire just yet. I found that Angel investing was a way to share in the passions of entrepreneurship and create value whilst giving something back, particularly advice and support to first time entrepreneurs (the sort of advice and support I never had!). However Boundary Capital then began to evolve, particularly when I found other people to partner with, and we found niches and funding gaps, particularly around high tech start-ups and university IP (more below…)

What makes Boundary Capital different from any investment firm out there?

I (and later we) did not set out to create anything ‘different’ per se. However we saw so many business plans that we didn’t think very much of, that we started to look more at venture origination and development. This led me to universities and start-up technology companies who needed more than money. It was (and is) hard work, but this is where we found we could add, and create value, in addition to providing finance. Then once you develop a reputation in something, it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy which has been welcome.

What criteria do you consider when evaluating potential investments?

That old chestnut! People is right at the top of the list. Sure the product has to have a competitive advantage in an attractive market and some evidence of traction, but if the founders/ management are not made of the right ‘stuff’ then forget it. I’ve invested in great products in great markets but fallen flat because of klutzes. Experience teaches you, particularly when you’ve been in their shoes, that the business plan (i.e. the document) is relatively meaningless. It will change course into the unknown and you’re in the plane so choose your pilot(s) carefully.

How important is the technology when you’re looking at a new investment opportunity?

People are really what you’re investing in. There are loads of great businesses founded with zero technology – think of Ikea, WalMart etc. Even locally, the rise of companies like Addison Lee and Pimlico Plumbers prove the point for me as sustainable growth businesses with little in the way of competitive advantage in pretty unattractive markets.

Having said all of that, I am personally more of a technology investor, although I look more for ‘commercial innovation’ rather than technology per se.

How do you judge the quality of the people?

With extreme rigour! There’s no substitute for gut feel, but there’s also no substitute for process particularly references and getting second opinions. Use your head to validate your gut. There also comes the personal chemistry bit which you can’t really quantify, but which is critical: Once you’ve invested, you’re ‘in the back of the plane’ and in a small business, it will always be a bumpy ride so make sure you get along with the pilot(s). And by getting along I don’t mean passively, I mean both parties challenge each other constructively to get to the best decisions.

How actively engaged are you with the companies you invest in?

As mentioned, Boundary Capital is a commercialising as well as an investing business. So we tend to be (although not always) actively engaged. If we’re not the right people for the job because of domain knowledge, then we always try to find someone to invest alongside us who has those skills and experiences. We’ve found this model works well, and we partner with a company (called Venturedirector) who provide these specialist investing executives and non-executives, where we don’t know them ourselves.

What would you say has changed in the investing scene in the last 5 years?

I’ve only been investing for 3 years so I can only talk for those. It’s also a difficult question because I’ve been learning and developing a lot during that time.

If I can make any useful comment, it would be that over that period, even though it’s been during a recession, I’ve not seen a lack of activity at the ‘angel’ end (even though the stats say it shrunk a bit). Entrepreneurs always think that there is a lack of capital around, and angels always think there is a lack of quality deal flow!

Other characteristics you like to see in your companies you invest in?

We always look for (or try to assist with developing) ventures with a robust financial plan that we, and the founders can sustainably benefit from in the long term. In other words, if the business requires venture capital at some point, then we need to make sure we have enough ‘runway’ (sorry for all the aeronautical analogies) so that we don’t run out of cash and get wiped out by them. It never ceases to amaze me how many angels and founders leave fundraising to the last minute, and are always too optimistic with their projections (OK so I used to be too!). We always reserve capital to support ventures if they don’t hit their initial targets but planning and experience are the best guides.

Looking back, can you tell us about a tough time on your journey and how you overcame it?

There are too many, and I’m sure they’re the usual stories: I guess I’ve nearly been bust many times! However dishonesty by other directors was probably the toughest thing to cope with, particularly since I chose these people! I overcame it by staying cool, gathering facts, and acquiring good, honest people to help rectify the situation and move on. You have to trust the people you work with, and choose to work with people you can trust.

I think I’ll borrow the Henry Ford quote if that’s OK: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

What has been the highlight of your entrepreneurial/investment journey so far

This is the question that has given me the most pause for thought. The highlight is that I’ve lucky enough to be someone who has a ‘job’ they love, and being able to stay true to my core values.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today, especially those seeking investments?

1. Most people dream of working for themselves but you may just not be cut out to be an entrepreneur. However the true entrepreneur completely ignores this comment.
2. Be proud of your failures. Communicate how you reflected and learned by your mistakes. Anyone can get ‘lucky’, just ask a Lottery winner. No-one wants to back one of those.
3. Ask for advice and you will get money. Ask for money and you will get advice!

What can we be expecting from you and Boundary Capital in 2012?

From a personal point of view, I am looking for my next venture. However Boundary Capital is starting to become an entrepreneurial journey in its own right and we are raising an EIS technology fund. So let’s speak this time next year and see what transpired!

Why does Simon Mansell decide to start a business during the dot-com crash?

Simon tells me about the early days of TBG, getting their first client onboard and some of the key things he’s learnt from that experience and the future for TBG Digital

Below is the full interview.

Can you give us some background information on yourself? How did you get into business?

Having left school at 17 after a particularly rebellious phase, I went through a number of temp jobs before joining online business directory, Scoot.com and then MyPoints.

Although at the age of 22, I was earning one of the silly salaries synonymous with those times but I wanted to do more. I offered my employers the opportunity to pay me on a commission only basis on the sales I made rather than a salary. They accepted and I started working at full capacity and made £24,000 within the next month which was my seed money.

And so TBG London was born… in a room in my house with a couple of the mates that I trusted and that had an eagerness to start carving out a career in the industry.

Who was your inspiration growing up and why?

Liam Gallagher from Oasis. Because he did whatever he wanted to.

You started TBG in 2001, tell me about that period in your life and your experience running the business? It was during the dot-com bubble, things must have been crazy back then?

Having spent a few years floating around the internet, I realised the potential of advertising using this channel. No one had broadband, dot coms were crashing around the world and the more traditional advertising mediums were dominating. However, media owners themselves (such as MSN, Yahoo!, etc) were having difficulty in selling their online advertising space and advertisers were hesitant to invest in, what they believed, was an unproven route to market. Despite this, I was aware of one vital point that was being ignored by advertisers – that users were still using the Internet in their millions and the market was growing quickly.

We started building relationships with the big media owners of the time (Freeserve, MSN and Yahoo!) and negotiated deals whereby we would buy their inventory on a CPA (Cost per Acquisition) basis and offered advertisers a guaranteed Return on Investment as they only had to pay when a sale was made, an application was completed or a registration was submitted. Our first client was Britannia Music. They spent £1 million with us that year and it was the start of a whole raft of brands to come through our door. In the first 12 months, TBG London billed a total of £1.7 million and made profits of £340,000.

What would you say were some of the key things you learnt from that experience?

There’s so much that I’ve learnt in the 10 years since TBG began. Speed is one of those things. Being first to market provides great advantage. That together with really leveraging technology. Google and PPC marketing passed us by but I wasn’t going to let that happen again when Facebook became a valid advertising partner. We dived straight in and invested over a million dollars in ONE Media Manager, our Ads API tech platform. We’ve also found that building a business based on data has given us a foundation to provide an exceptional service to our clients whilst also really understanding our environment. It’s a real USP for us.

Looking back and comparing it to now, what are some of the things that have changed in running a business or in building a successful company?

Running a business with 10 employees in one office in a country you grew up in is one thing. Running a business with 140 employees in seven countries requires a different set of skills. In many ways I’ve had to let go of the day to day but the only way I’ve been able to do that is to surround myself with people I trust and that show excellence in their own right.

What is TBG? What do you guys do?

We are a Social Media company helping global brands to advertise and engage through Facebook and Twitter. We create custom social experiences that are amplified through targeted media.  We invest in bespoke technology to help with stand out and our client activity is benchmarked against a data store of over one trillion events. 

What is your business model?

We’re similar to an advertising agency but we also work with other agencies so we’re more of a Social Media specialist.

What makes TBG different from any service out there?

Our products. We are not just a services business – we use services to help companies use our products more effectively.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

The biggest opportunity for growth came out of Facebook. Other agencies just could not get it to work for them or their clients so we put our best analysts on it and didn’t give up until we were delivering strong ROI for our clients via the channel. Facebook stood up and took notice as our spends were increasing. They invited us on to their API program and we had built and released ONE Media Manager within six months. We released ONE in November 2009. Our first non-UK office was opened the following February in San Francisco with Paris, New York and Hamburg following close behind. It’s not all about technology though. People and relationships are a constant focus of ours.

Are you guys profitable?

Yes we are and have been since month one. We’ve had our ups and downs (70% of our client base was in the Finance sector when the Credit Crunch occurred) but we’re in a great place right now.

Have you raised any money to build or grow the business or has it been purely bootstrapped?

No, we’ve grown organically.

Would you say the business has changed from the first initial idea?

The business has changed constantly. Rarely a year goes by where we haven’t added or changed our service offering. That’s because we work in digital and it is forever changing so we must adapt. No-one grows at the rate we have by standing still.

What has been the highlight of your entrepreneurial journey so far?

Winning the biggest spending Advertiser on Facebook.

What can we be expecting from your company in 2012?

We’re looking at new territories and we’re also working very closely with Twitter.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

Move fast
Keep it simple
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