David Wareing, the co-founder of GetReminded, a free app that helps you save money by simply reminding you when your household contracts are up for renewal, shares his six key lessons over four years of creating a startup.
Find partners with complimentary skills
Although I may have had a great idea I was well aware that I didn’t have ALL the skills and time to build a business by myself. This is important as creating a business is as much about innovation and ideas as the operational and administrative.
Business partners brought skills that were not similar to mine leading to success.
Setting Realistic goals
With all the excitement and optimism of any new business idea the biggest learning was about setting goals that were achievable.
Ensuring we had a viable pathway from MVP (Minimum viable product) to rapid adoption and then commercialisation of our business was a vital component to both sustaining the partnership but also to maintain momentum.
When you’ve got a good idea… stick to it
Many people asked me how we came up with the idea of GetReminded, but I’m often more proud of the fact that we have never deviated from the original philosophy we set out to achieve which was to serve the best interests of our subscribers.
This has been challenging as most people I interact with seem to have suggestions of how to change the business without fully appreciating the essence of what we set out to achieve.
Solve customers’ problems even if they don’t know it’s a problem…
This is an old adage, but I understood this when we started on the GetReminded journey.
In a very congested environment, there are literally millions of innovative digital assets in the marketplace. It was an important step to ensure we validated our business concept as something that consumers needed.
As a rideshare driver I had the opportunity to constantly validate the concept as we developed.
It’s GONNA be great?
I have always had a simple mantra for GetReminded, we always talk about something once it ACTUALLY exists. Invariably technology development takes time but making predictions to investors or customers without the benefit of being able to show them is fraught with risk.
GetReminded went through 3 technology builds to ensure our platform worked before we ever presented to potential advertisers and commercial partners.
Focus on the product… not the money
We once had an investor tell us that he never invested in a company for the sole reason of making money. He went on to clarify that the most important characteristic he sought was a business that was focussed on solving a problem.
And if we did that well, the financial rewards would logically follow. I have never forgotten this.
