“This depends very much on the type of business you’re running and the level of maturity of the company. In a fast growing start-up, whilst being visionary is important, I think more emphasis needs to be put on putting in place the right processes and building the right team to fuel the growth. The vision is important to get all pieces to stick together and going in the same direction, but to actually grow your sales, you need an operator.”

Maxim Berglund
Co-founder
StreetHub

We built Yoyo Wallet after talking to hundreds of retailers of all sizes. This is what we discovered: no one is addressing the retailer’s top 3 issues which are: Who is my customer? How do I create a personal engagement with my customer? How do I sell more?

Now is probably the most exciting time ever to be a tech entrepreneur outside Silicon Valley. Ten years ago, it was not widely believed that tech companies could be successful if they were not located in the Valley. Many people assumed, and it was often true, that tech entrepreneurs would move their start-ups to California as soon as they could. But in the past decade, we have seen a fundamental and exciting shift around where tech companies are located. Using the $B valuation mark as a benchmark, we found that there are currently more billion-dollar companies created outside Silicon Valley, with approximately 120 of these having been founded since 2003 (65% of the global total).

Top 5 tips for a successful crowdfunding campaign

Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube, offers his top tips for crowdfunding success.

1. Get the basics right

Making sure you have a sound business plan and robust financial forecasts seems like an obvious one but getting all the necessary paperwork in order should be more than just a tick-box exercise. A good starting point is a compelling pitch that provides a clear overview of the proposition, along with what makes the business unique, the potential market opportunity and the strategy for growth. Any investor will also want to know how and when they could see a return. Great business ideas and ambitious growth plans need to be supported with a clear and concise business plan – it may not be the decisive factor in securing investment but a poor plan could be the reason you don’t get it.

When I envisioned myself starting a company, I never dreamed it would be a dating app. First of all, the space is littered with graves of failed startups. Talk about a crowded space with a dearth of success stories! Second of all, dating sites, and the people that start them, are not particularly known for being ‘innovative’, and innovation is something I was determined to have present in any company I started or joined. Lastly, as any good consumer investor will tell you, doing anything in consumer mobile space is incredibly risky with essentially the lowest probability of success, and being a pragmatist, I would have preferred to derisk my venture by doing something in enterprise.

“It’s true: the likes of Dragon’s Den, HBO’s Silicon Valley, and podcasts like StartUp give the impression that building a business is as simple as having a good idea and finding some money to implement it. In reality, anyone who has actually tried to do it knows that it’s sleepless nights, dramatic highs and lows, and a willingness to change your product or service if there simply doesn’t seem to be a market fit. The only thing that’s certain about being an entrepreneur is that it is incredibly hard work – anyone who starts on the entrepreneurship journey learns that pretty quickly.  I’d like to think that on balance, most people who decide to take the plunge, do so with the earnest intention of being successful. And once you’ve invested your heart and soul in an idea, walking away isn’t as easy as it might seem.”

Lopo Champalimaud
CEO & Co-Founder
Wahanda

Prior to launching Zendesk in 2007, I was working as a consultant for some of the larger organisations in Denmark. My role would typically be to come in and make progress in areas where the customer had stalled due to a lack of in-house expertise or just plain inertia.

We asked Julia Bosch, founder of Outfittery, the online shopping service, about how the men’s market differed and to talk about the growth of her business!

The entrepreneurs in our list have raised over $240m in funding. The VC’s in our list have invested in many of technologies leading disruptive businesses.

So we asked for the books that had inspired them!