‘Brilliant ideas will help you to stand out’
No one is watching you start a business, so be audacious, says Anne Boden
ONE of the happiest periods of my life, without a doubt, was being in start-up mode. Yes, there were highs and lows in getting Starling Bank off the ground seven years ago. Some things worked and some things didn’t and an awful lot of people said ‘no’, or ‘go away’, or worse. But it was fun. There is an energy that comes with starting a business like no other. I was, therefore, pleased to see that a wave of entrepreneurial women is about to follow in my footsteps.
When I looked into our study on the next generation of women business leaders, I was not surprised that confidence is cited as one of the hurdles to overcome. I’ve spoken with many young female entrepreneurs and their biggest concern is invariably that people will criticise or, worse still, laugh off their ideas. I suspect this discomfort goes back to our school days where we were encouraged to be good girls, be diligent and get on with our work. The idea of standing up and declaring ‘hey, I have a brilliant idea’ just doesn’t come naturally.
Not feeling confident is a big issue for anyone with entrepreneurial ambitions. Starting a new business is daunting. There is lots to be done, products to be sourced, websites to be built, and suppliers to be signed up. Often though, the logistics pale into the background when would-be entrepreneurs start thinking ‘what if I get a negative reaction?’
When this happens, it is easier not to do anything. When I hear individuals saying ‘they would start a business but…’ I remind them of one of my favourite expressions: the default state of a start-up is dead. (I can’t claim this as my own. It was first coined by Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator.) In other words, unless you do something to make it happen, it won’t.
I am, by nature, a fairly confident person but I’ve had moments of doubt. Perhaps my most memorable one was when I composed my first ever Tweet. This was some years ago and I spent days and days writing and rewriting my draft Tweet. What would people think of me? Would I get it right? By the time I summoned up enough courage to send it out into the world, I felt really self conscious. And, guess what? Nothing. No comeback. No ridicule. In reality, I didn’t get any feedback at all. I didn’t have any followers back then! Silly as this sounds now, I think there is an important point there. The joy of starting a new business is that no one is watching you. It is, believe it or not, the most luxurious time. You can experiment, try something audacious, or even several audacious ideas. No one cares. It’s not until you begin to succeed that people will start to sit up and take notice and judge you on your business. By then, you’ll have enough confidence and experience that you’ll be fully ready to stand up proudly and say ‘yes, I do have a brilliant idea.’
Confidence is important because sometimes female entrepreneurs do need to be more resilient. If a significant investment is required to get a business off the ground, we are sadly in a situation where companies led by women do still find it more difficult to raise money than their male counterparts. As I learnt in the early days of Starling, VCs do still gravitate towards people who look like the people who they have already invested in. In most cases, that means a team of men of around 30 years of age. As a woman in her early 50s, I definitely didn’t tick those boxes. The only way to get around this, and indeed any hurdle in starting a new venture, is to keep knocking on doors.
If the idea is good enough, someone will take notice.
This situation is changing, thanks in great part to a growing number of hugely successful and capable women that didn’t take no for an answer. The change is frustratingly slow though. I recently appeared in a newspaper list of top 100 UK entrepreneurs. I was one of just three women. There are, however an encouraging number of female entrepreneurs coming through and building some exciting businesses. These are the role models that young women should look to.
I would advise any entrepreneur to follow their peers on Twitter (my tweets are much better now), listen to them speak at conferences, and read anything they’ve written. Note what they did wrong, as much as what they do right and realise that any mistake wasn’t the end of it. In fact, it’s highly likely no one even noticed at the time.
What made them successful was they were prepared to get fully behind their brilliant idea.