Startup Daily
  • News
  • Topic
    • Accelerator
    • Ag Tech
    • ASX
    • Business
    • Climate Tech
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Cyber security
    • Data
    • Fintech
    • Events
    • Funding
    • Global tech
    • Other tech
    • People
    • Politics
    • Quantum Computing
    • Social Media
    • Space
    • Venture Capital
    • Women in Tech
  • Advice
    • Business strategy
    • Diversity
    • Future of work
    • Investing
    • Leadership
    • Opinion
    • People
    • Pitching
    • Women in tech
    • Workplace
  • After Hours
    • Beauty and fashion
    • Food and drink
    • Gadgets
    • Gaming
    • Life hacks
    • Luxury
    • Motoring
    • Property
    • Toys
    • Travel
  • Featured
    • Building a Global Business with a Global Team
    • Startup 360
    • Newsletter Subscribe
  • Contact
Startup Daily ‘Don’t spend dumb money’: 5 startup founders share the mistakes that shaped them
MENUMENU
  • News
  • Topics
    • Accelerator
    • AI
    • ASX
    • Business
    • Climate Tech
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Cyber security
    • Data
    • Fintech
    • Funding
    • Global tech
    • Other tech
    • People
    • Politics
    • Space
    • Ag tech
    • Events
    • Quantum Computing
    • Social Media
    • Venture Capital
    • Women in Tech
  • Advice
    • Business strategy
    • Diversity
    • Future of work
    • Investing
    • Leadership
    • Opinion
    • People
    • Pitching
    • Women in tech
    • Workplace
  • After Hours
    • Beauty and fashion
    • Food and drink
    • Gadgets
    • Gaming
    • Luxury
    • Motoring
    • Property
    • Toys
    • Life hacks
    • Travel
  • Featured
    • Featured
      • Building a Global Business With A Global Team

        Global thinking for smart founders: Find out how to build a team that scales with you. Don't miss this free masterclass on Thursday May 29, brought to you by Startup Daily and Remote. REGISTER NOW.

      • Startup 360

        Join the fun each Friday as hosts Simon Thomsen and Kayla Medica dissect the news of the week in ANZ startups, and chat to two guests to explore what makes them tick. SUBSCRIBE NOW.

      • To AI and Beyond: The Fastest and Biggest Gains for Startups Right Now

        If you’re a founder trying to navigate the AI wave and identify your growth potential, don’t miss Startup Daily’s latest free webinar, supported by Vanta.

  • Contact
Small Business & Finance Network
Advertise

Latest » Topic » People » ‘Don’t spend dumb money’: 5 startup founders share the mistakes that shaped them

Partner Content

‘Don’t spend dumb money’: 5 startup founders share the mistakes that shaped them

Sally Webb - November 3, 2021 4 MIN READ
startup founders

In partnership with

Every startup founder has heard the advice “fail fast”. But what do you do next and how do you learn from those mistakes?

The startup journey can be like a rollercoaster ride: soaring highs when things go right, deep lows when they don’t. The concept of “flearning” – failing, but learning from those mistakes – holds an important place in the startup lifecycle, and can often be what makes the business fly.

We asked a variety of founders to share some of the most important lessons they’ve learned while “flearning”, and how those stuff-ups ended up transforming their businesses.

“We realised we were going to get smashed”

Bruce Wren from 1WordFlow.

Bruce Wren from 1WordFlow.

Bruce Wren is co-founder and CEO of regtech startup 1WordFlow, which specialises in virtual information management.

His vision was to digitise Word documents at scale, making them available online to anyone on any device, and to thereby democratise the publishing process.

Initially, 1WordFlow implemented its tech for Microsoft Sharepoint clients on premises. That was a big mistake, he tells Startup Daily.

“We won a couple of big deals, but every implementation had to be customised for each client’s individual environment – which would take forever and be cost prohibitive. We realised we were going to get smashed,” says Wren.

He estimates that after ploughing around $2.5m into the IP, they wasted around a fifth of it.

Inspired by streaming platforms for music and movies, Wren says his “A-ha!” moment came when they realised they were already working with Microsoft, and its Azure cloud technology could help them.

“We effectively rebuilt the product for the cloud. We could convert a 100-page document into a 100-page website in minutes,” Wren shares. “Flexibility was off the scale and it cost almost nothing to do it”.

The ‘right people’ test

Ian Yip from Avertro. Image: Supplied.

Ian Yip from Avertro. Image: Supplied.

A recurring piece of advice from a variety of founders is that businesses need to surround themselves with people who’ll make an impact. Many admit making mistakes in this area.

Ian Yip, CEO of cybersecurity startup Avertro said one of his early mistakes was not being selective enough with advisors, investors and employees.

“A lot of time was wasted on people who would ultimately never do what they said they would,” he said.

Yip says that there are many people who like the idea of being associated with startups but don’t actually add any value.

“A good test is to ask the person in question to do a very small thing to help you,” he suggests.

“If they can’t even do that, there’s no way they will ever be useful to your business. We’ve since adapted from saying ‘yes’ to all forms of assistance to being much more selective surrounding ourselves with impactful people who can help us get to the next level.”

Don’t spend ‘dumb money’

Emily Rich, Startups APAC Microsoft. Image: Supplied.

Emily Rich, Startups APAC Microsoft. Image: Supplied.

Emily Rich is Director of Startups APAC at Microsoft, a director of venture capital fund M8 Ventures and a former founder.

She says one of her startup stuff-ups was taking ‘dumb money’.

“I took capital for my business from people who didn’t have the experience in startups like venture capitalists, prominent angel investors or syndicates do,” Emily says.

“With ‘dumb money’ you don’t get that additional experience and assistance and it can often be a hindrance for scaling.”

Know your radar for risk

Nigel Fellowes-Freeman Kanopi

Nigel Fellowes-Freeman from Kanopi. Image: Supplied.

Even when you hire well, and secure the right investment, external circumstances can disrupt your business.

Nigel Fellowes-Freeman is founder and CEO of insuretech Kanopi.

Launched in Melbourne in 2019, with global aspirations, the startup hired several key staff who were foreign nationals. When COVID-19 hit and Australia’s borders closed, several of them had to leave the country and couldn’t return.

“The battle for talent is very real,” Nigel says. “Our mistake was that we probably took too much advantage of international staff. It’s great from a cultural perspective and for ideas, but it exposed us to risk when visa conditions changed.”

As Kanopi moves towards entering the US market, Nigel says they’ll learn from their early mistakes, and hire core personnel with as little exposure to external influences as possible, so they can focus on growing the company.

They’ll also diversify their risk in partners, suppliers and customers.

“As an entrepreneur, sometimes you have to take calculated risk and believe things will work,” he says. “Early in our company life we put a lot of faith into a couple of key partners. We learned that when you’re working with large corporations their priorities can change quickly. Single dependencies of work or revenue expose you heavily, especially if you don’t have control of them.”

Keep your eye on the original ball

Tim Duggan from Junkee Media

Tim Duggan from Junkee Media. Image: Supplied.

Moving into new markets can play havoc with a growing startup Tim Duggan, co-founder of Junkee Media, admits.

“One of the biggest mistakes we made was trying to launch into another country, without realising the resources and energy you need to tackle a bigger market,” Tim shares.

“We ended up splitting our focus too much, took our eye off the ball in Australia and almost came unstuck. Bigger is not always better in business.”

Stuff-ups that redefine the business

For Bruce Wren, his original mistake redefined the business.

And he’s delighted that 1WordFlow technology is now not only assisting large corporations but has also, recently, had a very tangible positive effect during the COVID pandemic in sectors that really need help.

Recently, 1WordFlow was asked to assist a client in the aged care sector, which was struggling to communicate new COVID protocols and procedures effectively to staff, patients and their families.

“In a matter of days we spun up a site in Azure, transformed their existing guidelines and process documents into accessible web pages,” he said.

Using existing Azure AI technology the pages were instantly translatable into multiple, relevant languages.

Without Wren’s early mistake, this solution might never have been possible.

For more advice and stories from the startup coalface, download Microsoft Australia’s free Founder Essentials – Lessons on Launch, Market, and Scale eBook here.

Previous article Byron Bay VC ReGen Ventures raises $67 million to back tech startups that help heal the planet
Next article Senator Andrew Bragg: ‘We’ll see reform within 12 months’ on cryptocurrencies
Via Partner Content
Tags microsoftMicrosoft AzureNewsstartup foundersstartup mindset
Sally Webb

Sally Webb is an award-winning journalist and has authored nine Lonely Planet travel guides, including six on Italy and Rome. She's been a magazine editor and is a former Food Publisher at Murdoch Books.
She wrote the practical parenting book Travel Without Tears: 645 ways for families to take on the world.

Share This
  • COMMENTS

Trending

  • StrongRoom AI’s administrators recommend liquidation under Business, Venture Capital
  • Disappointment as Gilmour Space postpones first ever mission to put Australian-made rocket into orbit under Other
  • Earth AI finds rare critical mineral in rural NSW under AI/Machine Learning
  • Bovotica CEO Dr Andrew Leech and founders Professor Gene Tyson and Professor Phil Pope. Source: supplied Bovotica raises $3.4m to stop cow burps from killing the climate under Funding
SUBSCRIBE TO StartupDaily

Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.

  • We'll sometimes send messages from our partners. You can opt-out anytime.

Latest News

AI/Machine Learning Deepfake porn and more: Could climate change policy keep AI in check?
The Conversation - May 20, 2025
Uniseed CEO Peter Devine and University of Newcastle's Warwick Dawson Funding Uniseed adds another $25m from UniSuper to commercialise academic research
Startup Daily - May 20, 2025
Funding EatClub secures $18.2M Series A to fuel UK expansion
Startup Daily - May 19, 2025
AI/Machine Learning Law tech duo wants to help the 52,000 women being turned away from legal services every year
Startup Daily - May 19, 2025
AI/Machine Learning Scientists say tech is not causing ‘digital dementia’ in older people
Nikki-Anne Wilson - May 19, 2025
Marc Lyons, Briony Cole, Annika Ojala Other tech Melbourne event breaks taboo, shining spotlight on sextech innovation
Startup Daily - May 19, 2025
Other UTS Startups moves to Tech Central with desk discounts for staff and students
Startup Daily - May 16, 2025
Gaming REVIEW: Clueless fascists hamper Indiana Jones: The Great Circle’s potential
Harrison Polites - May 16, 2025

Copyright 2025 Pinstripe Media - Digital Publishing and Video Production Agency Sydney ABOUT US / CONTACT | ADVERTISE