Another GA event in London: London Founder Exchange 2

Hot on the heels of last week's General Assembly event looking at start-up culture and techniques, Sarah and I popped into another GA event yesterday evening. Held at Dreamstake's excellent space in Clerkenwell, and again chaired by the highly energetic and ferociously smart Rob Fitzpatrick, London Founder Exchange 2 featured six brief presentations from founders of UK start-ups, a bit of a Q&A and a lot of networking over wine and beer. The talkers included Ed Cooke of Memrise, Will Orr-Ewing of Keystone Tutors, Roly Allen of Lyceum Partners, Alex O'Byrne of We Make Websites, Rob Welch of Small Car Big City and Fletcher Bowley of FoodieKiwi.

The business sectors discussed were highly diverse, from language learning to minicab hire, but I was struck by two overarching observations. Firstly, every speaker was highly articulate - and funny. I realise this shouldn't come as a surprise, but I think this is a relatively new thing for Brits. I've spent over two decades at conferences generally marvelling at what great communicators Americans are and slightly disappointed at my compatriots. I think the new generation of British entrepreneurs has definitely turned that around. And alongside that what really got to me was everyone's infectious enthusiasm and pretty boundless optimism, even when talking about serial failures on the way to eventual success.

I took some pretty rough notes during the evening, and thought I might share some choice quotes from the session. So, in no particular order, and strictly unattributed (and in at at least one case, a little at odds with each other):

"going from one failure to the next with the same level of enthusiasm"

"the only metric is retention"

"have a simple story"

"marketing is everything"

"tolerate mistakes"

"don't just work: go for a run, learn a language and play the guitar more" (That was my favourite, of course, and rather reflects my current obsession with Timothy Ferriss' 4 Hour Work Week.) 

"deep down people prefer to do things they're not paid for"

"what's the most fun you can have without having a proper job?"

"the camaraderie of a partner is seductive"

"you have a huge network at your disposal"

"don't listen to someone who says it can't be done"

"your business plan will change the minute you go into business"

"making peace with your business model"

"opening an office in Paris, by the way, is impossible"

"the most important thing about business is being honest with yourself"

"prove it works in your domestic markets"

Comments

[Fahad Sheikh]

Wow - Only just came across the 4-hour work week through your blog post. Will check it out. Does it really work? Has it worked for you?