Anything like that come to mind over the last decade? Well, I was thinking about this Ben, and actually, you know, the whole history of the company is about survival. You know, in a way I define success by not failing because the fact is that 9 out of 10 businesses do really struggle or fail. At least the ones I mean, that statistic comes from VC funded. So maybe they have a slightly, do this different definition of failure, but it's very hard to get a company, a business, off the ground and going, and so for many years YouCanBook.
So we were essentially living off of debt from our customers. But that bumpy ride was at least helped by the fact that we were growing very fast. So you've got this dual confidence of growth, but then also, you know, so you've got the expectation. You're going to keep getting more money, so you can borrow into that money and spend it. But there were definitely times where we, you know, we wouldn't be getting paid at all or delaying things, or just moving stuff around or borrowing stuff at the last minute from the bank.
And essentially that you're trying to get the plane off and, you know, that kind of getting the plane out of the jungle from the really dodgy airstrip.
And it's like, oh my God. In the early days, financially and strategically and business-wise, there were a lot of moments where we just didn't know whether it was going to go off the plate, off the runway and trying to, and making mistakes, spending money.
That was very painful. If it didn't play out the way you imagined versus some, you know, incredible, I say, good luck. But, you know, we got some incredible early employees who joined us, who really helped us and really believed in us for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
There was no reason for them to decide that me and Keith in this very office, you know, were worth backing and they've turned out to stay with us and have carried on investing and grown with us in the company. So, you know, you sort of, you go back over all of those early times when you're bootstrapping out of nothing, and you kind of, you look around for the resources that you've got.
And so we were very lucky with the people that joined us with the fact that we, you know, we took bank loans and private loans to get things going. But what it taught me was some of the early wins that we decided to go for are very boring. Nobody blogs about them, but they have really, you know, stayed with us. Like a really rock-solid accountancy and finance model, you know, just having online accountancy software. So Xero, now everybody thinks Xero is great, but we adopted Xero six years ago.
So Xero has always managed all of our accounts. And it just makes it Keith then integrated Stripe into Xero. So our early first version of subscription software was helped to manage by that. So automation and really solid systems allowed us to build more of a customer infrastructure, you know, sort of business infrastructure for customers without very, without having to hire an army of bookkeepers. So I think that our focus early on, on automation writing software to fix problems, instead of trying to spend the money, and really good HR systems and good recruitment systems.
This helped us get a very, very small company off the ground, even if our product was booming. So operationally, we got to set up quite a lot of foundations then. So always I was thinking about this question Ben, and about where are those times where it's all basically nail biting and you just didn't know if it was going to happen and how did you, whatever. And it's interesting, and Bridget's just spoken, not about some of our failures, but about some of our successes and how we got through.
And that I think has really, for me the answer to it, which is, yes, I can think of lots of examples of times when we made the wrong technical decision.
I mean, nearly deleted this file and that thing, and that we'll let that customer down. All these harsh, tricky lessons. And then there was that time and financial blah. But I think that part of the job of entrepreneurs is to live the dual reality. To know about all the risks, focus on them, worry about them, but at the same time continue to think that it's all going to be good.
Keith :. It's optimism. It definitely is. So I can look back at like, and try and find three examples where I thought we didn't make it. No, there were no examples. Cause every time it was really, really bad, you couldn't get through it if you thought, "oh, this is really hard.
But at the time it's like, I don't know exactly how this is going to work out, but we can do this. I mean, we're lucky with the kind of bootstrap, and the relationship we've had with our customers and that we've chipped away. We at certain times, squeaked through financially, on this. No, we didn't have the pressure of a lot of, you know, some breathing down our necks for figures and quarterly returns and so forth.
We were able to take our time and look at it in a slightly different way, but definitely that kind of, you know, we can do, we can basically do it. I think that's one of the-. We're very cocky basically, Ben is what we could say. We pretty much, going back to the earlier thing about saying how we like to solve problems. Another way of putting it is that we go into anybody else's organization and go, "yeah, we could probably do this.
And then if you ask us in the podcast later, about what problems we've had, we'll just talk about our successes all day. But now we, you know, now the problem is, is that there? Me and Keith got so used to them, we see each other do it.
We're like, I know you, I know what you're doing there. You can't do that. But like you mentioned, I mean, it's a tough, tough road and it's not necessarily paved in front of you. So it's like, you have to know where you're going and have faith in that. And have like that, that determination to get there. If you don't think about the problems, if you don't do the risk analysis, we talk about it in terms of risk analysis now from information services, blah, blah.
But if you don't think about the potential problems and how it can go wrong at any moment, then equivalently, the optimism has got to be balanced by that realism. Every single time you've got to have two ideas.
So yeah, he's right. You have to get used to the idea that you're going to do stuff that you don't quite know is going to work out. And there's a sort of an uncomfortable feeling there of, I might be wrong. And a lot of people avoid that by being very good at what they do. You know? So there, obviously, you don't want a brain surgeon to go into an operating theater and go, "oh, I might be wrong here. I'll just give it a go.
So the first risk, if you like, that we mitigate is that where we're doing online scheduling software, you know? So you have to get some perspective about the risk of what you're doing. But the second thing is that, you know, you need to be prepared to fail and if you fail, what would you do? So in the early days, you know, me, I had a full-time job. Me and Keith both did consultancy. And you think about, we're going to borrow 25, pounds from the bank. What happens if it fails?
If we screw this up. Well, I just have to pay that back. You know, that just gets paid back like a credit card bill over however many years. So you have to This makes me sound like some kind of, you know, happy clappy, advert for customer service, but it is true.
Is that the thing that, as Keith was saying, you just have to keep going is because you've got customers, who've just given you money. And that's a non-trivial contract to undertake. And they expect you to give them a service back. And that's an obligation as far as me and Keith. And that's the way we were brought up. We are obliged now to do a job for them. Now that is very different to companies who don't work for customers. They work for VCs, they work for VC returns. It's a different business model.
It's a perfectly legitimate one. I'm not criticizing it. And it might be the right one in many ways for some people's companies. But when you work for a company that's been set up essentially purely in order to grow it and flip it, you're working for a VC-defined business model. And it's their business plan that starts to dominate decisions, not your business plan. Whereas we've been very lucky that we've only had two obligations, one to our family and friends and our life for 20 years, our 30, 60, 90, and the other to our customers.
And so the business plan has been evolved around it. So sometimes, you know, as a business, quite a few years ago, how many times people would come to me and say, "oh, well, you don't really charge enough. And we're trying to build stuff for customers and our existing customers don't care whether we have a million customers or 10 customers, they want the product that works for them.
So our prioritization has always been around customers who are going to give us money and me and Keith's time. And that's, what's added up to an assessment. Is it, is the failure worth it? What would be the worst that could possibly happen? Would we back ourselves in a fight?
Essentially, I actually wouldn't back ourselves, in an actual fight but in a, whatever, whatever we would back ourselves in, would we-Ben :. In a boardroom maybe, but not in an actual street brawl. So I guess, you know, apart from like the nail-biting moments, as Keith mentioned, was there ever a moment where you're like, this is actually something? When was that time of, you know, all the failures that you stacked up and you're standing on those losses and you start with, you know, YouCanBook.
Was there a moment when you're like, this is going to be a thing, we can scale this? This is something that will grow. There were definitely landmarks along the way where, Bridget was speaking about the 11, the 12 months upgrades, and stuff.
So memories of the first of those coming in. It was never going to That, and just-. The other thing is that that invoice came in with provision dates starting today and a renewal date maybe in two years' time. So you're looking at something that says like, "oh my God, that's going to renew. We're still going to be around, they think we will still be here. They've just bought something from us. And I think, you know, you're right, Keith, early on selling two-year subscriptions just used to freak me out.
I don't know why they think we're going to be around for two years. This is a really, you know, really overly optimistic expectation.
But that's because you know, you're inside your own bubble and you're constantly seeing all the things that you need to fix. And you forget what it looks like on the outside. So in a way, it's on the outside people come back to you to say what you did is really good there and you go, "really?
Oh, that's great. Thank you. Because if you just think there's a line in the sand, like, "oh, this is great, we've done it. We've achieved it.
Because there isn't, there's always a moment where you realize that you haven't done exactly what you were intended to do and you have something else to do tomorrow. Or are you going to get more people or solve more problems or whatever? So it's a growing thing. I mean, this is what running a business is like. It's just every day is a day where you've got something else to do tomorrow. So as Keith was saying, it's great to have customer validation because that's the only message you're going to get that you - from a real person - who's really going to give you some money to say that what you're doing is working for them.
And other signals you'll get from them about particular ways in which there's plenty of feedback. Oh, we love you guys. It's a really great tool and everything else, but then, every now and then, you'll have, you'll learn one customer story, which will be specifically this change. This feature saved us that much time every week.
We've now, you know, that's brilliant and it's probably a disproportionate benefit to them for what we happen to be charging for. We ship a little feature. Those stories go deep into your psyche where it's like, okay, if we are solving something, that way things that we're unaware of, or some random Tuesday morning, somewhere in the Midwest, someone does not have a headache about a certain thing.
And like, okay, there's something significant happening here. It does feel good. It feels good. It's just like I said to the people who want to come and join YouCanBook. And I said you've just got to love helping customers. And just that feeling of helping somebody and knowing that you've made their day a bit better.
It's a humble feeling. People are doing it up and down the country. They're volunteering. In addition, Harris' album credits read like a who's who of the music industry including Michael Jackson, Mary J. Magazine says of Harris: "the hottest drummer in hip-hop..
He worked on Fergie's solo smash The Dutchess. Energy Never Dies. Blige — The Breakthrough. Drums, keys Christina Aguilera. Keyboards Macy Gray. Drums, organ, bass Earth, Wind and Fire. Drums Mary J. Ride and Fills Ricky Martin. May 12, Retrieved Machine". December 1, Retrieved December 1, ABC News. Retrieved March 16, March 2, Universal Music Publishing Group. Archived from the original on December 15, Retrieved November 30, March 16, Archived from the original on December 2, This page was last edited on 24 May , at UTC.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Buka menu navigasi. Tutup saran Cari Cari. Join Keith in a special all-access look into his journey in the music industry as drummer, music director, and producer. Working together to inspire the next generation of artists, leaders and innovators.
Feb 3, Keith Harris. Michael Jackson - Thriller James Brown. Britney Spears - Britney Jean. Madonna - MDNA. Fergie - Double Dutchess. Nicki Minaj - The Pinkprint.
0コメント