What Founders Don’t Tell You
Starting a business means you’re the boss — and you can work, and make money, the way you want to.
But it’s not easy, and while the rewards of running your own company might be huge, the level of responsibility (and stress) reflects that. Five founders share what it’s really been like building their own thing.
MURVAH IQBAL - HIVED
What’s the hardest part of the job? The biggest challenge is having to reinvent myself, month on month. HIVED has changed so much every year — in summer 2020 it was me on my bike delivering parcels, and now we’re a team with a head office of 100-plus people. What that has meant is I’ve had to grow as a leader quicker than the business is growing. This is my first time leading a company, and leading a company that’s growing this fast means you have to grow yourself a lot quicker and be extremely self reflective.
What’s a skill you rely on? Reading the room. Say I’m pitching to an investor — if I go with whatever my normal pitch is, I won’t get far. You have to unearth what they want to hear and deliver that. How are they entering the meeting? Are they late? Maybe they’re running back-to-back — so it’s not the best time to go into full pitch mode, because they’re not ready to listen. So I try to lean into my intuition as much as I can.
Hardest decision you’ve had to make? I’ve got better at it, but I remember the first few times I had to fire people. It’s hard and goes against my instincts. I consider myself a kind person, but I have to prioritise the needs of the business. So, if someone isn’t working out, we have to make the decision quite quickly.
VIGGO BLEGVAD - MONDO SANDO
What keeps you up late at night? I think the human brain can’t hold all the things you must remember when you’re running a business like this – in particular, with new launches and across a couple of sites. I get all of my best remembering done at about 1am. I wake up in a cold sweat and make a note on my phone, because if I text my chefs that early they’d all quit! Sometimes I need to get a message to a supplier urgently because they work overnight and I need something to be delivered first thing in the morning to prep. It’s an endless laundry list to be honest.
What surprising thing do you spend lots of time on? My partner, Jack, spends all his energy working out the rota for each week. The importance of taking the time to think about the individual personalities of staff, and how they work, has surprised us. It’s like fine tuning an engine.
What’s a skill you find yourself relying on? In my previous career, I produced films. The part of it I use here is being able to communicate to a wide range of people, and lead without being bossy and aggressive. People come from previous jobs with horror stories of macho kitchens, but we work hard to be positive. So to get everything done, which is a huge amount of work, it's best to be diplomatic, clear, friendly and positive.
“When you’re a day-one founder, you’re doing every job in the business”
HUGH THOMAS - GIANTS COFFEE AND CUDDLE SLEEP
Describe some of the hardest parts of your job... Showing up every day with positive energy. When you’re trying to put your vision into reality, you find yourself in the game of convincing people to join your journey every single day — that can be factories, designers, employees, investors. You have to have incredible self belief and you have to talk yourself into believing when you’re not having a good day. When you’re not feeling great or things are going wrong, you still have to show up and run a team meeting with full energy.
What takes up most of your time? There’s a list of problems on a daily basis that need to be solved. When you’re a day-one founder, you’re doing every job in the business. This morning I’ve been verifying bank accounts, paying tax bills, invoices, checking production forecasts — you name it. If the email comes in, and you’re the only employee, you’ve got to do it.
How do you manage stress? I have three things I need to do every day to feel in control. Firstly, sleep is incredibly important. Then it’s exercise. I like to work out first thing in the morning. I go to a CrossFit gym and see the same people, and we all suffer together. It’s a stress reliever. The third is writing a to-do list every morning. Every day I start with a blank piece of paper and I get everything out of my head and onto that paper. Then I rank the top five things and start with number one.
@giantscoffee, @cuddlesleephealth
JAMES GREENFIELD - KOTO
Describe what’s on your mind right now... The Roman army was organised in hundreds. I’m not always thinking about the Romans, to be clear, but we’re at 115 people in the company now and I can feel things starting to change around me. Communications and operations change, and that’s what I’m most fixated on. I’m constantly chopping bits off my role and giving them away, and in doing that, I’m like, ‘Okay, what do I do now then?’
You’re 10 years into this (congrats). How do you keep up the enthusiasm? Wherever possible, I keep each foot in different camps. One in today and what I’m trying to achieve, and the other in what this thing looks like in six or 12 months from now. If the day-to-day stuff is dragging me down, I go to the future stuff. Then when I’m feeling like the future stuff is a bit uncatchable, I find myself focussing back on the day-to-day. Existing in those two worlds keeps things interesting for me.
“I can feel things changing around me”
Be honest: how often do you work past 6pm? A couple of days a week. I pick up stuff I didn’t get done the week before on a Monday evening, which is clear-the-decks time. I’ve never worked weekends. Now and again I have picked something up on a Sunday, but only when it has been critical. I think it’s mad working weekends. They’re for downtime.
What do people underestimate most when starting their own business? The sheer amount of non-mission-critical stuff you have to do. Someone’s got to sort the recycling, keep paper in the photocopier stocked up, stay on top of insurance. The practical realities overtake sometimes.
ANNABEL BARTFIELD - ANNABEL B
What’s an unexpected skill you rely on? There’s no end to my patience when I’m working on my jewellery. For example, when I’m making chains and listening to music, I go into an almost trance-like state, where I have extreme patience. I love and enjoy making every link. I’m not necessarily as patient in other areas of my life.
What do you end up spending the most time on? The more I know about my customers, the better for the final product. I like to know as much as I can about the person who’s going to wear my jewellery. It’s very time-consuming but I consider it an important part of the process.
Which parts of your job are the most challenging? I love the creative process, the designing and making of the jewellery. On the other hand, I never realised how many other parts would make up the business, such as photography, social media and website management, pricing and measuring. I find the technical side of the business hard, and I get frustrated when these jobs take me away from my workbench for too long.
DOS & DON'TS
Keep it real
Ed McIlroy is co-founder of Four Legs, which started in 2019 and has gone on to open The Plimsoll pub and the fish restaurant Tollington’s. Here's his dos and don'ts for running your own business.
DO: Start small
“I found out about MVPs — minimum viable products — which is normally used when people are talking about tech, but I
use it in my restaurant spaces as well. As soon as something’s ready to go, get it out there and test it. If your business is going to eventually have its own physical site, I would test it in someone else’s space before you start signing leases and all the big scary things. Test it in a space where you’re not responsible for rent, rates, utilities. Pop-ups are great, even if it’s just
for a month.”
DON'T: Neglect the paperwork
“If you start a business with multiple shareholders, have shareholder agreements from the start to protect yourself in case relationships fall apart. And all your record keeping, too. You’re probably not thinking about it because it’s the really unsexy part of the business.”
DON'T: Forget your network
“Spend time building a network of professionals you can reach out to. I’ve got a really good network of HR professionals, legals, and accountants – I can ring any of them up when I have a question.”