DOING PR FOR FOUNDERS OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING STARTUPS
Have you ever looked at the founders of multi-million-dollar companies and thought, “how did they get there?” Having worked with high-growth startups for over two decades, our Founder Rebecca Oatley has had the privilege of consulting incredibly successful entrepreneurs on their PR and communications. To celebrate our 20th birthday, Rebecca shared her observations of successful founders with Reader’s Digest.
So, what lessons can we learn from renowned startups?
You’re probably not the first
If you have a great idea, then you’re probably not the first to have it, and believe it or not, that’s okay. There is plenty of room for a few competitors and the more positive awareness that is generated in the market, the easier it is for your product or service to take hold.
Great founders are open and share, collaborate and create, build alliances with similar or complementary businesses. They know that they can get to their destination faster if they grow the market together, but they invest in their own brand and build awareness for their own products so that they can realise the opportunity.
Keep changing and evolving
Life rarely stays the same, just look at the last few years of trading conditions with a pandemic, Brexit, rocketing interest rates and now the presence of war.
Like life, changing business conditions are simply “business as usual”. Downturns are valuable because they focus you on what matters; hardship drives reinvention. If you are struggling at the moment, double down on what you’re best at and what’s most profitable, do it well and make it known. Think of ways to reintroduce it to the market, maybe future fit it ready for the upturn.
A word of warning. Businesses are for customers not for founders
We love a charismatic founder. They have the vision, and their eternal energy drives the business forward. They can be fabulously stimulating and furiously frustrating. However, some founders have taken their passion a step too far. They override their advisors. They steamroller an initiative and exert pressure on those around them simply because they’re the boss. The business quickly becomes poisonous, the best people leave and the opportunity to succeed diminishes.
The smartest founders ask for advice help and guidance from experts and they listen to it. They consider their decision making in the context of this advice. Fortunately, there are many founders like this too!
Remember, many really successful founders exit well before they add multiple zeros to their company value, and they look back on the journey they took as much as their eventual exit. That’s why at Cherish we work hard but make our relationships with our clients productive and fun. It’s important to make working with great partners enjoyable and inspiring, and always remember the good times alongside the challenges.
You can read Rebecca’s other lessons in her Reader’s Digest article here.