Lessons learned from some of Scotland’s leading and most inspiring entrepreneurs
NOT only is Phin Mpofu the founder of a pre-revenue-stage start-up which looks set to revolutionise the property market, but the Zimbabwean-born entrepreneur, together with co-chapter director Lisa Thomson, is responsible for launching the Edinburgh and Glasgow chapters of Startup Grind and bringing the unique networking and community concept to Scotland all the way from Silicon Valley.
Here, he tells The Business Journal what’s so special about the monthly ‘Grind’ and how he’s found that fellow entrepreneurs are a helpful bunch when it comes to paving the way.
Q: What is Startup Grind?
A: Startup Grind is a global start-up community designed to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs, which was founded by entrepreneur Derek Andersen in 2010. It started out in Silicon Valley and has since expanded globally. There are currently 136 chapters worldwide.
I discovered it by accident thanks to good, old Google. In December 2013, I was reviewing my goals for the year and planning where I wanted to be in 2014. I was way behind many of my entrepreneurial goals. Honestly, I was struggling. I love auto-biographies and stories of successful individuals, so when I stumbled across Startup Grind I knew it was just the solution I was looking for. Interviewing successful entrepreneurs, who were further along in the journey than I was, every single month made perfect sense.
Startup Grind is for anyone who’s currently working for a company and thinking about making that leap and starting their own, as well as start-ups, whether early stage or high-growth. Although based at Codebase, it’s ideal for businesses across all sectors and not just technology start-ups. We quickly learned from our guests that not all businesses want to be the next Facebook or Uber so we make sure we offer a good variety of guest speakers.
We launched the Edinburgh chapter in February 2014 and expanded into Glasgow in September.The community is between 30 and 50 members strong at each event and our goal is to grow this figure to 100 community members over the next 12 months.
It’s an amazing business community to tap into. Starting and growing a business is not easy. If you can surround yourself with like-minded individuals, you are among people who understand what famed entrepreneur and Investor Ben Horowitz wrote about in a blog entitled ‘The Struggle’.
Q: How did you first start out in business?
A: I moved to London from Zimbabwe in 2000 to study Information Systems and, once I had my HND, started working as an estate agent. I worked my way up through the ranks and ended up working out of Canary Wharf at Franklyn James. It was a good time to be in property – a real boom time. I left in July 2007 to focus on property investment but the industry took a hammering when the likes of Northern Rock had a run on their bank in 2007 and Lehman Brothers collapsed the following year. Financially, our lifestyle in London was no longer feasible so it was time for a move. My wife is from Fife so we moved to Kirkcaldy in 2008 and have never looked back. It’s a much better way of life for our 3 children. To survive, I did a bit of property consultancy during that period but, in 2012, came up with the HOMESPLACE concept, which is what I’m working on at the moment. It is a free online app, which brings property owners and buyers together directly and cuts out estate agents as the middle man.
Q: How have you managed to fund HOMESPLACE given that you haven’t received any investment?
A: I’ve had to teach myself how to code for a start. But that’s what entrepreneurs do – they teach themselves the skills they need to progress their ideas.
It’s been a struggle to stay afloat and we’ve certainly had to cut back on luxuries at home. We haven’t had a family holiday for the last five or six years, for example. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from other entrepreneurs, it’s that you have to make a sacrifice to be successful in the end. Being an entrepreneur is as much about the psychology as it is the idea. Through hosting the monthly Startup Grind events I’ve had the opportunity to learn first-hand from the likes of Gareth Williams (Skyscanner), Michael Welch (Blackcircles.com), Gavin Littlejohn (Money Dashboard) and online ‘dragon’ Shaf Rasul, who have all been guest speakers at Startup Grind, that if you can avoid capital investment early on, you will be in a much better position and more attractive to investors at a later stage. By waiting, you can take on investment on your own terms and ultimately benefit in the long run. You need to have a clear vision, safe in the knowledge that two or three years of struggling will mean a highly successful business in the future.
I’m now about four to six weeks away from launching a BETA version of the web app to market and may consider a crowd-funding campaign in the new year. Once fully functional the HOMESPLACE app will take the user on a complete property journey; everything from sourcing the latest mortgage rates tracked in real-time, to finding the right property – even if it is not officially on the market, progressing the legals to helping you move home.
Q: How does the Edinburgh business community compare to that of London?
A: Obviously the size of the market and the availability of capital differ greatly. There is, of course, more investment capital to be had in London. Edinburgh is a wealthy city. It is the second largest financial centre in the United Kingdom after London, but capital is not free flowing. Investors are wary and not many. Understandably they are keen to de-risk opportunities and in a smaller market there is more competition. However, one of the greatest assets Edinburgh and certainly Scotland has as a whole is my philosophy of three degrees of separation rather than six, but you have to put yourself out there. In earnest, my recommendation wherever you are would be to bootstrap for as long as you can and you will be glad to retain those extra percentage equity points.
Q: How do you find networking in Fife?
A: I haven’t done as much networking in Fife as I’d like to do but I’ve been lucky enough to get chatting to the likes of Kallum Russell of Acorn Enterprise and really applaud what he’s doing. Much like London, there’s plenty of business support in the city, but not in more rural locations such as Fife. Kallum spotted that gap and launched a business accelerator to help address that deficit. I really hope I can work with people like Kallum to help further put Fife start-ups and business as a whole on the map again. Fife has produced notable individuals such as famed economist Adam Smith from Kirkcaldy and industrialist Andrew Carnegie born in Dunfermline.
Q: What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?
A: My advice – second only to having a good idea – is to find a mentor and find one fast. Choose someone who’s further along in their enterprise journey than you are and knows what it’s like. You don’t even need to formalise the relationship; just go for a coffee regularly and chat. I’m lucky enough to have several formal and informal mentors and know I could pick up the phone to them any time. I’m very, very fortunate in that respect.
Q: Who inspires you in business?
A: There are so many people who inspire me in business and that’s partly why I brought Startup Grind to Scotland. Entrepreneurs are very giving; they understand that the journey is very difficult so if they can give something back, they will. Every entrepreneur has little nuggets of advice you can take away and apply to your start-up or growth business – from Duncan Bannatyne and Michelle Mone to Tom Hunter and Jim McColl, there is always something that you can learn. However, you can never be a carbon copy of anyone, learn from them and do you.