What better way to learn about how to grow your start-up than by speaking with successful entrepreneurs who have already climbed the mountain standing in front of you? That’s exactly what we did this week; on Monday, we enjoyed an intimate dinner at the spectacular Lima Floral with speaker Andrew Humphries and guests. Andrew is no stranger to the start-up process, and conversation carried on well into the night. We also had the pleasure of chatting to Ross Williams, CEO of Venntro media group, and hearing his tips on building your business on your own without the support of investors.

Start-up journeys with The Bakery’s co-founder
Andrew Humphries is co-founder of The Bakery, the world’s first dedicated accelerator for the advertising and marketing industry. Previously, he co-founded two successful technology businesses raising over $42m in venture funding. For Andrew, the key to a successful start-up is learning about what drives you.

Every single company started from one step.

One of the key questions that was asked this evening was about how to know when you’re actually going somewhere with your business? When does the switch come?

The switch will happen somewhere on that journey. You have to be completely committed to your vision, otherwise it won’t happen. Get the vision right, and everything else will drop into place.

For Andrew, the life of a start-up is a journey! Who knows what will be the next big thing?

There is uncertainty. There is no magic formula. It just goes where it goes.

Building a successful business without funding
Over at Aubaine on Wednesday night, we were joined by our speaker and proud sponsor, Ross, from Venntro. At dinner, Ross spoke about his background and how he grew his business into an empire. In the the mid 2000s, Ross found himself single. At the time, he himself was using online dating, and he saw an opportunity to launch his business, White Label Singles. Between 2003 and 2007, he grew the business, and at that time, Ross didn’t really know about VCs or angel investors. So this is how he did it:

Without any external funding, my agency, Raw Net, built the business. My partner put in £30k by re-mortgaging his house. However, we got into debt. We signed up for six credit cards each (e.g Egg, Mint, Goldfish etc) – something you just can’t do now! It was a slow process; it took us four years to go from 0 to £3m annualised revenue

In 2007, Ross dropped his other business, Raw Net, and decided to focus on Venntro. Ross explained during his talk how he believes that if you have two businesses on the go, then ultimately, you have to choose one.

You have to commit totally. You cannot be hedging your bets! It’s all or nothing.

One of Ross’s tips for start-up founders is to make yourself redundant; find better people for different roles at the business. Ross sees himself as an entrepreneur who is a shareholder first and foremost.

Focus on the execution. Execution is everything. Likelihood is, someone else has got your idea, so make your execution slicker.

For more of Ross’ tips on how to grow a business, check out his post here.

Our speakers were joined by: Taylor Wessing, Mangostorm Media, PressUp, Texuna Technology, The Food Rush, Tagme, Experience Travel Group, The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, SilkFred, Story Terrace, TKG Group, PixelPin, Global Personals, Mind Agilis, SwapForex, Sentenial, Carspring, Moorhouse, Lifeshifter and Fast Growth Forum amongst others.

Special thanks to Andrew and Ross, our speakers, as well as our partner, Venntro.