Can you hack building a start-up?

Part 2: Fiona in Oz & Rob in Denver talk Anti Ordinary's start-up journey

Going the start-up route is clearly no walk-in-the-park and not everyone has the temperament for it. And I’m reminded of a really interesting article on this by angel investor and mentor Martin Zwilling back in 2014, which is still good advice today. 

Martin provides a checklist of mentality attributes which he believes aspiring entrepreneurs should take a long hard look at before going the start-up route. In his view, not everyone is suited to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. 

OK Rob, let’s check out how you stack up against Martin’s list of key attributes and is there anything else you would add to his list?

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1.    Relish the role of leading the charge. 

Martin's comment that ‘Being a visionary or an idea person is not enough’ really hits the nail on the head.

The value of an idea is nearly zero; but what really makes things a reality is hard work and being tenacious enough to go and get it. It’s creating value where there was once nothing at all, and not everyone understands that way of thinking. It’s different to the way most people think, and you have to hold your nerve when people can’t fathom what you’re talking about. It can be unnerving; we have a reasonably polarising product in a lot of ways, so we tend to get the whole spectrum from support to hate.

We’ve had plenty of people getting vitriolic online about us and our product. The best of all of these interactions is a guy from the States offering us $USD1000 to let him kick us in the head to prove it could never work. You have to be willing to stay strong in the face of that, it’s impossible to avoid so you must be able to see the bigger picture of why it’s worth it.

2. Balance right-brain and left-brain activities.

I think Martin is right on the money with this point as well. Most of the being an entrepreneur is finding data points from anywhere you can get them. Being creative about finding them, and having the drive to go out and get information is a big skill. The left-brain work needs to be systematic and thorough, but it’s of no use if you can’t combine that with the right side of the brain. Gut instincts are great, but what separates the good entrepreneurs from the everyday is the ability to gather the appropriate inputs, then balance that with their instinct.

Luckily, Brodie and I form a killer team in this respect. Brodie is a through and through engineer; when he worked for one of the world’s largest engineering firms, his job was to be systematic and thorough on the data side and make decisions based on efficiency and reducing risk. While I have an engineering background, I’m an action sports guy, so my appetite for risk and creativity is different to his. And while we both can do left and right-side brain activities, each of us has our own distinct natural abilities for either side. This makes any conversations very well rounded and any arguments very well thought out - you’ve got to be pretty thorough to win around here!

By nature, our company is the mix of both. We’re deeply technical, making the best brain protection in the world. The engineering and science behind what we do is world class. However, while a backbone of any success we have, it won’t be the reason we win. It’s the way we’re able to bring the technology together in a package our customers care about, the way we’re able to use a non-traditional business model, and the options that gives us to do good, well beyond protecting brains. Our recycling programs, distribution, sponsorship and in-market participation are really what make our company great, and these things can’t be purely extrapolated from data because they’re all brand new, and don’t often make sense to the bean-counters.

3. Enjoy being outside your comfort zone.

I have a slightly different perspective to Martin on this one. I like to think of the comfort zone more as a muscle than a zone.

Like muscles, if you’re constantly outside of your safe operating zone, you’re going to fatigue too fast, fall apart, make bad decisions, or just simply not complete the task. Often if people lift a weight that’s too heavy, they’ll panic, struggle and lose form; and in start-ups you can’t afford to lose your form.

I think the great entrepreneurs don’t only think ‘how can we survive this’, but their mind turns to getting the absolute maximum out of the situation possible. Your comfort zone must include those times when it all hits the fan, because that’s when you need your focus and abilities the most; it’s where the real battles are won. Of course, there’s those ‘heart stopper’ moments, but if it’s only 10% out of your comfort zone, rather than 80%, you’re able to reach up for a short amount of time.

During a 45-minute race, motocross riders' heart rates rarely drop below 180 beats per minute. Not only are they just ‘hanging on’, but they’re charging hard, taking risks on top of an already extremely dangerous sport. It’s not just survival but squeezing the absolute maximum out of every opportunity to win. I think good entrepreneurs are the same.

The other benefit of having a broad comfort zone is that you don’t get fearful as easily. You get to see opportunities a bit clearer, as you don’t have to consider whether your comfort zone stretches far enough to get it done. A few months ago, we felt as though we hit a wall with fundraising in Australia, so the call was made to try to get an exemption to travel to the US to capital raise. I only knew one person in Denver, and two people on the entire continent but we still made the call to go. We were confident that even though it was a huge risk (particularly mid-pandemic), we could thrive in it. I even had to waive any consular assistance, any substantial travel insurance inclusions, and the ability to get home at any set point.

As founders everything is on us. Every bit of business risk is personal, and vice-versa. There’s no halfway point with this, so you have to get comfortable where other people simply aren’t able to operate.

4. Proactively seek input, but make your own decisions.

I would definitely agree with this point. Like I mentioned before, it’s an entrepreneur’s ability to source and obtain information, then make an informed decision that blends both left and right brain that will make them successful.

Early on, we made a very conscious effort to be humble in our approach. I had just turned 20, Brodie was 22. We’re pretty smart blokes, but smart enough to know we didn’t know anywhere near everything we needed. We spent the first year of the start-up going to 4-5 events every week, learning and meeting people. We still are lucky to be surrounded by some of the most incredible mentors and advisors from those early days.

Perhaps one of our greatest learning points was when we realised the breadth of advice we were starting to get given. As our mentors became broader, the advice we got was often conflicting. Early-stage start-up advice is pretty cut and dry, but as we started getting further into it, we realised our opinions were valid too; not just taking advice from more experienced people. We realised that our job was to take people’s perspective, understand where they got their perspective, apply it to our position then contrast it to our gut feeling.

Putting it through these filters allowed us to frame every bit of perspective we got and its relevance; from someone who has been there/done that, to an over-opinionated business degree student at a party. Each opinion was valid, just some were certainly more operable.

The humility became a handicap for a little while, where we took what everyone said as gospel. Now we know that the right call often doesn’t make a lot of sense to most people, but only we know our business like we do, nobody knows our customer like we do. We find the best advisors say: ‘here’s my perspective, and this is why I have it. Take that, apply it to what you think’. This way, you get to break it down, understand why, learn from why they think it, and apply it to our situation.

5.    Be willing and able to do a little bit of everything.

I think there’s 3 reasons why you have to try to do it all in the early days.

The first is purely necessity. You don’t have the resources to pay people to do things. So, you get to do everything. It really is a treat in the early days.

The second is that you need to learn it. For first-time founders in particular, there are a lot of agencies, freelancers and ‘experts’ that will promise you the world. They sound great, but unless you’re able to keep them honest by knowing exactly what they’re doing and how it works, they can easily run off with your (limited) cash. As mentioned before, Brodie and I spent the first couple of years going to every event, doing every program and chatting to everyone we could. From this, we learned the basics of marketing, social media ads, accounting, legals, supply chain, manufacturing and engineering. Will we ever be an expert lawyer, or accountant? No. But when we do pay someone to do the things that are beyond us, we know what they’re talking about.

Thirdly, you have to be able to explain what value there is to investors and partners. Saying ‘we’re doing social media ads’ to an experienced investor won’t fly. Knowing what strategies, what statistics you’ll expect, the outcomes and the effects this has on the rest of the business (for example, accounting) shows a level of competency and helps you in the ever-raging battle of trying to get smart people to give you their hard-earned money.

6.   Be a successful problem solver. 

If you're doing it right, you're going to be running into problems that nobody else has faced before.

Nobody has ever made a flexible helmet like ours before. So, no helmet company will have had to ponder: ‘If we add 3 mm of movement here how's it going to affect the rest of the unit and its certifications’?

You have to be technically curious in many ways and I’m of the firm belief that unless you have a genuine curiosity towards what you’re doing you won’t get the best outcome. Sure, there might be a solution, but are you curious enough to explore beyond the first working solution?

Brodie and I make a formidable R&D team. We’re very yin and yang. I get my head in the clouds with some crazy idea, then Brodie does this great job of bringing me down to earth and isolating what is genuinely useful. When Brodie is not being risky enough in my view, I pull him up to a more adventurous head state.

R&D and problem solving at large is better in a team, and best in a team built on openness and trust. We really rip into each other’s ideas, theories and statements, but it’s always towards a common goal of what’s best. There’s no ego, anger or snarkiness when we do it, regardless of how tense or urgent the problem is we’re solving. This is because we know that sometimes the ‘dumb’ ideas lead to no’s, and no’s are often more important than the yes. And then once we’ve got it sorted, we’ll go and grab a bite to eat and probably talk about it for a couple of more hours, sometimes with the notebooks being pulled out at the table when an even better idea comes along.

7. Don’t demand or expect immediate gratification.

Brodie and I have been building Anti Ordinary over the last 5 years and it has come at great personal and financial cost - but we’re in it for the long haul. Despite the times you feel as though you are just hitting your head against a brick wall there will be this one week where everything just falls into place and this helps you keep your eye on the long game.

But it’s important to acknowledge the harsh reality of the ‘burn’ and what has been called the ‘dark side’ of entrepreneurship – such as the mental burn of going at it for so long. Even the consistent lack of personal funds can really take a toll. That’s why we detest a lot of these ‘instagram entrepreneurs’, who only ever talk about the good stuff and brag about their lifestyles, because it’s really not like that. It’s my firm belief if you don’t love everything about what you do, or who you do it for, there’s no way you’ll be able to make it all the way. The cost is just too high.

For me what has been important in this journey has been action sports. Funnily enough, getting even riskier on a bike, motorbike or wakeboard is very relaxing. The focus required to stay out of the hospital forces you to clear your head of anything else, and I believe it pretty unique to action sports. This forced disengagement has been very important to me over the years.

8. My addition to Martin's list

We are often told how lucky we have been. And we have certainly been lucky in many ways. But my view is that you as an individual must create most of that luck – it’s not totally by chance – you must always be willing to always put yourself out there and take every opportunity, even when it doesn’t seem like one.

Sure, if your parents are rich or you have deep networks already, you may need to create less luck than we have to get the job done. For us, every person who has been of great help to us in the start-up/snow world is one that we met by creating our own luck and taking the risk. To this day, you’ll see us at nearly every opportunity, even if it has just a small chance of a payoff. Some of the best ‘luck’ we’ve had, is by showing up when even we didn’t think there was a point, but regardless we showed up and did our thing. For every successful entrepreneur, there’s probably millions of people who have the exact same amount of born ‘luck’, but they were the ones that went out, hit every one of Martin Zwilling’s points, and made more luck for themselves.

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Thanks for sharing Rob!

Part 1: Money$, Money$, Money$ Part 3: Putting together the right team for your dream