Inspiring ideas for Start-ups

As you’ve probably guessed by now, a couple of our team are in Dublin for the Web Summit 2013 – the world’s largest Internet conference with more than 10,000 attendees.In case you’re wondering why we’re here, it’s actually very simple:

– We’re a start-up

– We’ve launched a great SaaS (Software as a Service) solution for absence and attendance management at www.absencehub.com

We have sat in on various speeches on topics ranging from how to build attention for start-ups, the importance of branding for start-ups, the value of social customer care and loads of others, but what we’d really like to share with you was a session with Michael Acton Smith (Twitter profile) from Mind Candy, and developer of Moshi Monsters.

Michael shared his “10 Tips for Creating Killer Start-Ups” with us and it really resonated with us as we strongly believe in these principles and this is how we are growing Honeydew Health into a successful company and moving it from a start-up to a fast-growing company ripe for further investment or readying it for sale.

Without further ado, here are Michael’s tips:

Make beautiful mistakes – In other words fail fast, fail often and learn. There is no point in trying to keep on slaving away on a product (or a company) if you cannot get traction for it. You need to know when to quit – and when to continue.
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing” – Keep your focus! Don’t get distracted by new ideas or go off on a tangent. Make sure you deliver on what you are working on before moving on to the next idea.
What’s your story? – Many companies are in love with graphs, numbers, and data in general. What most customers, journalists and prospective employees are interested in is the “human side” of your company. Tell your story and people will listen – badger them with numbers and they will switch off.
Dream big! – As Walt Disney said: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Say “Yes” to parties – No, we don’t mean stocking up a bar cabinet in the office or coming into work the next day wearing the dinner jacket from the night before, but as anybody who’s ever worked the long hours of a start-up will know that it’s important to get out and meet people for inspiration and more. Strike up conversations – and make them matter. Don’t ask what people do, but get to know them and then perhaps ask why they do what they do. This way you’re actively building relationships and this can lead to finding new customers, new talent and new opportunities.
Work hard and be nice to people – building a business is not about the products, concepts or services. It’s about the people! Make sure you build good relations with all of your stakeholders and not only will you thrive – you’ll also have more fun in doing it!
“Stay hungry, stay foolish” as Steve Jobs said in his Stanford commencement speech in 2005. This is perhaps the most important thing to remember as a start-up. The moment you lose your hunger and are no longer looking at ways to disrupt your industry, and your own business practices, you will be ripe for the picking by younger, more agile and hungrier competitors. That’s why Honeydew Health continues to innovate and improve on its technology and services, although they’re already best in class.
Trust your instincts – one part of the human mind we still don’t understand, but where cognitive sciences and research tells us that for whatever unexplained reason there is something as instinct to be trusted. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t…
Keep it simple – Do one thing and do it well. Bells and whistles are just that, but if your core product or service doesn’t deliver what your customers want you have nothing.
Ask for forgiveness, not permission – be audacious and brave, be cheeky. If somebody tells you “that is not the way it’s done” it’s likely that they are just too scared to do it – and too constrained in their thinking. When Yo! Sushi was started, Simon Woodroffe sent a letter to all of the leading brands in Japan asking for their support for his venture and stated that if he did not hear back from them before a certain date he would therefore assume he had their support and could use them in his marketing materials – and he did!

If you would like to find out more about how you could be part of a disruptive company, which is seeking to revolutionise how companies increase productivity by delivering absence and attendance management solutions, you can drop us a line at hello@honeydew-health.com.

If you’re a fast-growing start-up, we’ve also got the right absence and attendance management solution for you. Just visit www.absencehub.com and sign up for a FREE TRIAL now.