#3 Lessons-learned from a Travis founder and CEO - 2018

Recently I sold my shares in Travis, the original creator of the pocket translator. In a previous article, I explained why I did this and what I’m planning to do next: launching a new platform for personal growth & professional impact. Due to the current crisis, I’m also giving away free coaching to entrepreneurs, young professionals, and students. To book a clarity call or to find out more about me check LennartvanderZiel.com. My previous two articles were Part 1 and Part 2 of my lessons from Travis in 2017. With these "lessons learned" articles, I hope to provide value for others as well.

How I handled a lot of personal and professional setbacks at the same time

In January 2017, my co-founders Nick, Brend and I founded Travis. In that first year, we sold more than 50,000 pocket translators to over 100 countries. We also initiated the Travis Foundation in 2017 to digitize lesser-resourced languages and donated a substantial amount to it. In 2018 we kept selling and shipping large numbers, until the tide turned for us in August 2018. The market introduction of the Travis Touch – our translator 2.0 – disappointed and our main distributor suddenly started selling a "very similar" device and stopped purchasing ours. Our own direct-to-customer webshop wasn't ready yet and with barely any sales we were quickly heading for financial problems.

Travis, Travis Foundation and TPG team members, summer 2018

Personally I had some issues as well. In my previous "lessons learned" articles I shared that I had pushed myself way too hard in 2016 and 2017. From mid-2017 I felt overworked but I kept going. I didn't want all our initial success and momentum to be for nothing. In January 2018, right before I would join our team to exhibit at CES Las Vegas, I had to throw in the towel. I was totally overworked and – probably – burnt out. I told my co-founders that I would take at least a few weeks off to recover. But I soon found out that I needed several months to get back on my feet. I had an anxiety that didn't go away, a very low energy level and I slept very badly. Back in December 2017, my co-founder Brend had already taken over the CEO-role and would be responsible to scale Travis to the next level. Through regular chats with him during my absence, I stayed informed about the company's progress and I could share my personal progress.

It was very tough to be suddenly cut off from the team and the company's "journey". I had to completely reinvent myself and my work-life balance. And being OK with giving away control of the company's direction and how and when I would recover. I read books, made several trips, started to exercise and meditate more, and had many coaching sessions. In April I came to realize that getting partly involved again would speed up my recovery. After I lot of reflecting, I decided that upon my return I would like to take on the role of CEO of the emerging The Product Garage (TPG) – our hardware incubator from which Travis originated. In this way, I could build a new team that focused on crowdfunding campaigns for a variety of meaningful products.

Dutch border patrol started using Travis pocket translators

In May 2018 I returned and I started working only mornings. Together with TPG's general manager Marijn, I forged a team. Our first crowdfunding would be a familiar one: we would run the campaign for the Travis Touch, the 2.0 version. Long story short: the first day of the crowdfunding in August blew everybody away, but after that first day we couldn't keep momentum. We poured everything we had in it, but it didn't work. Travis' first crowdfunding in 2017 had been very lean, but this one wasn't. The result was for Travis that its brand new product wouldn't have the worldwide attention needed for attracting new distributors and for TPG that it hardly made any money against quite some costs. Whilst this campaign should have given TPG a comfortable runway for the upcoming months. Another blow in August for Travis was the cut-off by its main distributor. They secretly had made an equivalent of our pocket translator and subsequently launched a massive marketing campaign.

Personally, the idea for me was to keep working half days and refrain from too much stress in my first months back on track. That plan failed miserably. When shit hits the fan – in this case, both in Travis and in TPG – then it's all hands on deck for all founders. Early September, things looked so bad for TPG, that we concluded that the only way to proceed was to share the risk of moving on with so little funds with more key team members as shareholders. We started talks about a new "constellation". Sadly, I felt worse and overworked again. I had expected to come back in calm waters, but it turned out to be stormy weather. I had to take a few weeks off.

Both the Travis and TPG team members minutes before the successful launch of the crowdfunding campaign (August 2018)

Late September I joined a coaching trip to France with a group of entrepreneurs to make some important decisions. When it was my turn to be coached something extraordinary happened. We had been on our own for days in a remote castle, when suddenly – right after I had started talking – a random Frenchman entered our room and began shouting to us in French. None of us happened to understand French and he didn't get a word of English and – unfortunately – I didn't have my own pocket translator with me. Being such a coincidence that this happened right when it was my turn (synchronicity?), we took this encounter as a sign that my future focus should be on bridging language barriers. So on Travis, not on TPG. When I got back I told my co-founders that I had made up my mind and wanted to start in October as chief evangelist for Travis. Brend – still being the CEO of Travis – and several TPG team members decided to move on with TPG 2.0. In October I did a number of media performances (interviews & podcasts) and keynotes for Travis and I loved it! In my next article, I will share how I became the Travis CEO again a few weeks later. And what happened in 2019, including several lessons-learned.

My lessons from this period

• Working half days can be enough in normal times. In June and July, I worked from 8 am to 1 pm. The fact that I didn't allow myself to work in the afternoons made me very efficient. Before I left home I exactly knew my 1 big priority and my 3 next biggest priorities for that day. At the office, I didn't sit behind my computer much. Instead, I would do a lot of short meetings and phone calls. I refused to go in long meetings. Most of the time I got a whole lot of things done, and almost always all my priorities.
• The timing of a market introduction is everything. Early 2017 Travis had launched the world's first (AI) pocket translator, but by the summer of 2018, a lot of "copy-cat" had shown up and had saturated the market. The Travis 2.0 was a much better product than the 1.0, but it wasn't new(s) anymore and our cost per acquisition (advertising) had risen considerably.
• Never make a partner company too dependant on you. Travis' main distributor was selling so many of our translators that my guess is we had become a risk to their operations and even stock price; the fact that we were – compared to them – such a small and young company made us more vulnerable easier to "fail". So I believe that in business you not only should become too dependant on another party yourself but neither vice versa!

This article is part of a series of articles after my exit from Travis. My previous two articles were Lessons-learned #1 and #2, both about 2017. In another article, my girlfriend Rachelle and I shared our favorite personal growth resources in our downloadable Self Development Landscape 2020. To learn more about me and my journey post-Travis go to LennartvanderZiel.com.