Defining success as a tech business (spoiler: it's not raising money)

I'm incredibly focused on building DigitalBridge into the powerhouse I know we can be. We're heading in the right direction; we have incredible customers (who I can't announce!), great traction, revenues and investors as well as simply the most talented bunch of people who have ever been assembled into the one office.

But we are not successful - not by a long shot and certainly not yet.

So I get a little bit bemused when people ask me how we have achieved what we have achieved and what lessons I can share. That's starting to happen a lot recently so rather than demure and say there's really nothing to share I've decided to cave in and share thoughts around different subjects.

The first one is about defining success - how does a business define success? When is it ever truly successful?

I guess it depends on who you are. If you're an investor it's about when your investment delivers that X in returns. But we're not investors - we're running a business. And we define success when we're able to deliver on our stated mission of helping ordinary consumers design and build the room of their dreams no matter their design expertise.

By doing that we help people achieve their dreams and we help our retailer customers increase conversion, average transaction value and drive footfall into retail stores.

When defining success though it's equally important to define what success isn't. Success isn't about winning awards and accolades (although we have some very cool ones under our belt). Success isn't about making particular hires (we have rockstars - but we always want more!). It's not about moving into the next big office space (stay tuned for our new space!). And success is certainly not about raising money.