How We First Met - Part 1

I’ve heard people say that starting a business is like jumping out of a plane and building the parachute on the way down. But what they often forget to mention is that it’s important to know who you're jumping with. ??At Exiteers, we use our experience, our successes, and perhaps most importantly, our mistakes to help our customers on their journey.? Having the right team is crucial, how you pick the team (or how the team picks you) is very different from a typical large company hiring situation.

Today I will share the story of how I first met Chris and John, cofounders with Evoco and cofounders with Exiteers. ?Spoiler alert, there is no formula in this post, I won’t offer you a process that guarantees success.? Just a glimpse behind the curtain of how these things work sometimes.? We do have an overall method – Journey 2 Exit, but that is built on a mixture of the good times and the bad times.? Today’s story is a combination of good fortune and desperation back in 1997.? ?

The Trigger

I’d been running my own software business before that.? Things had started to go very well, taking on offices, staff, and partners across Europe.? Then things took an unexpected and dramatic turn for the worse.? The details are a story for another day.? But the short story is that we had to cut the company back to 1.5 people and that excluded me as CEO.? We had one contract with one customer that was worth pursuing, but my skills weren’t needed for this.? The rest of us had to move on.? As it happens my cofounder Mike, who was the 1 in the 1.5, has since built the business back to success, albeit in a different field.

I had stretched myself to the limits personally (from a financial perspective that is, the other bits are a given) and had very little breathing space.? I worked my network (much harder without LinkedIn and all our current tooling).? Nothing was turning up and finding a “proper job” appeared to be the best option.?

I had quite a good relationship with another founder, even though we were partly competitors.? We had good discussions about whether I could join his organisation.? This was my last network opportunity.

He was a great guy, much more experienced than I was.? It probably helped that he was Australian and I’m Zimbabwean, so we could be quite open and blunt together.? I guess that is in part how our relationship developed, helping each other navigate “English” politeness and etiquette.?

After a few meetings he said that he couldn’t bring me into his business, prefaced with “I’m sure you’ll appreciate me getting straight to the point”.? He said that he would love to work with me, but there were two risks he couldn’t ignore:

• Firstly, I would come in and try to run his business like it was my business and we’d clash
• Secondly, I’d come in, work hard, keep a low profile but really just be getting myself back on track to launch my own business again

I couldn’t argue with either risk, as his suspicions were solid.? Not necessarily true, I was just panicking, feeling like a failure, and needing to pay my bills at that stage.? How would things be once that was all stabilised?? I couldn’t honestly answer.

The Advice

He then gave me some wise advice.? He wished me luck with my job hunt but warned me that it would be hard.? He said that English culture didn’t really respect entrepreneurs.? It wasn’t a bad place to set up, but it wasn’t the best place.? I believe he was right, and I also believe it’s a much better environment now.? But, again, we can return to that (or you can comment below).? He said that the people in large organisations interviewing me would typically hold several beliefs:

• Their job was harder than mine
• They could easily run their own business; they had just chosen not to?
• I wouldn’t be capable of navigating the politics of a big company, I only understood small companies
• I was only running my own business because I couldn’t cut it in the corporate world

He then finished by saying, the biggest factor would be that they would see me as a failure, I would have to say that my business had hit hard times (why else would I be looking for a job?) and they would be confident that they would never let something like that happen.? Had they been the boss of my company it would have succeeded.

These proved to be prescient words.? I struggled to find anything.? I did manage many interviews, but one or more of those beliefs kept cropping up.

The Opportunity

The stress grew, luckily I was single at the time so no one else was affected.? But I was in arrears on my mortgage and my car.? Repossession proceedings were kicking off when I spotted an opportunity.? Contractor role, working on an IT helpdesk, immediate start needed, French language skills needed, some flexibility to cover European timezones needed, and based close to my home.

What I knew about IT was dangerous, I’d never worked on a helpdesk, I’d never worked for a large organisation, my French was rusty, but I could do the immediate start and flexible hours with ease.? Most importantly I was desperate.? So, I applied and was invited to interview.

I knew next to nothing about the company and finding information was so much harder in 1997.? I knew that it was Gartner, but in reality, I had no idea who they were or how strong their reputation was.

The day rate wasn’t bad, it would keep me out of trouble.? So off I went for the interview.? Little did I know that Chris as CIO and John as IT Director (yes, they’d already met) were also desperate. ?Finding someone who knew IT, knew French, and could manage the demanding world of supporting Gartner analysts was proving impossible.? That wasn’t just about me, I was just one part of their plan to transform the way IT support was delivered in Gartner EMEA.

The interview went well, the technical test went okay, the language test went okay (I vaguely recall they had to use a Dutch lady who didn’t have the best French, as a Zimbabwean I’d been told I spoke French with a Dutch rather than an English accent so couldn’t have got much luckier).

I was a contractor to a supplier, so the risk was low and they took me on immediately.? ?Only sometime later did we discuss our mutual desperation.

The Lucky Break

But I struck lucky, learning so much in my time there.? I did worry initially when I learned just how badly the IT team was perceived.? But Chris and John were on a mission to change this, and I soon became a part of that (successful) mission.?? Gartner analysts can be some of the toughest stakeholders, but I soon found them to be “firm but fair” as we improved our service.? Gartner paid for me to do an MBA at Henley Business School (distance learning, I still had to do my day job).? They also later made Chris, John, and I redundant (at different times) and we joined forces a while after that to form Evoco.

So, I kept my house, kept my car, got to travel the world, got an MBA, met my wife, and met two business partners there.? Quite a successful interview and a big turnaround from my miserable drive to Egham thinking “If I don’t get this job do I lose it all?? House, car, and the rest”.

As the old proverb goes “The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”?

As I said, no magic solutions here, but hopefully a bit of encouragement for anyone struggling out there.? Persevere and stay “opportunity ready”, you might be surprised at what is around the corner.

I’d love to hear your comments and your questions.? I’m more than happy to share more detailed thoughts and feelings from that time.

?