Learnings from my time at Crowdcube

A brief collection of pertinent learning outcomes I've experienced as a result of my time building a new function within a fast growing Fintech.

1.“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”

I’ve seen this phrase used in a variety of contexts. I didn’t fully understand its depth until I launched a new function at Crowdcube. The venture demanded agile independent work at inception, but evolved quickly to require cross-functional collaboration, understanding and communication in order to bring the vision to life.

The value in this message is hidden behind “go together”. Going together requires an alignment of priorities, and importantly, empathy towards each party's other commitments and deadlines. “Going far” therefore requires buy-in from your collaborators. Take the time to explain the rationale and ultimate vision in order to inspire others into action and foster collectivity. 

2. If you don’t facilitate and encourage interactions between your members you don’t have a community, you simply have an audience

Shortly after launch, we rebranded the Crowdcube Funded Club (ie, startups that had received funding via Crowdcube) to the Funded Community. To begin with, all interactions took the form of newsletters, calls, meetings and videos with myself, and later on, new team members. These served as a great one-to-one engagement tool, but lacked scalability. 

By only fostering a one-to-one interaction, we missed out on powerful networking effects. Founder to Founder relationships that go on to blossom will always remember the medium through which they met. Build brand equity at scale by operating as that medium, whether through events or isolated/exclusive communication platforms (Slack, Discord etc).

Better yet, use a network of partners to do the heavy lifting for you and educate your community at scale through workshops and content. Create an ecosystem, not an auditorium. 

Focus on delivering value by fostering these interactions and hosting free partner-led education and the market will return this goodwill 10x. Goodwill therefore becomes the ultimate KPI.

3. Escape competition and build trust through authenticity

Although this may seem obvious, I feel it's commonly overlooked by those early in their career. Your USP as an operator is yourself. The unique combination of knowledge and network you’ve built becomes a heavy hitter in your toolkit. Use it. Connect people and behave in ways that go beyond the realms of your role. If a Founder trusts you and your knowledge, this trust often extends to the company you represent.

4. Patience, patience, patience

I’m a firm advocate of Parkinson’s Law - work expands to fill the time allotted. This old adage is true on the micro-level where you can exercise control over your own deadlines. However, you lose this control on a macro-level where multiple stakeholders and external actors are involved.

Focus, deliberate and pine over the micro. Be aware of the macro, but don’t lose sleep over things out of your control.

5. Specialism is for insects, build T-shaped knowledge

We’re somewhat conditioned to believe that being hyper specialised in a singular skill set increases your market value and impact. Although true on some level, this value compounds when you combine this specialism with diversified knowledge. T-shaped knowledge symbolises this approach - the top of the T being the diversified knowledge, and the base being your deeper specialism. T shaped knowledge also hedges against market risk and improves your defensibility in the workforce, it's also a fantastic way of building robust confidence with contemporary collaborators in your ability.  

This concept was true of the most prominent founders I had the opportunity to work alongside. Don’t allow the market or a job spec to solely define your interests, stay curious.