22/52: Knock knock
#CapitalAtRisk
The 2010s was the decade of the Entrepreneur. The 2020s will be the decade of the Investor.
“I just send the what3words to the gateway and they get there every single time”
Kaleb Cooper
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“I pitched up unannounced…”
What3words pops up in many places and often the what3words team know nothing about it until it happens. You might have seen this clip from Clarkson’s Farm from about a month ago or this scene in the latest series of the BBC’s ‘The Outlaws’.
As a fan and investor in the company that’s all just terrific but what made me smile even more was that this week Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of what3words, was nearby Clarkson’s farm and just pitched up unannounced.
I’ll ask him next month when I see him, but I imagine Chris was pretty nervous. Would Jeremy or Kaleb be in? Would they want to see him? What should he say to them first??
Others might have seen the original clip from the show and tried to arrange a visit or gone through some PR people or tried to get permission somehow. The trouble with trying to seek permission like that is you’re relying on someone else to say ‘yes’ and they might say ‘no’. Those are the options.
But there’s always another way, a side door, a hack.
The best founders take a step back and think, “What if I just…”
“Making it look easy is the hardest thing in the world to do” — Sarah Ban Breathnach
The thing is we don’t see the attempts that didn’t work.
The “I pitched up unannounced…” moments only come alongside the many ideas, attempts, chances and embarrassments that go unseen.
It turns out that, just like Seth Godin says the way to have a good idea is to have lots of bad ideas, the way to get things to work is to try lots of things that don’t.
What can you do?
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