StevenGelley

🏆 Award Winning Tech Founder | 2 Exits. 🚀 Managing Member @ Open Access Ventures

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Web3 technology was always going to become mainstream despite the bad press early on.

Consumers adapt whenever that process is made easy for them.

Online shopping used to seem revolutionary to most people now it’s just part of our day-to-day life.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

As an early stage founder, you never want to be the smartest person in the room.

If you are, the chances are you’re in the wrong building.

You want to be learning whilst you build because you definitely don’t know even half of what you think you do.

I certainly didn’t.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

‘Marketing’ has come to mean something really vast and complicated.

In reality it’s quite simple.

Marketing is just a sign that tells consumers what you offer and why they need it.

Where and how that sign looks is what separates the bad from the good.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

In the early stage of a start-up it’s impossible to tell where the value actually lies.

Most social media companies are so valuable because of the data collected which can be sold to advertisers.

But that’s not why Instagram was first founded.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Every resource in business is only useful if you have a good supply.

So keep your resources close and keep them tight.

Because if you are loose with them in the early stages you will lose them in the latter stages.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Don’t spend money on marketing if no one wants to spend money on your product.

I’m a firm believer in the test and build model when it comes to going to market.

Because it’s easy to be blindsided when you are so close to a project.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Improving the visibility of your company is only beneficial if it’s something worth showing people.

Because good marketing for a bad product only highlights the cracks in your armor.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

As Web3 becomes more and more commonplace.

The need for marketing becomes more and more crucial.

Everyone has got big ideas and ambitions for their company.

But not everyone knows how to sell them.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

If you can’t summarize what your company is offering in one line.

The chances are your vision is too broad.

Because if you try to offer too many things at once.

You will probably not be able to deliver anything at all.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

As an investor looking at a founder, it’s so much easier to get excited when that founder has already built and exited a company before.

Because you know they did it once.

Likelihood is they can do it again.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

I’ve never liked negotiating because to me it’s really just formalized lying.

I’d much rather just tell a founder exactly what I think and exactly what I’m willing to offer because I know that is unlikely to change through negotiation.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

It only takes 10 minutes to assess a business and its metrics.

That’s the simple part of being an investor.

The most difficult and time consuming part is trying to work out whether the founder has the ability and skill to make those metrics work.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Timing plays into absolutely everything you do as a founder.

When you decide to scale.
When you decide to pivot.
When you decide to sell.

Timing is the key to success for any hopeful entrepreneur but you can only really prepare for it in the actual moment.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

If any founder ever says there was no luck in their success.

They are lying.

Because luck is everywhere in the world of business and in life. It’s the ones who seize it and charge forward that are the ones we end up calling lucky.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Look around you and think ‘what is wrong with the way things are being done right now and how could it be done better’.

And that’s where you will find your next big idea.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

All the best entrepreneurs are really just problem solvers.

And all the best companies are a by-product of the solution.

The world is full of products and services but I don’t believe that it’s any more difficult now than it has ever been.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

I've never liked public speaking or presenting to rooms full of people. It’s something I always tried to avoid.

As my journey as a Founder progressed, I found myself in uncomfortable situations. I actually started to relish it.

Because that for me is where real progress comes

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

The biggest differentiator in sport is the biggest differentiator in business.

Momentum.

You have to fight through that downward momentum even when you don’t feel like you have the energy to.

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Your pitch deck is your CV.

Your pitch is your interview.

Every slide says something else about the person in front of you.

You wouldn’t go for a job interview with a CV full of gaps and lacking clarity.

So why would you come to a pitch with a deck like that?

[StevenGelley @GelleySteven]

Founders are athletes.

And business is a sport.

Being a founder requires serious amounts of stamina, resilience and predatory thinking.

And now I know why I love being a Founder.
It gives me the same hit that sport used to give me.