Startups fail on people, not product

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, good question. So a typical I don't really have a typical week. so I think it it it's best I kind of start with typically what I do and then it kind of will feed into tip what my typical week would look like. So typically I I work with the leadership teams for startups and scale up businesses. So these are kind of founders or co founders or CEOs of businesses that you know they could have been going for a long time or they could have, you know, just been founded this year. and they need to put the right people process in place or they need support with putting the right people processes in place to enable them to scale. so this could be anything from they you know, they're they're lacking engagement in the business or they're scaling rapidly is a common one. and they they want to that's actually a as a really good one to start with because a lot of my clients are are are are are having these growth pains where companies are scaling very quickly and they want to protect what they already have in terms of culture. it seems to be a very common one. So typically I I work with leadership teams and and and founders to put the right people processes in place.

Mm. Yeah. No, so it's it's funny because People people look at startups and companies as as a whole as as a product. and they don't really think of it as people. and it's you know, most companies will succeed or fail because of the people they have in them, right? So it's the people that make the product, it's the people that drive the business, it's the people that make the sales. So having that focus on people, especially early on when you're scaling or when when you're going through different rounds of funding, is actually probably one of the most important parts of, you know, a startup succeeding. you know, ninety percent of startups fail. and that, you know, there's a there's a reason behind that. And in my experience, it's it all comes back to the people.

Yeah, so I moved away from the the the big the big corporations for a reason. They have so they've been through it. So they have the you know, nine times out of ten they'll have the right processes in place and they've actually grown to a point where they have such intricate processes and teams that you know support different programs that you know, you you end up getting lost in the noise. so I've s everyone I speak to about Amazon, and anyone that y you probably would speak to about a company that size will say the same thing. You are you are a number there, and you are there to play a a role in this big machine and do that role well. and they bring in the most experienced people so that they can do that. But you know, the the impact you're gonna have at that that size of company is minuscule, you know, you you won't see it. It's very hard for you to really quantify the value you're adding to a company like that. now for Tesco, Tesco's is a bit smaller because obviously it's it's UK based and you know they they are across Europe, but they're still a giant and they still, you know, they've got a massive history of you know, processes and and and streamlining that they've gone through since when they've started. so you can see a bit more of the impact that you're having there, but again, it's nowhere near the impact that you have when working with startups and scale ups. so I you know, I moved away from Tesco's and the Amazons a long time ago, but the the learnings that I've kind of brought with me from those companies are, you know, what what good looks like, what best practices, you know, how to what a good onboarding process looks like for a candidate, what a a good appraisal looks like for an employee, why people stay in those companies, why people leave those companies. So there's all these learnings that, you know, might be within the job that I've done, but also external learnings as, you know, that I've just learnt at as part of my time there that I've kind of brought with me all the way through. And I still I mean, I still use a lot of it today. So

Yeah, and it's one of those things as well where it's transactional, right? So you go there knowing what to expect, you are going to be a cog in a machine and you're gonna deliver a s small part of what the the the big the the bigger business is is is is working towards. But it's transactional because you're going there because you know you're gonna get probably a good salary, you're gonna get all these benefits, you're gonna have you know, the tools around you to be able to do that niche job very well. So it's it's one of those it's two way thing. You go there, you could get a good salary, and then you'll do you'll do your job and go home. but the reason I've stepped away from that is is, you know, that overall impact. I work with so many clients at the moment and you know, and have done for the past few years, where every single day the work that I do has such a massive impact on the outcome of those businesses that it gives me that job fulfillment that you know, wants makes me want to wake up and then come back and do a bit more. So yeah, there's a there's there's there's a reason to do that type of job, but I can also see the reason to step away, which is what I did.

The the problem at the moment, what with AI or that that with that particular post

With the posts. Okay, yeah, yeah. I mean i we we speak about AI now and whoever's listening to this in a month or two's time, this conversation's gonna be outdated, right? that's how fast AI is evolving. for me personally, I use it in everything. Day to day it it it it it does most of my emails. it does it pretty much a lot of my my my communications on you know, Slack or Teens or whatever my clients are using. so it does a lot of the grunt work and the admin for me. Now I'm super open about it. I'm telling you, I'll tell everyone on the podcast. I tell everyone at work. it's it streamlined so much admin for me that it it has allowed me to become super productive, more productive than I've ever been in my life. but the post that I put up earlier today was essentially the just for the audience's reference here, it was to do with a lot of people within companies using AI and and just not declaring it or not not even talking about it, paying for it out of their own pockets so that the company benefits for it against company policy sometimes. so I think what that post was alluding to was actually more to do with actually the openness around using AI. and having those open discussions about, you know, the user cases, how we capitalize on using these LLMs everywhere and, you know, companies actually being open with their employees to say, yep, we should be doing this. This is how we do it. We will pay for your subscriptions. giving employees free reign to experiment and and and to to use it as a tool to streamline in their jobs and become more productive as well. So I think it was more geared towards openness around using it, but I mean I'm super interested in the use of it and and how it's adopted by companies. So I'm I'm interested to see how it all plays out.

what around u using and adopting AI? You know, it's funny, a lot of the companies I'm working with are actually AI startups. So it's it's it's there everyone is adopting it. And actually, even my own company, we have an expert in AI that is is supporting with streamlining a lot of our processes. so I mean I don't have I don't have any particular use cases where you know AI's

you know, th th there's not been any detrimental cases where AI's been at the front of it. But I think it's it's it's funny 'cause on my newsfeed there's a few people that I follow on on LinkedIn and they just call people out on the use of it. and and you can tell naturally when you've had an AI response. So I think it's it's it's less towards actually there being any use cases, but actually just, you know, people adopting it in a way that's gonna be that's gonna be scalable for them and the business that they're working in. you know, things like you schoolboy areas like using dashes and everything, or even putting a note at the end of the email saying this email was responded using AI. I think that that we're we're gonna have to start having those discussions around you know, just actually talking about how how everyone uses AI and in and in what instance and yeah. So I don't I I've not really got any cases, but I think it's it's just something that's becoming a lot more visible, I think, in in in the day to day workplace. So

Yeah, sure. I mean we're scaling as well. We're a business. so we're a consultancy that has grown considerably over the past three years. so like any kind of startup, we we're we're scaling as well. So it's to support as many startups and scale ups as possible, with them becoming more profitable, and exchanging our knowledge. and and And yeah, growing ourselves as well. So it's like like any start up a scale up, it's all about growth.

I haven't heard of that rule, explain it to me.

Question. So I think Over communicate is by far the the the takeaway I I I have had from every single every single job. whether it be working directly with founders, within businesses, whether I'm an IC just starting my career, the more you communicate, the better results you'll have because you'll uncover things that you won't have even thought were even an issue. So number one's overcommunicate. Number two is hire right the first time when you are hiring. so don't just settle for good wait for excellence. And I mean there's so so many different contextual examples I could give in terms of learnings. just gonna stick with those two. I think those two for me are are are are the main takeaways. The first the first one it it's transferable to every role and the the second one I think is the most important when you're scaling any business is the importance of every single hire for each role.

Yeah, sure. So we've got a new website, it's foundationpartners.co dot uk. you can find me on LinkedIn at LinkedIn I think it's slash dot com slash in slash miles banel.

Thank you for having me.