It All Started with a Hackathon
My startup fail-success story and where it has taken me
This was not a typical Friday night. I was standing in a room full of people in the ex-den of York Butter Factory — Melbourne’s famous innovation hub. A cool, edgy space where aspiring entrepreneurs go to dream. But like I said, this was not a typical night, it was the dawn of the Melbourne Startup Weekend in 2014.
37 ideas went up on the walls. It wasn’t anything fancy, just large format pieces of paper, each with a handwritten mind-blowing startup concept aimed to revolutionise the world in some way or another.
I also had an idea, but I was there just to observe — I wanted to see what this whole (new to me) tech world was all about. I mentioned this to the person standing next to me.
‘You should enter!’ he said.
‘Nah, it’s probably too late anyway, I’m sure you need to sign up way ahead of time,’ I responded.
The stranger insisted and minutes later I found myself standing next to my very own handwritten startup idea. People moved around the room, sticking post-it notes on the ideas that most appealed to them. Ideas they wanted to help bring to life.
When the night was done, I found myself with a team of four talented human beings, willing to give up their weekend to build an MVP with me. Now, I’d like to put this into perspective for you, a week ago, I didn’t even know who a developer was or what they did, let alone an MVP.
Long story short, we worked all weekend, slept for 5 minutes, and ended up winning 1st place! If you’re interested in what the idea was about, you can watch this 48 seconds animation (I hired my talented artistic son to do) on YouTube.
Now, I have to burst your bubble and tell you that despite my best intentions, See My Kitchen did not go on to become the next unicorn. Not that I didn’t receive any offers from investors, I did — several. Yet somehow, with each one, I found an excuse not to take the money…
At the time, my objections felt fully justified. For example, the terms they were offering weren’t favourable etc. In hindsight, I was just following my intuition. The thing is, I always knew I was a natural-born entrepreneur, but I was still discovering what type.
I think a part of me knew I didn’t have a desire to run a large company and be responsible for employees; to have to show up in the morning (I’m a night-owl) and ensure the success of an enterprise.
I was getting to a point in my life where I really didn’t want to work for other people anymore, I just didn’t know what I could do instead. I didn’t know what path to follow. I was (and still am) multi-passionate: business, marketing, investment, health, productivity, … The list is endless.
After the hackathon, I tried my hand at several other businesses, all of which I quit at the precipice of success. Then finally, the role of a futurist showed up on my radar. The more I investigated what that means the more I was realising this would fit me like a glove.
It would satisfy my insatiable curiosity, multi-passionate nature and a love for writing and sharing what I learn with others.
I’m grateful for my journey, for all the experiences that lead me to arrive at this very point in my life. If there’s one piece of advice I would give to you, it’s in the words of Gary Vee to ‘Be Self Aware.’ Or at least be self-explorative, it might take more time than you expected, but encourage you to press on; discover who you are and what really makes you tick. Not everyone is born Mozart.
By sampling different jobs, businesses, and hobbies you too can discover that one thing to focus on; you too can discover what type of entrepreneur you are. BTW, that’s me (in the middle) of the photo, with my team, on the night we won :)
