Entrepreneurship is a choice. Your startup is one of its logical results. Then everyday is made of significant decisions. But it’s hard to handle. Sometimes, you wonder if you are the right person to bring the solution.
To better understand the challenges of having a startup, we spoke to Bruno, the co-founder of Mougli, an online appointment platform for local businesses. Last year, he was accelerating this startup with Lisbon Challenge. Now, he is part of the new batch with Dayafterday. In-between? His startup Mougli was acquired and he kept working on his creative agency Gaspar+Bruno.
As you can see, he is always jumping from one business to another. This habit could be considered as a lack of focus. But actually, this distance lets him think about the best value he can deliver. He will seriously consider all the options. Maybe the conclusion will be to let someone else take his startup to the next level. That’s what happened with Mougli.
He shared with us his thoughts about this enthralling journey. Things went pretty fast, but it does not mean that it was easy. Along the way, he was told - and retold - that his platform would not work, that it had something wrong or should have been done differently. But, he kept on going, convinced that his product could solve a customer’s pain. That’s also what the beta-testers confirmed. Therefore, he kept going with determination and upgraded the platform with the most accurate advice, even if he wasted valuable time listening to the wrong advisors. User-centric approach and resilience paid off.
Then, it was time to scale. But the startup faced different challenges. Actually, when Bruno looks back to Mougli he admits that at some point essential skills were missing in the team. But they needed to grow very fast and this detail was a real obstacle in the race. It made it harder to convince investors. Especially, when they discovered that Bruno was not working “full-time” on Mougli but managing 3 startups at the same time. For instance, 2 weeks before the Demoday, he presented the prototype of Dayafterday. Ricardo Marvao was even wondering if it was possible to present 2 startups at the same time at Lisbon Investment Summit. Undoubtedly, for Bruno the main focus should be on the user and the quality of execution. Therefore, he realized a few months after Lisbon Challenge that he was not anymore the best person to take Mougli to the next level.
After this decision, things got much more complicated. He had 2 options: find a CEO or sell the startup. One detail has to be taken into account: Mougli was a European startup. It means that the headquarters were in London, the freelancers in Paris and the core team in Lisbon for the acceleration program. It did not make it easier for the new CEO. The situation was not sustainable. By chance, Bruno met GoodBarber in Ajaccio. It was an immediate match. But, accelerators don’t teach you how to sell a company and Europe is not legally harmonized. Preparing for exit was a new challenge for Bruno. He found good advisors and closed a fair deal. Eventually, he found the right person to transcend their product.
Even today, it’s difficult to say if this end was a success or a failure. It depends on the perception. The team can be proud of the final deal. But after winning the Lisbon Challenge Spring’14 competition, there were high expectations and acquisition was not part of the long term vision. Bruno is the best person able to speak about this instructive episode. He shared his thoughts on Medium in an article called: “A failure without shame”.
Eventually, one lesson arose. He always comes back to his area of excellence. That’s why his creative agency Gaspar+Bruno is behind Mougli and Dayafterday. We bet that other startups will get out of this fecond agency. Keep up the good work!
This interview was done for one of the European project we are working on. It’s called LIFE and deals with the concept of Failing Forward. Have a similar story? Then tweet using the hashtag #FailingForward and let others know about how failure taught you something.