As the Start-Up Activator for Ministry of Awesome (the “enablers” who “connect awesome ideas with the resources to turn them into reality”), Catarina Gutierrez is the friendly face that will help people get their business ideas off the ground and running in the right direction.
I caught up with her to talk about start ups and what you need to know.
What are the most important things people should consider before launching a start-up?
I think the most important thing for a start up to know beforehand is to make sure that they’re actually addressing a problem that exists. I think a lot of people have these ideas that they just want to make a product that looks really cool or software that does something really neat but if it doesn’t address a problem in the market or if there isn’t an audience with that problem that you have a solution for then it’s not worth wasting any time and money on.
What are some common misconceptions about starting up on your own?
One of the most common ones I see is that it’s really expensive. I personally believe that it’s only expensive if you’re not prepared. If you haven’t done the research and validated the idea then that’s where it gets expensive. I think one of the important things is that if you start small, you can actually afford something relatively cheap and can self fund, for example a website goes a long way and social media, when managed properly, can help market your idea or business.
What are the main challenges that start-ups face in New Zealand right now?
I think New Zealand is a relatively small market so depending on the product or service that you offer it can be relatively small if you’re just looking to help those in Canterbury or offering something to a specific region. Thinking outside of the box and thinking outside of the country would be really advantageous of a start up… that doesn’t mean you need to go overseas right away but I think dreaming big is a really good thing. I also often hear people talk about the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ where nobody wants to toot their own horn and I think we need to get away from that. I think it’s ok to be a little self promoting especially if it’s a start up because no one is going to hear about it unless you’re talking about it.
Why are start-ups so important to the community?
They’re part of a larger ecosystem so I think it’s necessary to have a balance between small-medium and large companies to have a sustainable economy, because without the small start ups there’s nothing to balance the big guys. I think they’re really important, especially in a city like Christchurch where everything seems to be new and everything is being re-built. I’m staring into the Innovation Precinct right now and there are two big names, Vodafone and Kathmandu, coming in but who are the people outside of it that are flanking the big companies?
Finance: where do people even begin?
I believe that to finance your own start up you have to be very scrappy, which means not quitting your full time or part time job just because you have this passionate idea that you want to get off the ground. It means putting in the work outside of your normal working hours, and using funding or any extra savings that you have from that work to do the other stuff that you’re passionate about. Other funding can definitely come in the form of small business loans. For example there are a lot of people and trusts out there willing to give money to small businesses under the $5,000 or $1,000 range which can be really helpful, especially if you don’t want to invest thousands of dollars of your own money straight away. So if you pinch your pockets right now perhaps that’s the way to be more financially sustainable in the long run. I think it’s also important to know that it doesn’t take a huge amount of money to build a website or to get business cards out there, and these things go a long way.
Do you believe that timing is everything for start-ups? If so, how do you know when ‘the time is right’?
I think timing is a part of it but I don’t think it’s everything. You will probably get to know your market pretty well in the process so it’s really important to know when they are ready because what you’re doing is for the benefit of them. Timing is also important as far as not rushing things just to be out in the market goes, which is a mistake that I’ve made before with one of my own start ups. I thought I had to push it out into the market before I was ready because I wanted to beat my competition, but it turned out my market wasn’t ready for the product that I was selling.
What would you say to people who have doubts about their ideas?
I think the more people you talk to, the more comfortable you get exposing your idea to other people. Doing this will also gain you a lot of feedback which is definitely something worth taking into consideration. I think you need to test your idea or your product as soon as possible, that way you’ll know if it’s something worth pursuing or not. Christchurch is a place that’s really ripe and ready for people to try something new so if you’re waiting for a time to do it, now is that time.
What are the biggest mistakes common to start-ups?
One of the biggest mistakes I see a lot is people telling their customers about what they do and not really engaging in a conversation or a community: talking at the customer instead of with them. You get so passionate about your idea or your start up but you’re not really engaging in meaningful conversations with your customers so you come off as this person who’s just advertising to them. One way to avoid this is to be talking to your customers about what you’re doing and why that benefits them, i.e. give it some context.
What attributes do successful start-ups seem to have in common?
They’re fearless, they’re willing to put in hard work and long hours for something that they’re passionate about, and they never get comfortable in one place. It’s easy for people to fall into the trap of saying ‘I have a life that I’m comfortable with and I have this salary that helps me pay these bills’, but I think really good entrepreneurs are uncomfortable in comfortable situations – they’re willing to disrupt their lives and take chances. I also think that good entrepreneurs know how to use their resources and people around them effectively, so whether that’s delegating some work to a team member or knowing where a mentor can help them. As an entrepreneur you’re going to get a million different opinions from a million different people telling you to go right and then go left and you have to know how to use that advice really well or to say, ‘Thank you for your advice, but I’m going this way’. They have a strong foundation of what they value and what they want to do.
How did MoA themselves start up? Are there any learnings there we can pass on to readers?
Ministry of Awesome is a post-quake organisation. It started out with four board members who noticed that there was a need for people to be re-engaged with the city so we started with the co-working space above the CBD bar to get more people collaborating together and working around each other. It then became this idea that we want awesome things to happen in Christchurch and we can’t wait for somebody to make that space for us, so let’s stop asking people for permission and just go out and get something done.
One of the things that we’ve learned along the way is that it takes patience; as much as you want to go out and get everything done, you have to know when to wait for things. We have also learned how to harness strong partnerships and relationships with people – those take a lot of patience to build.
The other thing we do here is we test things very often. One of the new things we’re going to try is something called the ‘Fail Club’ where everybody gets together and talks about failures that they’ve learned in business and how we can all learn from that. It’s something we’ve never done before; we’ve never talked about failure apart from casually mentioning it. We certainly haven’t provided a space for people to talk about it so we’re going to do it during one of our Coffee & Jams in September.
You can contact Catarina directly at activate@ministryofawesome.com. Ministry of Awesome hold a Coffee & Jam session every Tuesday. Check their Facebook page for more details: www.facebook.com/MnstryOfAwsm