Adii Pienaar

One of the benefits of being based in Cape Town, South Africa - and thus very far away from any major tech hub - is that there's no mainstream trends or hype that has any significant influence on the way we go about our business. To this day, this has given us a huge advantage on so many levels; most of which is centered around jumping into the deep-end and just swimming.

Founding a startup is the obvious trendy thing to do these days. As with any other trend, "hipster entrepreneurs" have flocked to the online world, wanting in on the action. Naturally because this it is very cool to do so.

The problem with this "me-too" approach is that many startups aren't solving the best ideas or have sacrificed their creativity in favour of a landgrab within the startup space. If I look at AngelList or at the startups that get their funding rounds publicized on TechCrunch, it's normally 50-50 whether the idea will induce me rolling my eyes, because the idea is either just too generic, plain stupid or never likely to enable the building of a sustainable business.

Stop doing things just because they're trendy and mainstream media seems to reward it with publicity. It's not clever business.

Don't raise funding now if you can bootstrap. Don't implement lean startup methodologies just because Eric Ries says so; do so because it makes sense for your business. Heck, build your new web app in .NET if you believe that's what's gonna be the best for your startup. But for crying out loud, stop doing things that are just trendy.

Maybe my geographical "disadvantage" made me more battle-hardened in this regard, but because of it I had to figure out every move & decision based on the merit.

And if you're into being part of mainstream trends, you should be reminded of at least one other: most startups fail. In my opinion, you're thus better off figuring things out in your own way and failing / succeeding on terms that actually make sense (compared to those dictated by trends).

Buck trends.

I'm proud to announce that Jeanne & I have invested in our latest venture: Lunchbox. We've teamed up with good friends of ours to make this a reality and we're really excited about what the future holds.

But then again I'm probably biased about this... See, photography is probably the only "hobby" that I practice enough to even classify it as a hobby. My work takes up most of my days, which means that something that was a hobby in the past (technology, the internet and even reading) has now become more of a chore. Photography however remains.

So I'm very excited to be part of a new startup that will hopefully make photography more fun and help thousands / millions (?) of people take better photos. Check it out if you have a minute!

I recently joined EO, where I get to spend time with like-minded entrepreneurs and business owners. In our original training, I was introduced to a concept called "Gestalt", which all members practice. The aim of Gestalt is never to give any advice to another member and instead we're only permitted to share relevant experiences.

As soon as the facilitator finished his explanation of Gestalt and why it was one of the foundation on which the organization had been built, I dawned on me: I'm really opinionated about so many things. Whilst being opinionated isn't necessarily wrong, I just realized that I'm always very quick to offer my opinion and advice to anyone that shows even the smallest inclination to listen to me.

I felt embarrassed. I felt like a fool for being so liberal with my opinions & advice. I felt arrogant. Foolish.

I have since vowed that I will try my best to instead just share my own experiences and avoid giving advice as much possible. I realized that I've found the most value in conversations where I could extract the value that I wanted, instead of being pushed in a direction as a result of someone else's advice. The truly value for me has always been in tapping into the experience of others that have already navigated the challenges I'm currently facing. So why wouldn't I apply the same when I'm on the other side of that conversation?

Today, 4 years ago, WooThemes was born.

I've never spent much time scrutinizing my own birthday, but every year on the 9th of July I reminisce & reflect on the year that's been for WooThemes. This year WooThemes turns 4 and thinking about the magnitude of the impact that it has had on my own life, leaves me with little words.

In searching for words, I guess the easy way out would be to say "In the last year, we more than doubled the size of the team, revenues are continuing North and even though we experienced a life-threatening hack, we've recovered well." (ala last year's post). Yet, this wouldn't encapsulate any of the real, true & sincere things that happened in the last year.

Today, WooThemes defines a large part of my life. And this has been the case for at least the past 4 years. Regardless of how confident, self-assured, independent or autonomous I am, I can't deny the inherent hand that WooThemes has in most things in my life.

WooThemes is the source of all of my income and thus also the source of most of my (materialistic) blessings. Similarly, WooThemes has given me a platform from which I've gotten many great speaking, investment and other professional opportunities. I've also met many great people, mentors & friends via this platform. But it stretches further than that... If I've had a shit day at the office, WooThemes has a direct, negative influence on all other spheres of my life. WooThemes is my creative & professional outlet and if I'm not happy within that space, I struggle to find energy to pour into those other spheres.

I'm not a workaholic. Instead I'm only human. I'm my own man, make my own rules and have a very happy, multi-sphered life. I would however be selling you bullshit if I said that my work with WooThemes has not had a far-reaching impact on my entire life (both good & bad).

This makes me feel vulnerable. When things like the hack happens, it just naturally spawns a complete evaluation of absolutely everything: the business, my livelihood, myself.

The good news is that I've learnt in the past year that even though this is a natural reaction (which I'm unlikely to ever evade), this isn't the truth and not an accurate representation of who I am. Yes, my daily life is inter-related with what's going on (and sometimes, not going on) at Woo, but it doesn't define who I am.

Instead this is me... "Hello! My name is Adii. Amongst other things I'm co-founder of WooThemes and we're celebrating all that's good on our 4th birthday today. Let's break out a couple of beers."

A lot has been written about Y Combinator's decision to allow founders to apply to the program without necessarily having an idea.

I think Vinicius Vacanti's opinion is mostly spot-on and summarized well with this quote:

"And, so I thank Y-Combinator for helping to dispel the myth that to become an entrepreneur you need a moment of brilliance."

You definitely don't need a moment of brilliance and your first idea won't be the only determining factor in whether you're a success or a failure (eventually). But that's pretty much as far as I can agree with this whole concept.

Whilst a moment of brilliance or a first idea doesn't define whether you're an entrepreneur or not, it surely neither warrants that you should be funded (i.e. risk other people's money for you to figure out which of your ideas will eventually be successful).

This explains perfectly why the "money makes money" plays such a huge role here: if you're funding someone without an actual idea, you're taking a gamble. There's just no reason to determine the founding team actually warrants that investment.

I'm open to someone convincing me that funding an entrepreneur without an idea is actually a rational, viable & generic decision that applies to all investors (and not just those with pockets that are inevitably too deep). Or we can all agree that this strategy is at best a calculated risk and semi-gamble.