Adii Pienaar

I'm writing this post whilst on a train to London (back from Newcastle, where the WooThemes team attended DIBI) to catch a flight back home after a week-long UK-trip with the whole WooTeam. This was the first ever time that we had the whole team together in one room (10 of us) and the main aim of the trip was fun, geekery, team-building with a bit of work sprinkled in.

So as I reflect on the trip on what it has meant for our company & team, I realize that all of the things that I thought we would benefit from the trip have indeed happened. And to use a cliche: plus so much more. Fact of the matter is that - as a business owner and co-leader of our team - I'm absolutely overwhelmed by all the fantastic experiences I've had with the team in the last few days.

I think that teams, as a unit - don't always get the attention it deserves and this is especially true for online, where the focus tends to be on the cofounders, product & revenue strategy. Half of the WooTeam works remotely and out of our Cape Town office, which makes meetups like these even more important. I don't think that you can ever attach too much value to meeting someone face-to-face; it really doesn't matter what kind of technologies you use to replicate that remotely, because it will never beat face-to-face conversations. I think that's just human nature.

The friendships that we've forged / reinforced on this trip will have a lasting effect on the work that we'll do in the next couple of months and I'm sure that our users will be the primary beneficiaries of the renewed passion and energy within the team. Double win.

Yes, this trip has been quite a significant expenditure for us, which is why we need to limit them to once every 12 - 18 months. But heck, the way I feel about this week now, I'm ready to spend that money all over again (after I've had a week's rest first admittedly, as my body can't take the shots so well anymore).

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post titled "The Challenges of The Business Guy", which basically details my own, non-technical role within WooThemes.

This means that my daily job doesn't include designing or developing anymore, even though I'm still heavily involved in all of those processes. Part of my job is to make sure that the WooTeam hits strategic aims and more importantly (regardless of us hitting specific goals) that everyone is at least working away in the same direction.

This is something that is admittedly quite challenging when you consider that our team is based remotely and scattered across the globe.

Last week Mark randomly noted (in conversation) that "our (as cofounders) jobs has taken on the role of quality assurance". Even though I immediately agreed with him, I didn't fully grasp the implication of what he said, even though my gut knew this to be the truth. 

I'd be lying if I said that I don't spend most of week handling e-mail and being in & around Basecamp, which we use for project management. Following up on stuff that needs to be done, setting up to-do lists & milestones for known projects and sending off exploratory e-mails to future, potential collaborative partners. That's my job. I also know that compared to when we started out, Magnus & Mark too have taken on more & more of these responsibilities as our company has grown.

So questioning why we actually do this and why this has become such a significant part of our jobs, probably gets you closer to what Mark said about quality assurance. I believe that - as cofounders and the initial heart of the business - we via the project management and thus keeping our fingers on the pulse, quality assurance is a beneficial byproduct. In this way, I see ourselves as being the custodians of WooThemes and the quality that we create.

Project management is thus not necessarily about efficiency, productivity or even just remembering to do certain things; it is about not betraying the heart of our business. And therein lies the quality.

If we can ensure that we stick true to the very core of what we do every day, then quality is a natural consequence of that hard work. E-mail & project management to a large extend is tedious and considered to be unproductive (we're not creating anything), but when quality is on the line, we'd better not miss a trick.

So I've been trying to get back into blogging properly (once again), because firstly I really enjoy it and secondly I actually believe that there is a tangible benefit to having a well-read & -trafficked blog (even if only to stroke my ego).

The age-old problem however remains: doesn't matter how much I try get to a point where I'm blogging daily (my current aim - or "dream" - is to blog 5 times a week, Monday through Friday), most of my days just don't allow for that. See, either I get stuck doing actual work (since blogging can't be regarded as actual work) or I'm doing a lot of writing over at WooThemes or I'm just not in the mood / inspired to publish something here.

Blah, blah, blah... Same old excuses... And I'm not intending this to be one of those posts where I set myself lofty blogging goals, promise you that things will be different this time and that I'll actually be publishing some value stuff here regularly. That'd be bullshit.

So to counter some of those issues I sometimes face to blog daily (lack of time or lack of inspiration), I decided that I would be doing two things:

1. I'd make a concerted effort to at least write down any ideas for blog posts as I have them, which means that on those days when inspiration deserts me, I'll have something to write about; and
2. When I have some free time on my hands (normally when I want a break from work i.e. when I procrastinate), I should draft a couple of posts that I could publish on days when I don't have much free time.

I now have a "problem" of a different kind: whilst I have quite a list of ideas that'll probably make for some nice blog posts, I'm not as passionate about writing these as to when I initially had the idea. I write my best stuff when I actually sit down to write a post immediately after I had the idea. I enjoy writing more when it's impulsive and it doesn't feel like a chore when I get the opportunity to do that.

For that very reason it took my more than a year to finish Rockstar Business; it was relatively easy pumping out the first couple of random chapters, but when it came down to formalizing everything into a semi-coherent book (with an apparent structure), it became so much harder.

Daily blogging fails my impulses on that very level.

And somehow I don't think I'm alone in this boat. So many of us that have committed to blogging more (and written those quintessential "I've failed, but I'm doing this better this time around" posts), yet that aim could possibly be inherently flawed for most of us.

It's hard writing something of value every day and if you consider that there are only a handful of bloggers that manage to do this properly over a long stretch of time (Fred Wilson, Jason Cohen & Mark Suster are some of my favourites that manage this), you've got to ask yourself why that is. My opinion is that everyone is not a natural writer / blogger and to most of us, daily writing / blogging requires a skill and commitment that will challenge the mere mortals among us.

So I reckon it's okay to have lofty goals, more okay to screw up and writing the failure post should be something anyone should be ashamed of. I think the value is that we should continue trying and working hard (if a well-read blog is something you aspire to have), since you're probably adding value even if you only publish 5 posts in one week once every 3 / 6 / 12 months.

That being said, those failure posts are kinda lame. :)

A couple of weeks ago I was wondering out loud whether I might just be a one-hit wonder. The fact that I did not share at that time, was that I had already made the decision to close down Radiiate (my 2nd business after WooThemes), after it didn't grow / evolve in the direction I had hoped.

In this post I'd like to share my experiences in trying to start up another business, especially given the context that I had done it before (and am still doing it) with WooThemes.

1. (Most) Serial entrepreneurs do it sequentially

This was probably the biggest take-away after the whole experience (well said in this comment): it is just not that easy to commit completely do doing a new startup while I was still committing close to 100% of my time to another business. I just did not have the time or mental energy to power through the initial startup phase and I ended up making it really hard on myself in the way I was constantly pulling myself in two different directions.

My problem was compounded by the fact that I was doing this solo (i.e. without cofounders), which meant that I was exclusively responsible for the strategic direction & decisions. Things might've been different if I had cofounders that could've at least shared this responsibility with me.

2. Too many shitty ideas

When I cofounded WooThemes, it was my best idea at the time. I can remember either Jason Fried or DHH mentioning in an interview that if they ever sold 37Signals, they would be selling their best idea and that in turn would mean their subsequent startup would be their second best idea. So with WooThemes, this was easy: we had the idea, believed that we could execute it and worked hard at doing just that.

With Radiiate things were much different though... The day I decided to reboot Radiiate, I did so because I wanted to be involved in a startup and I wanted to stimulate & challenge myself with a few side projects. So I didn't do it because I actually had a "best idea", heck I didn't even have a good idea (debatable). What I did have was a couple of experimental ideas that I was hoping to trial. Ultimately none of these panned out as hoped and after various pivots, I decided to throw in the towel.

I know for a fact that if I had the idea before the business, things would've been very different. Having loads of experimental (and shitty) ideas definitely didn't help in this regard and in fact, it was far removed in principles of MVP, lean startups & bootstrapping.

3. Money is the root of all evil

I cofounded WooThemes while I was still employed full-time and we started the company in the classic bootstrapping + DIY fashion that is so popular. We grew the business organically from there, kept expenditure down as long as possible and even resisted office space for the first 6-odd months (preferring to work from home). This was as close to being the perfect startup model as you'd get (which resonates with the success we've had almost 4 years down the line).

Radiiate though was far removed from that model, because this time around I had accumulated enough capital, the (WooThemes) office was settled (so Radiiate could just work from there) and instead of being DIY, I had hired a team (read: expenditure). The lack of bootstrapping, DIY and my strategic involvement, meant that trying to grow organically was near impossible and the money made it easier to not face the reality (of changing things around or stopping alltogether).

4. Team composition & experience is always integral

I say this with absolutely no disrespect to Cobus & Marie (the Radiiate team), as they did an incredible job throughout and I believe they're going on the bigger, better things now.

If I had to do this all over again, I would've definitely hired more experience to be more of a guide to Cobus & Marie. I had originally hoped that I could be that guide, but ever since I became the "business guy at WooThemes", I had lost my technical knack and thus couldn't be much of a guide / help with those things.

I also regret not hiring a hardcore developer to compliment the extreme design & front-end talent that we had in the team. Various projects fell of the wayside, because we didn't have a developer in-house (multiple colabs didn't pan out) and by the time I decided to try hire someone, the expense thereof was just to significant to warrant another "pivot" (which would've delayed the decision to shut Radiiate down).

5. I don't want to be a solo founder

There must be a reason that Y Combinator prefers multiple founder teams... Duh... :)

I truly doubt that I will ever again attempt to put something together on my own; just having someone with the same, vested interest in the success of the startup means more than most can imagine. Having a cofounder to discuss problems with and having them help out with the load (especially in terms of the strategic & leadership stuff) is invaluable.

Starting up again, means doing it all over again

Ultimately I think I defied my own recipe when I started Radiiate. There was nothing wrong with the idea - in principle at least - or the passion behind the whole thing, but I guess my previous success made me arrogant / ignorant to a certain extent.

I lost quite a chunk of money trying to start this up and that is a punch that I've had to take on the chin. Whilst I doubt that I'll be doing a fully fledged startup in the short term (at least to the point where I'm not involved daily / operationally with WooThemes anywhere), if I had to do so, I would focus my attention on doing it properly and truly starting up again.

This means no luxuries in terms of cash or not having to be DIY; it would be back to square one and into the trenches. There really is no shortcuts to starting up a new business. I tried to take a few and got burned subsequently.

If you haven't heard of or are using Instapaper yet, then you're missing out. Massively.

I was admittedly a late adopter of Instapaper and whilst I've had an account (and used it on & off) for almost 2 years now, it is only in the last 6 months that it has really become an integral part of my daily routine.

The basic idea behind Instapaper is that most of us don't have time to interrupt what we're doing to read an article online - especially if they're a tad on the long side - and the service thus allows you to save those articles for reading them later (either via your web browser or via native iPhone / iPad apps). Since my days are normally unplanned and I'm constantly being pulled in multiple directions, Instapaper works really well for me and I spend most of my time using it before going to sleep at night, when consuming content via the iPad app (Instapaper being one of the main reasons that I love my iPad).

My current content consumption flow would be to find an interesting link via my Twitter stream and saving it for reading later on Instapaper. I also use Reeder (desktop, iPhone & iPad) to follow a bunch of cool blogs' RSS feeds and whilst the app is absolutely beautiful (in terms of reading & sharing from there), I still prefer to save articles I want to read to Instapaper instead.

There's one reason for this: Instapaper allows me to curate my own reading list.

I've never been a fan of bookmarking services (I could never fit del.icio.us into my workflow for example), even though the benefits of these are pretty obvious. Instapaper however makes it easy & obvious to curate a list of everything I've read and it's especially the list of articles that I loved which I really like. This fits into my content consumption flow, because I'm already using Instapaper as my reader, so being able to archive / like / curate my reads in a couple of seconds makes it easy to use (instead of having to use another service).

Having all of the content I've consumed in one place makes it easy to find articles that I want to reference for my own blogging or to use as an input in setting up new campaigns / implementing new business strategies. Having that available without having to do something much more than initially reading it, is even better. :)

Try Instapaper!