In this post Fred Wilson goes on to explain that a company should first scale & gather traction on seed funding before it goes after venture round funding. Whilst WooThemes has never taken any outside funding (we’ve bootstrapped from the beginning), Fred’s post did make me think twice about when it’s a good idea to re-invest earnings into a company.

So with WooThemes, we’ve been steadily gained traction and grown our revenues & user base since we started out, without having to really re-invest those revenues (in one significant decision) back into the business. Instead we have been very lucky in that we have a very cash flow positive business and we are thus able to cover all immediate expenditures (capital included) from those revenues.

But similarly to Squarespace (who just announced their first outside funding of $38.5m in 7 years), I can see merit in re-investing funds in a rapid growth campaign / strategy.

I think when things are going well and a business is growing steadily, it is easy to start applying revenues to optimize a business just enough to fuel that steady growth rate. But if you’re keen to ramp things up quickly & significantly, then a significant re-investment in that strategy is probably required.

Even whilst writing this post though, I’m personally at odds about how I see this strategy, as I’ve never been the kind of entrepreneur that simply wanted to throw money at something; much less a growth strategy. Instead I believe in organic growth, innovation, great ideas & clever marketing solutions.

What do you think?

Deciding on a strategy (irrespective of the complexity) is extremely hard. Sticking to it with “unwavering dedication” is even harder - especially when the going gets tough.

See, in the good times, it’s pretty easy to sit back and be content with one’s existing strategy, because there’s no reason to re-think the decisions you’ve made in the past and the direction you’re evolving in now. But when the shit hits the fan, it becomes much more difficult and second guessing becomes second nature.

I believe real entrepreneurs stick to their guns, but only long enough to realize that they need a bigger gun. If things aren’t working out, then eventually you need to wave that extreme dedication goodbye and pick a new challenge.

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Really proud of my country! :)

So the local media radar (in South Africa) has been something that I’ve found relatively hard to crack, which has been somewhat surprising considering the success of WooThemes, which I helped to co-found. This is even more surprising if you consider that there aren’t many tech startups originating from South Africa and making a global impression. But hey - maybe your local market is the hardest one to crack after all…

Whilst I’ve been featured in the odd business-focused magazine here (as the representative of WooThemes’ success), nothing overly extravagant or mainstream has come my / our way. Until recently when I was nominated for Men’s Health’s Young Gun of the Year.

Considering how mainstream Men’s Health is, it’s an absolute honour to have been nominated and then also voted for as one of the three finalists for the award.

As anyone with an ambitious & competitive edge, I’d love to win this award (I don’t even know what I’ll win, but the kudo’s would be more than enough) and I‘m thus unashamed to ask you to vote for me. :)