Making The Decision
I’ve always been drawn towards startups, I love being a part of the creation of something new and I love feeling like your work genuinely matters. Some people avoid it like the plague, the idea of late nights, weekends and missed holidays seems like voluntary slavery but to me it’s exhilarating.
I wanted to lead a team, I wanted to make something that mattered and work with people that cared about more than the money. I had skills that were in demand.
I decided it was time to cut out the middle man, to assume some risk and chase my own projects. I had savings, I had the drive, and I had little financial burden, no apartment or kids. I wrote up a little doc about my current position with 2 sections: positives and negatives. I had 4 positives and 15 negatives.
I found two very lucrative contracts right out of the gates.
Have A Plan
The plan initially was to work on a product I’d had in my head for awhile, I’d done mockups, I’d done MVPs, I’d gotten quotes from designers on screens. I decided I’d work off my savings for a few months and see if I could get this off the ground.
But by this time word had spread that I was available for work, a friend referred me to some people looking for help with their Website. It’ll only be a few weeks I told myself.
Then another contract came along, it’ll only be 4 months I told myself.
Then the contract was extended, it’ll only be another 3 months I told myself.
And here I am, a few months later having somehow been sucked into the contracting game. Something has been becoming clearer and clearer to me: it takes money to make money. I’ve tried running startups before, and we’ve never had the funds to go full-time, we’ve always been applying for this grant or that, or applying for an accelerator here or there. What I needed was money, and what I need now is money. Cold. hard. cash. Squids, Blips, Bob.
Something else became clear after stepping away from the product for a little bit was that it wasn’t that great an idea really, and I hadn’t been thinking straight. I had clung to it like a life raft to justify my decision to start out.
Ok – New Plan
I’m pleased to say that WebPhase is going to be a Creative Development Agency. I, me, the Royal We, are making websites for clients. The longterm goal is to find a webapp or SaaS idea and bring it to life, and I can think of no better way to get that started than by gathering some like minded people and working together.
Prototyping
For this plan to pay off I need a new approach to prototyping. I’m going to take ideas, give them 1-2 months with a set number of features and be strict with myself and the team when deciding if the product is worth something or to just pop it on Github.
Incorporating
In terms of actually setting up I was lost. In the wild, without a guide or a hope. I realised I was going to need to spend money to get this done correctly. I came across a few accounting sites that help you set up as a private limited company or as part of an umbrella company.
I knew the company was something I wanted to grow, so I decided to go with a Private Limited company. After a pile of paper work and bringing a few forms for a walk – WebPhase was born.*
- * And like 2 weeks of waiting…
- ** Get it together CRO
Branding
So a big part of Incorporating was choosing a name, and a logo. This was dictated a lot by who I am. If I ever brought the company global I wanted something that would link it to its originality.
