Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter & Chris Donnelly

How I Failed: Trying to please the wrong people, with Founder Rob Fitzpatrick

Dec 15, 2022

Rob Fitzpatrick, founder of a failed business, shares his journey of success and failure. He discusses challenges in raising funds, shifting focus, and relocating the company during the 2008 financial crash. He also reflects on personal struggles, lessons learned from failure, and the importance of aligning ideas with lifestyle and values.

17:17

Episode guests

Rob Fitzpatrick

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Underestimating the stress and time-consuming nature of investor discussions can lead to difficulties in sales and cash flow management.

Relying too heavily on investors' guidance can steer a company away from charting its own course, emphasizing the value of optionality and staying true to the founder's vision.

Deep dives

Painful Road to Managing Finances

Managing a company's finances can be challenging. Filing accounts often becomes a painful process. In this podcast episode, the host introduces Intuit QuickBooks as a solution to simplify financial management for founders and businesses. QuickBooks helps with tasks like centralizing documents for self-assessment, efficient payroll processing, invoicing, and time tracking. It provides a comprehensive view of a company's financials, enabling better business decision-making. The platform is user-friendly, taking only 15 minutes to get started.

Introduction

4min

Struggling to Raise Funds and Turning to Bootstrapping

2min

Moving the Company, Raising Funds, and Shift in Focus

2min

Navigating Financial Challenges and Overcoming Personal Struggles

4min

Lessons Learned from Failure and Navigating the Investor Landscape

6min

How do you know what to do when you’re just starting out?

In 2007, Rob Fitzpatrick and his two co-founders, were in their early twenties. They were programmers just out of academia and had an idea for a business. They were accepted to YCombinator in the same cohort as teams like Dropbox and Songkick. They got deals with big companies like Sony Music, MTV, and the BBC, were on national talk shows, got great press coverage and moved to London to be in the centre of their industry. But they died in their fourth year…

What went wrong? Listen to find out.

If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?

hello@secretleaders.com

Sponsor links:

quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

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