Mike Meissner – Stop, Think, and Listen to Avoid Losses in Your Start-Up

Aug 13, 2020

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Mike Meissner is an entrepreneur, a people-oriented leader, and an industry expert in logistics and supply chain management as well as biological and environmental testing. He proudly wears 20 years of professional experience in many countries across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific, where he built several successful businesses “just for pleasure really.”

“We now invest in better quality and higher prices, and we shorten times. This means fewer headaches and issues. We provide what we promise.”

Mike Meissner

Worst investment ever

Barbeque, wine, business idea

Mike and a friend had a barbecue a few months ago. After the second bottle of wine, they joked about inventing a digital container that would keep the required transportation temperature throughout the journey.

The next morning, when sober, Mike and his friend researched their idea intensively. They found out that this kind of box doesn’t exist. So they started developing it from a design and an engineering point. Eventually, they came up with a fantastic container in different sizes for different commodities.

The novel box

The box is charged like a mobile phone for four and a half hours, you set your desired temperature, you lock it and the box guarantees to maintain this very same temperature for the next 72 hours. It has an integrated SIM card and sends push notifications with details such as the patient file, the box’s current location, who’s handling your product, at what humidity, luminosity, and at what temperature. Such details create transparency.

So essentially, no more dry ice, ice packages that you freeze, and put on top of your package for your shipment. It doesn’t matter if your flight is delayed because 72 hours is plenty of time from anywhere in the world to reach its destination.

What could go wrong?

Nine months later, Mike’s box went into patenting and had a successful pilot with his clients.

Everybody was happy. Mike was receiving compliments for a noble and promising idea. This box was going to be a hit. Nothing could go wrong. Or so he thought.

However, the beginning has been terrible. Mike made a lot of silly decisions that cost them money and time.

Once they had the box designed and assembled and the design documents approved by authorities, they started to source for components. Mike had two component suppliers. The first one was a friend who was selling the parts for $509. The second supplier was very far away, and Mike had no personal relationship with him. However, he sold the components for $240.

Choosing the cheaper option

So out of Mike’s nature of not being a big fan of finance and administration, he just wanted to get his box done. He wanted to touch it and was eager to put it on the table of the FDA for approval. So Mike chose the second supplier and placed an order for $25,000. Quite a considerable amount for a start-up.

The components arrived six weeks later but got stuck in customs because wrong customs clearance codes had been used. They had to pay hefty fines for this. To make matters worse, the components turned out to be of the lowest quality possible.

Mike had ordered for eco-friendly components because he didn’t want to be testing the environment with harmful materials or components. So when they sent the parts to an independent testing facility, just to give them the confidence of the materials used, they ended up having the worst PVC materials that you can launch in the market. So nobody would have ever approved this to be eco-friendly.

It also cost him another $600 to recycle the components that they couldn’t use.

So far, they’ve lost a lot of production time, and Mike ended up paying one and a half times as much as the first supplier. But, he’s glad he was able to learn how to avoid losing money on investments thanks to this experience.

Lessons learned

Find people who compliment you

You will never have all the qualities needed to set up a successful company. So surround yourself with people who complement the qualities that you don’t have.

Learn the basics

Even though you don’t have the general interest or the general specialty in areas such as finance, administration, purchasing, quality control, you have to force yourself to learn at least the basics so that you at least know what is going on in your business. You cannot just go for your vision and your product without having the essentials.

Andrew’s takeaways

Manage your risks

When starting a company, you’ve got to become a great risk manager to avoid losses.

Finance adds no value

Value comes from your ideas and the implementation of those ideas. Finance adds no value. It is a support function, a measurement tool, and a feedback mechanism. If you can understand finance, then you will be able to see where you’re at and the results of your prediction so that you can implement your ideas from the point of knowledge.

Cheap is expensive

Sometimes the cheapest option is, in fact, the most expensive.

Actionable advice

Think before you act, take a step back. Try to listen to more than two or three opinions of your family and friends, as well as your competitors. Be patient and think things through first. If you lose a day or two, that won’t change anything in your success.

No. 1 goal for the next 12 months

Mike’s goal for the next 12 months is to continue growing his start-up by improving its products and services. He also wants to start expanding into other geographies.

Parting words

“If you’re on the edge of starting something, I encourage you to follow your dreams. Do it right, take the learnings from me and others so that you do not commit the same” mistakes.