Secret Leaders Beyond: shorting your rival’s stock for $700m but losing the war, with Founder & CEO Ian Strang
80% to 90% of startups fail. But what those stats don't tell you is how you can do loads of things right and still fail. This is what happened to Ian Strang and the company he founded, Beyond, who tried to shake up the death industry - offering price comparisons, wills, funerals, probate - those kinds of things. They certainly managed to do that. They landed some blows, but ultimately they lost the war.
This is Ian’s story, told a few months after his company failed.
He and his team came up with some ingenious ideas which led to press, shorting stocks and ultimately the regulation of the death industry itself. But that’s not how things ended.
We talk about:
- The demanding childhood which shaped his life
- His first startup
- Meeting Alan Sugar’s son
- Quitting Pollen because it was too much fun
- The bizarre circumstance for first pitching Beyond
- The problem with monetising death
- How to grow through SEO
- The April fool’s joke that yielded big publicity
- Shorting Dignity for $700m
- How to get the CMA on your side
- What is a bad advert anyway
- Auctioning your company
- The reality of being an entrepreneur
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