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Follow the money
Andreas is currently the founder & CEO of CatchApp, and the CEO of Helm, previously known as The Supper Club, which is the most established community for scaleup founders in the UK. In other words, he now has the invaluable power of hindsight.
“I always tell people to try and raise money,” insists Adamides. “First time founders will sometimes mortgage their house or they’ll sell something and put money in and they think the world will respect that they put their own money at risk.”
“The problem is if you’re a first time founder – which is risky enough as it is – if you’re risking your own financial situation, you’re doubling the risk. Try and pitch and raise money and if others are buying, then that should give you more confidence that you’re onto something.”
Going back to the anxiety-ridden moment when Adamides had to weigh out the $3 million IPO against the $10 million offer before the DotCom Bubble burst, he says perhaps there was nothing he could’ve actually done differently.
Paralysed by a thin network of business contacts and no LinkedIn, it was difficult to run his risk analysis by someone else.
“Don’t underestimate and don’t romanticise the risk too much,” warns Adamides. “If you feel you don’t have the toolkit, go and reach out to other mentors, two or three people and just triangulate.”
Adamides has taken this philosophy into his tenure as CEO of the Helm Club. As a supportive network of scale up entrepreneurs, Helm members can pitch their ideas and share their problems to get true entrepreneurial mentorship.
First time founders have the irreplicable novelty and excitement of building a business from scratch. This sense of newness, however, heightens the sting of the first business screw up.
“You have to make sure that challenges don’t crush you,” Adamides shares as a takeaway. “I saw that market crash and I remember I was frozen. As in sales, in business development, in partnerships, you just have to keep attempting more and keep moving forward.”
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