Lately I was chosen as a mentor at the start-up network Wayra, based in Munich, Germany.
It is a part of Telephonic, a Spanish conglomerate in the telecom business.
I am really excited for being a part of this big team. This is possible thanks to Nills Seipel who selected me. My role would be to advice and support start-ups that are based @ Wayra. My previous experience in the field was here in Sofia, Bulgaria at the Eleven Accelerator. But here comes the difference – Wayra is not taking equity in the start-ups, they are sponsoring them and giving them workplace for a while. This is a new model, which aims to turn Wayra into a start-up venture culture HUB in Munich.
I will be advising start-ups on decision making in a fast pace startup, managing resources, financial matters, etc. When it comes to managing finances and making decisions, you should rely mostly on analysis and data. If you are managing a small family budget it’s OK to do the calculations in your head but when you have to manage more people and budgets for large marketing campaigns or sales – than you really need to crunch the information on a regular basis and analyze it. At the beginning the data is always scattered and comes in a “macaroni” form – as an entrepreneur you need to learn to take decisions with 20% of the needed information and to make your best guess for the rest. You need to dig deeper than what you see on the surface. So, I am going to help start-ups how to base their decision on logic and experience, rather than entirely on gut feeling or what just seems right. When you’re starting something, not just business – anything at all, you have to be informed, you need your past experience and you need to trust your sixth sense – your energy and soul and believe in your abilities.
Actually, if everyone relied just on data a lot of new businesses would not come to life. Emotion and logic always come first. The feeling shows the direction.
Other topics I am going to discuss and help with are how to manage resources – what are resources? What are the differences between the good and the bad manager?
A good manager is defined by good management of her resources. There are two major principles in managing resources – you either get the best result/quality for a given amount of resources OR you achieve a predefined result with the lowest possible volume of resources.
Guys, please do not try both in the same time – usually it would be a disaster, try one at a time but stick to it rigorously!
Very often good products and companies don’t come from large financing. Actually, many companies started with bootstrapping or with very few resources. The reality is that we all, including companies, have limited resources. The important is what is your long-term output from those resources. Resources are not only money, but also your personal energy, your ability to make decisions, your ability to fire and/or understand and hire people, your ability to build up teams… But time is the most precious and limited resource – it impacts all other resources above and you must learn how to manage and use it efficiently. Read more here.
It is a great honor for me to take on this opportunity and I am looking forward to my first discussion. In May I will be in Munich again, so I am looking forward to many interesting meetings.
