• Founders Views

How our network helps with the Startup Wobble

1st July, 2016 - Treatout Founder

As is true with all startups, it is a bit of a roller coaster ride. Regardless of whether you are an overnight success or a slow burner, all founders go through those moments, days or even weeks when they feel the Startup Wobble. Those dark moments of self-doubting and thoughts of what have I done.

At TreatOut we are lucky, or maybe even blessed. There are three of us. We know each really well. We have been friends for over 10 years, co-founders for less than one. We have a bond.

When one of us is filled with doubts, the others know what to say or do. And because we have this bond, this trust, we know we can talk about it without the fear of repercussions.

Our bond is one of the greatest strengths of our startup. However, we are also like any startup with a lone founder. We can’t do this all by ourselves. We need reassurance, we need help, we need guidance, and we need to talk to others. Most of all, together, we need to know we are not alone.

So how do we do this? The answer is simple – we network.

At TreatOut we use social media both personally and under our TreatOut brand, and individually we maintain our LinkedIn profiles. We notice that while initial connections are made mostly on Twitter, that this is very quickly followed up with our connections looking at our LinkedIn page. And we of course do exactly the same in reverse. Before we sign up to events, competitions, funding rounds or accelerators we will check out the individuals involved on LinkedIn and Twitter.

But that is not all we do. London also has an amazing startup scene. There are so many free events on, you could go to a different one every night. At TreatOut we connect to these groups via Google Campus, General Assembly, accelerators, food tech groups and pitching competitions.

We cannot overstate how important these events have been. We always come home having learnt something new. It could be as simple as realising that the Startup Wobble is felt by everyone, or sometimes we come away with pages of notes, and lists of software to sign up to. Other times we simply come home reassured we are on the right track.

On Tuesday this week we attended an event held at WeWork by Vincent Dignan on Growth Hacking Your Product Launch. We nearly didn’t go, as there were two other events at the same time that sounded great as well. One of us was in the middle of the Startup Wobble and as the event began to run half an hour late we started to consider the benefits of gin and whiskey. But as with all good things, the wait was worth it. We came out with pages of ideas, and lists of software of look at. Best of all, the wobble was swept away with a good healthy dose of enthusiasm and the reassurance that we are on the right track.

Then we went to the pub!

So our advice to Startup Founders is to use your networks and take advantage of the free Startup events that are being run all the time. You will learn lots, meet interesting people and get that reassurance that is the perfect antidote for the Startup Wobble.