Martin Rand: “In the startup world execution is everything!”
VitalFields is a big name for Estonia and Startup Wise Guys, and for a good reason. A company that went through the very first batch of our accelerator, had a major exit in 2016, when it was acquired by the Climate Corporation. We caught Martin Rand, founder of VitalFields, for “5 wise minutes” chat to hear his thoughts on networking, startup-investor relations and his future plans. Here’s the biggest takeaways from our talk.
Don’t be afraid to share your idea
First time founders tend to be afraid of telling their idea, thinking that it might be stolen, but Martin suggests exactly the opposite “When speaking to a lot of people, startups usually get a lot more back than create a risk of somebody stealing their idea. In the startup world execution is everything, and idea alone isn’t actually that valuable. So they should not be scared of talking about their business.” And this is exactly the way how Martin’s idea developed. Would you believe if we told you that what ended up being farm management system started as a surfing app?
Investors won’t invest after the first time they meet you
There’s a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions from startups about relations with investors. One important lesson Martin shares is that investors take time to minimize their risks, therefore they won’t invest after the first meeting. They want to see, if the startup is growing or not. On the other hand, they are also humans, therefore — sense of urgency, missing out and crowd-effect can play an important role in closing a round. To achieve that startups need to create a big pipeline of investors and be smart in communication with them.
Never skip a chance to network
Startups should always be ready to dive into networking, because you never know when you will meet the one person who will connect you to your biggest investor. But nobody canceled home-work either, or as Martin nicely puts it: “luck is when chance meets preparation”.
This is just a glimpse at our chat, so dive into the video to hear more wise words from Martin.
5 wise minutes is a series of talks and interviews with the smart, awesome, and inspirational people mentoring or otherwise being part of Startup Wise Guys accelerators. Stay tuned for more.
