A British Industrial designer, Matt Barnett moved to Australia and founded Bonjoro after a couple of startup failures, growing to a team across 7 countries in 3 years. Matt’s love of building great products is only surpassed by his total commitment to building great business culture, and his goal is to be the next Zappos, to be most loved brand in the world.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Matt’s Father founder of Black Widow Bows
When business started difficulties overcame:
“it was a very, very steep learning curve… Probably my biggest challenge was naïveté. I think you do need to toughen up a bit in business… You will have to make some hard decisions such as getting rid of team that aren’t working out. When you first start these are the real hard things to do. Who are the right people to take money from? Who are the right team to work with? If it’s not working can you get rid of them, can you move on? If product isn’t working can you drop it and move on to something else? I think those are the hard decisions to make when you first start you take them to fast”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Book by Ben HorowitzFavourite Quote:
“When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going”
Recommended Online Resources:
Y Combinator – Youtube videos on building products and services
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“don’t give up. It takes years… If at first you don’t succeed keep trying, keep trying, keep trying. The ones of us that tend to make it tend to be the people who keep trying and don’t give up. There is a high failure rate but failure is not the end of the road it’s just another point on the learning curve. So do not give up whatever you do”…[Listen for More]
More About Matt Barnett:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Every choice you make has an end result.” Zig Ziglar
Other Quotes From the Chat with Matt Barnett:
- “there is a million ways to build a business”
- “solving a need not a want”
- “if you are an entrepreneur you tend to be quite stubborn which you need to be to have the drive to keep going when everyone else is telling you shouldn’t do it”
- “the best way to learn is to make the mistakes. If you make them earlier that’s great, if you make them as quick as possible that’s great”
- “really, really think is it a need and be brutally honest with yourself because if it’s not a need don’t bother”
- “I think learning to manage is an important piece here.”
- “Soft skills are probably the most important skills to building your business that you can possibly have. If you are fresh in coming into this you will need to learn on the role”
- “everyone else goes through much harder times and you need to toughen up”
- “you hit hard times in your business when you are just fighting fires and sometimes you just think oh, I just want to give up for today”
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