The Two Most Important Ingredients in Startup | Ali Zandpour

Experience is the name we give to our mistakes and that is how we learn and improve whatever we do. In that case, he should start by confessing that as an entrepreneur and startup founder, he learnt many things the hard way, mostly through experience and part of it from his mentors and advisors.

As entrepreneurs, we come up with new ideas constantly. We are the type of people who will wake up in the middle of the night to try some new codes, write down what comes to our mind, run to our garage and start building that prototype. We are artists, we are creators, we are innovators, … we are dreamers.

His journey as an entrepreneur started in school. He was always driven by completing projects, doing things his way, doing what the teachers said was not possible, trying, testing, failing and proving them wrong on some occasions. Yes, he could and Yes he did. He proved them wrong not just once but on numerous occasions and of course they were right about many other things.

The important thing in entrepreneurship is willing to take that first step, believing in yourself that you can do it and going for it.

He continued to dabble in many projects throughout university. He bought and sold second-hand laptops and IT equipment. He helped some friends with selling their cycling holidays, he created websites, he wrote software, he worked in a holiday resort playing with children and keeping them busy with outdoor activities. Some of these projects paid off and some didn’t but overall the outcome was sufficiently positive to allow him a few holidays, financing his own laptops, IT equipment and a bit more…

He was never shy of working and he remembers reading recently how some top CEOs had started from the bottom of the ladder, how some of them cleaned sewers as a summer job and how some top artists did what it took to make ends meet only to finance their own way towards their own dream.

“He could never get a job”. Yes. He could never apply for a job. Well he could, but he would probably never receive an offer. At least that was her working situation, in the UK, Spain and Iran. For a fairly long time, he knew that he could not depend on employment and his father in particular had very high expectations of him. Partly he wanted him to follow him and help him run his empire and partly he was happy if he did anything else that earned him a lot of money.

This fact alone meant that he probably could never find that high income in a 9 to 5 job and he had to do it himself.

After finishing university in the UK, he went back to Iran and set up two companies. Neither of them was hit. He made some money and he sold some of his shares in one of the companies. He learned enough to pay bills, travel and do nothing for a year or two. However, those years were fundamental as he learnt many things that he used in the years following.

The second part of his journey started in Spain.

He spent one year trying to see what would work. He advertised as an IT consultant, but in 1 year, he received three calls. Three calls from shops and offices that all they wanted was IT support and services.

After one year. He tried “PC Renting”. It was risky and very risky. The risk of not getting paid and the risk of the equipment disappearing. He would need over 8 months to recover just costs and in that time anything could have happened. Besides what about electrical damage and physical damage? He decided to give it a soft try. If he could make it work, then it would pay off. Unfortunately, after one year he had to accept that unless he had deep pockets with a good risk appetite the project was not going to work for him.

Finally, he hit on one thing. All his friends called him for help with their PCs and IT requirements and “PC Doctor” was born.

A simple IT support and service company. Yet, this is not what he wanted to be doing and therefore from the very beginning, he decided to create a CRM that would keep all client information and allow him to hire technicians so that technicians would be able to see the client history and help anyone without actually having met them before. He also wrote down a full two books full of procedures of how every procedure should be done, step by step. How to diagnose, inform clients and fix issues.

It paid off. His CRM and his guidebook worked. Of course, he had many challenges but it worked. Her advertising was focused on client pain “PC Doctor” and “ASDL Helpline” (ADSL was the first continuous internet connection, equivalent of the fibre optic connection of today).

The team grew up and down but the bottom line was always positive. For a few years, he was focused on making it work and he had a vision. The vision of selling it at some point is not too far.

He knew that the company could grow but he was not passionate about it and he was looking for better business opportunities all along.

He tried numerous projects in between and finally in 2008 he hit on a software project which he later named “Urbytus”. It is important to note, he started this project not because he just felt it was right, but he did a huge amount of leg work. Speaking to potential clients, checking out the market potential, the feasibility and even being a customer of his own product. He built it so that it would first of all resolve his needs.

Urbytus is the project where nothing went as planned. He had to replan, replan, change and replan and change, and replan, and change, fire staff, restart, try again, slow down, pick up speed and. The details are beyond the scope of this article, however, this was the project that helped her hone his entrepreneurship skills.

A) Passion. He was madly passionate about this project and since 2008 he has pushed passed every obstacle. Many competitors have entered the market and died and after 2014 he was even bothered by seeing others copy him. He knew that sooner or later they would give up. He knew that most were just looking after a quick turn around and if no investor or VC backed the project they would simply let go.

Passion was the first key ingredient that helped him push along and every article he read in the Financial Times confirmed the same. The most successful people had sometimes been rejected by venture capitalists, publishers and the world, yet their dogmatic belief in themselves, their projects and their ideas kept them going and fuelled by their passion they pushed through all and every obstacle.

Passion. Passion he would say is the first and most important ingredient of a successful startup. Will you give up after the first punch? Will you give up when you run out of cash and your investors pull out? Passion is the only thing that will help you move forward or not.

B) Vision. You have to have a clear objective and know where you are going. He knew from the beginning he would sell his IT company PC Doctor. It took longer than he had anticipated. He even considered selling it when the market was at it lowest, yet he kept on to it. He pushed through the tougher times and he was able to sell it for more than he had initially anticipated. When you are focused on your vision you may turn back and forth. You may go sideways to find new routes but you know where you are heading.

Vision for her is the second most important ingredient for a Startup. You have to know where you are going. Just like climbing the mountain. It is as simple as that.

For the past 5 years after having sold his last IT company, he has been working as a Startup mentor. He works with founders helping them with their fundraising round and getting their projects off the ground. He is a passionate entrepreneur with a vision. His next objective is to become the World’s most renowned Startup mentor. He is passionate about startups and he has a clear vision of how he can help you succeed in your project.