Birth of a Startup

In 2006, while dealing with a relationship breakup, I started a company in my living room. To keep myself sane during that lonely, stressful, exciting time, I started a blog. I called it Birth of a Startup, and I meticulously documented all the highs, lows, and (very many) mundane moments, over the first few years of building my first company.

The blog went dormant for a while, but I managed to rescue the posts and resurrect them in this new blog. I plan to continue adding to this section of my blog as I continue to birth new startups, and make all sorts of new mistakes along the way. Enjoy (and scroll down to 2006-2008 posts to have a solid giggle at how naive I was!).

13 Dec, 2007

Yihaa! We aren’t last!

2019-02-12T09:32:53+00:00December 13th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

It is important when risking so much to find joy in simple things: being able to work when you like (of course, you end up working more than you would otherwise, but still…), being forced to learn restraint (as I have not been able to buy new clothes in longer than I ever have gone

13 Dec, 2007

Please vote for Skimbit!

2019-02-01T21:21:34+00:00December 13th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

I have good news and bad news… well, not so much bad, as really challenging.The good news: we have been nominated by Mashable for the Best Social Shopping site. Its great to be nominated by such a prestigious blog for a category we want to redefine.The bad news: being a very new site, we don’t

12 Dec, 2007

We have been ‘techcrunched’!

2019-02-12T09:33:52+00:00December 12th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

It’s a happy day today… to be discussed on someone else’s blog is one thing… but to be discussed on TechCrunch is pretty exciting stuff! And even more special is that I am three blog posts away from my good friend Nigel’s company Zygo Communications. Not a bad day for Skimbit. So, now I just

7 Dec, 2007

Presenting at Mashup Demo

2019-02-12T09:34:43+00:00December 7th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

I was lucky to be involved in Mashup Demo yesterday. Despite its catastrophic lack of internet access (the irony of running an internet application demo event where there was only one computer in the entire room capable of connecting to the internet was not lost on anyone!), it was actually a fun and rewarding event.

3 Dec, 2007

First employee

2018-10-03T19:30:00+01:00December 3rd, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

Running a business is hard enough to do, and doing it on your own is unfathomably difficult. I had always intended to hire a couple of people as soon as I got funding, but although my last entry posted 6 weeks ago said I got funding, that funding is still being processed, which completely stifled

17 Nov, 2007

Miso soup and keyboards don’t mix

2018-10-03T19:26:06+01:00November 17th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

A disaster has befallen Skimbit headquarters. My miso soup at lunch took a sudden tumble over my keyboard, resulting in the instant death of my laptop. I remained quite calm considering, instantly rushing down to the toilets with my laptop cradled in my arms like an injured child, and sticking it under the hand-dryer in

19 Oct, 2007

I got funding!

2018-10-03T19:36:02+01:00October 19th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

One of my most important tasks on my return to London was to try and secure speedy funding. I didn't have much money left, having spent much of what I had on the business and then on a rather extravagent 7 weeks of travelling around Europe and Canada (securing clients and researching the holiday and

18 Oct, 2007

Trusting people

2018-10-03T19:33:58+01:00October 18th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

How do you know who to trust? Being a naturally trusting person (some may say naive), I tend to trust everyone. "Surely they just want to help? Surely they have my best interests at heart?" And I guess I've been lucky in that, for the most part, I haven't been completely screwed in the past

9 Oct, 2007

Setting up in London

2018-10-03T19:44:13+01:00October 9th, 2007|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

I have now been in good ol' London town for about 3 weeks. And what a whirlwind of a maelstrom of dizzy madness its been. Somehow in this time I have moved to a new country, found a place to live, bought furniture, found a housemate, plus attend the Future of Web Apps conference, applied