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!).

9 Mar, 2022

How to actually help an early stage startup

Alicia Navarro2022-03-09T15:39:29+00:00March 9th, 2022|Birth of a Startup, Lessons & Advice|

I'm at it again, second time around. I'm back in the madness/hellscape/euphoria of early stage startup life. Like giving birth to an actual child (I'm told), after a few years, you forget how bad the experience was, and just remember the great bits. That is what entices you to do it again. Then back in

28 May, 2020

The end of a startup

Alicia Navarro2020-05-30T00:32:57+01:00May 28th, 2020|Birth of a Startup|

13 years ago, I began a version of this blog. You can even read that first post here (and if you scroll to the bottom of Navarland.com, you can read these early blog posts in chronological order). I called the blog Birth of a Startup, and it was going to be about the trials and

13 Jan, 2020

How to choose an Advisory Board for your startup

Alicia Navarro2020-01-13T16:54:35+00:00January 13th, 2020|Birth of a Startup, Lessons & Advice|

I'm writing this blog post instead of writing an email. It would be an email to a fabulous proptech company at which I am the Chairman (Chairwoman? Chairperson? nah, I'm cool with Chairman). I figure I may as well write this advice down once and scale it, rather than rewrite it again and again for

23 Dec, 2019

Memories of old dreams

Alicia Navarro2019-12-23T13:26:36+00:00December 23rd, 2019|Birth of a Startup, Random musings, Ruminations|

A few years ago, while rummaging through old boxes at my parents' house in Sydney, I discovered a list of my childhood dreams. I must have been 14 or 15 when I wrote it. It was written on a piece of paper, wedged in an old journal. Reading it whisked me back to my youth,

14 Nov, 2019

To start-up or not to start-up, that is the question

Alicia Navarro2019-11-14T18:22:38+00:00November 14th, 2019|Birth of a Startup, Ruminations|

18 months ago, I stepped down from the company I birthed and led for 11 years. One of the (many) reasons I did this, is because I was eager to start other companies. I had so many ideas brewing, but while you are running a company, you really don't have time for much else. I

25 May, 2019

What I’ve been working on: FLOWN

Alicia Navarro2019-05-28T13:06:11+01:00May 25th, 2019|Birth of a Startup, Puppy adventures, Ruminations, Sabbatical|

A week or two after I left Skimlinks, a year ago now, I first encountered this problem: that it's hard to get things done in London sometimes. I mean, its great for networking and selling and having meetings... but it's awful for getting focused work done. Most companies opt for open-plan offices, and more and

4 Apr, 2019

1 year after leaving Skimlinks

Alicia Navarro2019-04-04T14:35:50+01:00April 4th, 2019|Birth of a Startup, Puppy adventures, Random musings|

Today is the one year anniversary of announcing I was leaving (and actually leaving) Skimlinks. As I write this, I am sitting at my computer in a beautiful old chateau in Avallon, with a cute puppy on my lap, while on my second hour of a phone call to Vodafone, trying to get my phone

2 Apr, 2019

Lancelot heads to Avallon

Alicia Navarro2019-04-03T16:00:52+01:00April 2nd, 2019|Birth of a Startup, Puppy adventures|

The poetry and synchronicity of my choice of car name and my choice of first destination in France is not lost on me. Both Lancelot and Avallon are famous in the Arthurian legend, which I was obsessed with as a child (well, and as an adult). It is fitting that this is the start of

20 Mar, 2019

Leithy, Lumi and Lancelot hit the road

Alicia Navarro2019-03-22T12:09:13+00:00March 20th, 2019|Birth of a Startup, Puppy adventures, Ruminations|

I have some exciting news to announce. On April 1st, Lumi and I will be heading off in my new car (that I’m dubbing Lancelot) on a 3 month+ road trip around France. Yep, Leithy, Lumi and Lancelot are leaving London for a while. Why? A few reasons. #1. Because London is getting me down

22 Sep, 2018

My “sabbatical” (or my “Summer of Love”)

Alicia Navarro2019-02-11T20:48:11+00:00September 22nd, 2018|Birth of a Startup, Travel|

As many of you know, on April 4th, 2018, I stood shaking with nerves in front of the Skimlinks team, and told them that I was stepping down as CEO. After over 10 years of dedicated and passionate work, I had made the tough decision to bring on a new CEO better suited to the next