With a remit that includes nurturing a community of 300-plus startups and entrepreneurs, Fishburners CEO Nicole O’Brien has plenty of insights and advice on the best way to get a new business idea off the ground.
When popular startup hub Fishburners set out to appoint a new CEO, business leader and social enterprise champion Nicole O’Brien was unanimously chosen as the right person to take the not-for-profit into its next decade.
Likewise for Nicole, the opportunity to lead and grow Fishburners and its community of 300-plus startups, represented the perfect next step and a chance to pursue her passion for entrepreneurialism and making a positive impact.
Now six months in, and with her feet firmly under the table, Nicole took time out to talk about some of the challenges and opportunities facing startups today, and why being part of a supportive network can make all the difference.
What do you think is one of the most critical elements to get right when starting a business?
You have to be very clear about who your market and is and how you can best service them – that’s got to continuously be your focus. Everyone is operating in highly competitive environments so you need to make sure all aspects of your business, your product or offering are aligned to your customer needs. To do this you need to talk to people – there’s lots of desktop research you can do but you can’t go beyond those face-to-face conversations.
It’s also important to understand what your competitors are doing, including testing their product offering and considering how frictionless the journey is. This all takes time and effort but it will save you angst and problems further down the track. If you get it right from the start, the opportunities are there to have a successful business.
How important is it to embrace social responsibility when you build your business these days?
Whether you’re driven by profit or purpose, I think all businesses should be looking at their triple bottom line and either give back in some way, or ensure their business operations are not having a negative impact.
It comes back to making sure you’re aligned with the values and expectations of the people you serve. It’s a key consideration people factor in now and it gives you that added level of authenticity. It’s also another compelling reason for them to buy from you or work with you, particularly for younger people, who as we’ve seen with the recent climate protests, are very socially aware.
What do you see as one of the toughest challenges facing startups, particularly in their first year in business?
Having to do everything yourself and potentially being on your own is a major challenge. This is why places like Fishburners can be so popular – you’re hanging out with a bunch of people who are all in a similar situation. I think there’s real strength in that.
When you’re having a bad day or there’s a problem you can’t solve, having people you can troubleshoot with and get feedback from, particularly those at a later stage of business, is really important – both to your success and your mental health. When I talk to people at Fishburners about what’s the key benefit of being here, they all say being part of a community and having access to a network of people they can talk to and bounce ideas off.
For anyone interested in starting a business, what would you say is the biggest opportunity for startups today?
Technology has created so many new ways to have a business. You don’t need to have a lot of money to invest in bricks and mortar, you can create a successful business by establishing an ecommerce platform, a Software as a Service solution (SaaS), or an artificial intelligence (AI) product.
It’s also transformed the way we work with countless tools that make doing business so much easier. Whether it’s having access to secure payment gateways to extend your business into the online space, through to logistics, there’s so much technology that really liberates you in terms of how you operate and grow your business.
Of course, keeping up with it is a challenge, and a lot of people struggle with the technology side unless they’re software engineers or developers. But it’s a challenge that can be overcome, either through aligning yourself with someone who has that expertise or just by doing your research.
Since launching in 2011, Fishburners has been a springboard for more than 2,000 startups, including household names like Car Next Door. With her enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, Nicole is excited about helping the burgeoning community further expand its reach and impact and potentially enabling Australia’s next big thing.
This article was first published on the Business Australia website (formerly NSW Business Chamber) in Oct, 2019.
