A couple of weeks back I found out that I was selected to be part of Entrepreneur Academe, a year long mentor programme for women entrepreneurs run by Angel Academe and sponsored by the City of London. Yesterday we had our first session where we introduced ourselves and our businesses.
At the start of this year it was only me that had done any work on the byflock products. As of today we’re a team of 6 working across our first two products. We’ve come a long way but have much further to go. As any founder will attest to, getting a startup off the ground is hard work and can, at times, feel quite lonely. Every day you’re faced with something new. You learn about yourself and others, read up on subjects you’ve only ever heard of in passing before but now suddenly is your responsibility. You get asked a lot of questions, questions that you don’t have all the answers to but eventually, or actually rather quickly, need to. It’s a constant learning by doing process. Incredibly exciting but at times a bit daunting.
Launching a startup, it turns out, is more about learning than it is about knowing.
– Inc. Learning to Love Being In Over Your Head
We’ve got a very big year ahead of us with byflock and just as having mentors is what has helped me get to where I am today as a UX designer, being part of Entrepreneur Academe will make all the difference. It was great to meet with the other women that have been selected, and with Sarah, Kerri and Simon who run Entrepreneur Academe, to talk through our businesses and the year ahead. There is no doubt that having the support of others in similar situations, those who have been through it before, or are experts in a particular area will be invaluable in avoiding mistakes, providing guidance to some of the many decisions that are to be made and help us get to where we need to go. And I hope that yesterday was also the start of what will be life long friendships with a group of women who will go far.
Image: Happy Fingers via Shutterstock
