Running a startup is like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the Gorilla is Tired.

Running a startup is like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.

And - mostly it’s over for now and I’m back to a more rational stage of functioning - but my god have I been tired. Grey, shaking and barely able to speak type level of tired.

Starting riding at 06:15, getting home at 23:00, sleeping for 2 hours then waking to do 90 minutes of strategy work because that was the only time I wouldn’t have to be watching the service level of tired.

Then starting again.

Having two full weekends off in an 8 month period level of tired.

Shout out to Harry from Flying Dutchman Bikes who lent me Scamp the dog (the bestest doggo) and listened to my incoherent ramblings when I was grey, shaking and in need of some dog therapy and a sympathetic ear.

In part it’s the sacrifice that makes it so emotional for me when I see the dispatch panel and us rolling 50 bikes at a time. Or see a picture of a kid having the time of their life getting a lift on one of our bikes. Or hear of a 15 foot pink dodo being transported by a 45kg female Pedal Me’er, by bike, bringing joy and wonder to all who see.

Or one of our employees telling me how this job has changed their life - that they are now a someone after years of being the broke, bullied and skiving kid at school. Earning good money and doing something that has status, is impressive. (He nearly made me cry).

But the thing is I don’t believe in working lots of hours, it’s stupid. Why?

Mainly a mind blowing concept: “Your productivity can be lower than zero”.

Basically you reach a level of fatigue where you’re making mistakes faster than you’re fixing them.

In the short term, this is bad. In the long term, over-work is disastrous. To your network, your productivity, your ability to change things for the better.

So please for the love of god don’t work like I did for more than a week at a time. Keeping your brain sharp, looking after your team so that they will look after you, having meaningful interactions - are all things that will help you in whatever you’re looking to achieve.

If you’re gonna do a startup, do everything you can to get enough funding in that you don’t have to work to these ridiculous levels. Our issue was that what we were proposing was so radical and different (had to be to work). That we had real difficulty raising.

But I can’t help but think that there should have been funds queuing up the door to give us money, given the potential, which would have made everything way easier!