SELL something before trying to raise external funding, startup insights from Mike Briercliff

By @SimonCocking. Mike Briercliffe Digital Chief + Social Biz Architect. IT & Comms adventurer, startup mentor, speaker, firestarter

What is your background briefly?

I have been in computing for 40 years in general management from an ops and marketing background

How did you end up doing what you do now?

I got into what we now call “social” since 1998

What is a social biz architect?

My role as an architect is to figure out how to build a “social community cluster”: which platforms, what routines and methodologies, design workflow

You describe yourself as a firestarter. What sort of fires do you start?

Firestarter: I encourage young entrepreneurs to get new businesses moving, helping to fan the fire and assist in the longer term

1 min pitch for what you do / what’s a typical day like?

Day at base: spend 3 hours or so checking all communities under management. Read incoming content and curate/moderate/distribute. Follow 200 or so new people on Twitter and delete idles/fakes/baddies who’ve followed me. Check messages and connection requests on personal LinkedIn. THEN do some creative stuff in sales opportunities, blogs, new business. Make some calls and by late afternoon catch America West Coast as it wakes up.
Then a swift half at the local bar.

Congrats on being ranked #19 on the Onalytica list for top Data Security thought leaders – where did it all go right?

I don’t truly know their algorithm – so not sure! I just do the right thing as often as possible in my areas of data-centric expertise.

How do you mentor / what tips do you give to startups?

Tips: SELL something before trying to raise external funding. Don’t recruit too far ahead of revenue covering cost. Don’t go for the trappings of success until you are becoming successful. Focus on a release of Minimum Viable Product to kick-start revenues …

What trends are you excited / concerned about in relation to the work you do at the moment?

Smart Systems

Is the UK a great place for Tech?

The WHOLE of the U.K. yes. Not just Silicon Roundabout

What’s your plan for your strategies post Brextit?  

Business as usual

Wales / Yorks / London / US how do you manage that one?

I live in Wales. Business interests in Yorks. Business generation in London and USA. I use hot-desks in each location.

Who do you follow for your inspiration and insights?

Myself and my close friends and family, especially my deceased Dad.

We can be online 24/7, how do you manage your work life balance?

That’s a good question – there are no weekends in this business – so I focus on getting as much done during summer and autumn so that I can time-slice generously in the ski season

Anything else we should have asked you / you’d like to add?

What’s my favourite quote? “Never let you memories be greater than your dreams”. Doug Ivester.

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