The Cultural Capital You Need to Start a Business

Gritty Talent founder and CEO Mel Rodrigues delivered this keynote at SETSquared's Enterprising Women 3.0 Showcase on September 28th 2023.

Accessing money when you are starting a new business is vitally important. But I want to talk about another type of capital that you just can’t do without, and that I’m sure you already have in spades.

It’s your cultural capital as a founder.

It’s the glittery gluey bit that you can’t always put a financial figure on - but it is the stuff that makes you who you are and the best person to bring your idea to life.

I know this, because a lot of people have invested in my cultural capital over the last decade…helping me develop the skills, knowledge and tenacity that I needed to launch a business that dared to challenge a goliath of an industry to do things differently.

There are so many people who over the years have advised me, supported me and offered a mix of tough love and unconditional support when I didn’t know I needed it. So please see this keynote as part inspiration - part reality check - on the personal skills you’ll need - to build the businesses you dream of.

First up - make no mistake - starting a business is not for wimps. You need to grow some serious mental muscles and flex them regularly. As women who work and own businesses - odds are you’ve already grown a lot of muscle. Because you probably know what it is like to be regularly under-represented, underestimated or stereotyped at work.

You’re probably hustling like hell to hold down a day job that pays the bills, while growing your fledgling business. And maybe you’re a primary carer for children, parents, pets… partners! It’s hard to be ‘enterprising’ when the demands are coming at you from all directions, but you’ve learnt to hustle amid the chaos. You live and work not in a bubble, but in the messy, noisy and sometimes unfair ‘real’ world.

I think your lived experience make you excellent leaders - but you also have a steeper hill to climb. If you’re a woman of colour, or disabled, or from a working class background, your incline is even rockier and more exhausting. I don’t want to dwell on the stats because they make me angry - but I think a dose of fury is needed to fully comprehend why:

• Only 2% of equity finance currently goes to all-female led teams - like ours at Gritty.

And

• less than 0.5% to women of colour led start-ups.

I don’t think there are equivalent stats for disabled founders and socioeconomic background… But I suspect representation from these groups among equity raising founders is also disproportionately low. This is because there are a load of structural, financial and cultural factors at play.

You need a mix of financial stability plus practical and emotional support to be able to leave a job and start a business with no immediate source of income, and no guarantee of success. Unless you were a born genius, you’ll probably need to have accessed a half decent education and have climbed the ladder in a specific profession to now have the knowledge, skills and presence of mind to launch into a leadership role. It took 20 years for me to get to the point that I had a good enough idea for a business, and the confidence to go for it.

But my point is not about how long it takes - just that there are lots of ingredients and a fair amount of trial and error required, to cultivate your secret sauce recipe and then batch cook it! So here are some of the non-financial ingredients that I’ve found useful, the lessons I’ve learnt that I hope will help you as you enter your next phase of development.

First:

• Do it scared

I was no way ready to launch our product or do sales calls. I was particularly petrified of calling up TV Execs, some my former bosses!

I wanted to get all my ducks lined up perfectly first.

Our amazing MD, Phoebe Sinclair one day said to me ‘just do it scared’.

I said I was feeling all wobbly and fearful. She said that was okay. Make the sales calls anyway. So I did.

In fairness I was actually more afraid of Phoebe than I was of the Execs.

And you know what - they took the call and took me seriously.

NEXT -

• Do it scrappy (because out there is better than perfect)

My obsession with perfection and having to bottom out everything almost stopped us getting essential intel from the market.

There were so many things that I wanted to improve in our platform and service. But we needed to make money and we needed to see if anyone would buy it.

So we went to market with a semi-coded, far from perfect version of our new product.

It means we’re now getting feedback from the clients on what they really like and need. Or don’t need. It means we can innovate on the fly.

So far the wheels haven’t fallen off… we’re just missing a few bells and buttons!

• Fasten your own mask first… (role model/ advocacy thing)

You have to look after yourself properly - fiercely even - if you’re going to do good work and achieve your goals.

When we launched Gritty, lots of people were interested in what we were doing, and wanted to ‘collaborate’.

That was great - I loved that we were getting traction - but I found myself frequently delivering things for other people’s agendas -often for free - rather than staying tightly focused on my own.

So - yes it is important to be out there as a role model and advocate, and yes it is important to build collaborations and networks.

But make them work for you. Your time, energy and health is your most precious resource.

A quick and polite ‘no’ is always better than a long, agonising ‘yes/maybe, let’s see, followed by a struggle to get done the things that you need to do to stay afloat.

• Ask for help and accept the help

I guess this relates to my last point. I seemed to have developed an aptitude for giving help… but not always being able to ask for it.

You cannot do your best work alone.

So seek out the mentors, collaborators and colleagues who have a healthy desire for everyone to do well.

My experience has been that if they can help, they will. And if they can’t, they’ll either know someone who can… or they will deliver a polite ‘sorry no!’ :)

• Check your own biases and assumptions

So we all have a worldview built on some highly complex stuff - including where we grew up, who raised and educated us, who we like hanging out with, who grinds our gears, and how the world has treated us to date.

It means that we will make decisions subconsciously without always knowing exactly why.

For example I somehow ended up with a 90% female team. It might be because subconsciously I have an affinity bias for fantastic females… or it might be because the sister’s were the best candidates for the jobs.

Either way, I’m learning to question the assumptions I’ve made because I don’t have perfect knowledge or judgement. And I want to create a company and culture where everyone can thrive and feel welcome.

• Get comfortable with uncertainty, rejection and setbacks.

Being a founder is not a comfortable, routine occupation.

You’re going to have curve balls thrown at you. Things won’t go to plan. You’ll have a lot of ‘no’s.

Everything always takes longer than you think possible.

There will be people who want to rain on your parade. Not everyone will like you or what you do.

Learning what to care about and what to ditch has been one of my most liberating lessons.

My job isn’t to please everyone, it's to develop the best product I can and run a business that is healthy, sustainable and profitable - so we can be well resourced to deliver great work.

My final and favourite tip -

• Rest before you Rise.

Please rest as hard as you work.

Because you’re going to work really hard. Sometimes very long days, sometimes on unexpected challenges that make your head hurt.

As a founder you’re living this weird, mystical dichotomy of being energised, passionate and switched on at all times in order to drive things forward - while also requiring a certain amount of buddha-like detachment to let go of the things that don’t work, accept the fails and pick yourself up each time.

So the secret to being 50% Buddha, 50% Beyonce is to take time out as often as you can. To rest, reflect and regroup. Then work your arse off.

Then rinse & repeat.

My breakthrough moments have always been away from the laptop.

And usually when I was close to jacking it all in.

My favourite quote at the moment is from Donna Ashworth:

“Take it slowly child of the universe…

You’re not here to burn out, you’re here to burn brightly!”

We need all of you - out there - burning brightly to create 21 Century businesses that deliver the things that the world wants and needs.

So burn bright - but also take that power nap.