The Hive meets Brendan McKeegan - Review

After a long break it is about time I got back to writing these blog posts. I’ll start with a review of last nights the Hive event.

This was my first event of 2009. I was in Sri Lanka getting married when the February event took place. Last nights meet definitely seems to have taken off from where 2008 finished.

I got to the Order of Melbourne bar a little before 7pm. I had not been to the bar before and it is a nice big space. I learnt from a friend who stayed there that it used to be student digs; 10 students living in office cubicles with a shared bathroom (5 without windows!). Apparently because it is so close to the RMIT art school it was predominantly arty types who used to live in it.

It was great to catch up with a few mates and to find new contacts. This is always the way at the Hive events. You end up learning new things and speaking to ‘your mates’. I think this is what allows the event to be more relaxed and ensures that the speakers open up. People seem to be very happy to open up at the Hive.

This was definitely one of the biggest Hive events I have been too. I estimate there must have been about 200 people in the bar and they were all there for the Hive - I hope this attendance level is maintained. It was also nice to see the new sponsors - although they weren’t really visible, just getting a mention before Brendan spoke. If sponsorship is the way to keep the Hive events free I am all for it!

The main event was the talk by Brendan McKeegan - you can read his bio on the hive website. He was open and friendly and pretty informative. He said he hadn’t prepared anything for the talk. However he managed to keep the audience engaged throughout. I think at a couple of points he started to wade into the technical aspects of his current bottled oxygen and credit card businesses, which while I followed I could see some people fading away. I think if you are going to talk about tech stuff in answering a question at these events it is best to ask the person who asked to come up and speak to you afterwards.

He spoke about his boredom after 7 years working for a corporate - the famous 7 year itch. And how he realised if he wanted to affect anything it was no good staying in a large organisation. He spoke about his time at Hitwise and how he helped to grow it into an international entity in 3 years. He also spoke about several other businesses including a clothing/shoe line and his entrepreneurial consultancy NinetyDays.

I have tried to extract his main points for entrepreneurs (and provide my analysis):

• Adaptability - you need to be ready to change yourself and your business.
• Timing - Success is about timing and being in the right place at the right time. A little bit too much like luck for my liking.
• Maturity - This is something that flowed through his talk, he seemed to be saying that the best entrepreneurs are those that have been around and worked in other organisations. The newspapers are full of stories about young start-ups - but perhaps these are the exception rather than the rule. I do wonder if the people that are most successful as an entrepreneur have a plan rather than just a cool technology.
• Opportunity - You need to be able to have a clear vision of the future where your product exists. The path there can be slightly blurred but the commercial vision should be clear.
• Exit - Always have an exit in mind. You don’t have to have it all decided but do have some good ideas. I think you should have critically thought about your desired exit plan.

He was also asked about what he thought of as critical factors for a good entrepreneur/start up business:

• You have to be able to turn technology in to product.
• Don’t go to any trade shows unless you are carried there by a large player.
• Tell people about the problem you are solving.
• Don’t perfect the technology - launch and develop through feedback.
• Ensure you have disciplined due diligence and documentation - really makes you look professional and together.
• Forecast your financials - use Excel - you don’t need to pay an accountant.
• Employee few people - he said one person can do all the ‘CXX’ roles. The downside is your believability suffers with customers (especially large). You can counter this with high quality people.
• Remove any passengers - especially people you are paying - this is something which comes with experience.
• If you have to decide between intellectual property (IP) and the business choose the business!

Overall I think it was a very interesting talk and the hour flew by. He definitely seemed like one of the more grounded speakers that the Hive has had talk. It was also nice to have a proper speaker system so everyone in the bar could hear.

What did you think of the event? Leave your comments below.

(1 votes, average: 9 out of 10)

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Tags: Brendan McKeegan, Business, critical factors, Entrepreneurs, Experience, The Hive