Hi Jessica,
Thanks so much for asking this, and it’s great to chat with you – huge fan of what you’re up to at inDinero!
Profit vs investment
I don’t know if we’re crazy, perhaps we are, but we don’t get too excited by investment opportunities right now. Perhaps that will change again in the future.
We have taken money before, and been very fortunate to work with some great people. But right now, we are very focused on building a great business. A business we want to work in, and that we will be proud of for years to come.
We absolutely could grow quicker if we took more investment, and we have that as an option, but we also love being in control of our own destiny. We know we want to do things that might be quirky, that might not make sense, that might be trade-offs between growth-at-all-costs, and other things that mean a lot to us.
If anything, we find it crazy that it’s in any way considered “different” to be building a profitable, sustainable business.
Besides, I find it very hard to sleep at night knowing the only way to survive to seek further investment.
How we’ve grown cost effectively
To grow sustainably, we’ve certainly had to make some tough decisions.
A few things that have helped:
- We spend every penny as if it’s our own – because it is.
- We are very clear about what is valuable, and what is not. What is: our people and our tools. What is not: free beer and ping pong tables.
- Being outside of bubble that is Silicon Valley. London isn’t cheap, but the culture around expectations is also very different.
- Having co-founders that balance out your thoughts. I perhaps will more quickly spend to address a situation, but having co-founders that have a different perspective, and that are also good with numbers, helps to reduce the likelihood of poor decisions.
I could definitely go on for more here, Jessica! I hope this helps and happy to follow up with further info.