…Ok hold on, let me fix that; “Fastwork accidentally becomes operationally profitable” — that’s more like it.
Yeah yeah I know, most of you are already having doubts and saying, “Alright, this guy and his startup broke even, but at what scale? Not at $100 million that’s for sure. And shouldn’t he be going after the users first before trying to make money? blah blah blah so on and so forth…”
— BUT bruh, let me ask you this: “Who’s party is it?”
Mine. That’s right. My party. And I can be happy if I want to.
We didn’t intend for Fastwork to become profitable (at least not right now anyway) it wasn’t in our strategy. We didn’t even know about it until I asked for the numbers and “Oh shit, we made profit this month!” Of course, no one bats an eye. Everyone knows I’m terrible at Maths…lmao.
But you know what else wasn’t in my strategy? Starting a bloody company. Never in my life did I ever think I would start something of my own, let alone make something out of myself. I guess I kind of just thought it would work out eventually…Happy-Go-Lucky, you know?
I’m not a smart kid. Never was. Mum was just telling me last night that I was only good for Grade 1, and then it all went downhill for Vasa after that…hahahahaha!
I don’t have an MBA, or a degree that remotely relates to what I’m doing. I studied Architecture and Real Estate. But I can’t draw (I used to be able to, now I mostly scribble) and I still have no clue how to do Goal Seek in excel — I wasn’t cut out for any of this, at least not on paper anyway.
So how did I get here?
“Here” is a point where I have successfully found a middle ground for my customers and myself to both equally benefit from a product/solution — actually, scrap that.
“Here” is a point where I have successfully created an environment for myself and my friends to be able to do what we love every single day.
I got “here” with help. A lot of help. I didn’t do this alone. No no, let me rephrase that. I could never have done this alone (unless you got a time machine to prove me wrong, then in that case please show me the time machine!) It was with the help of my 3 super awesome co-founders, amazing team, solid investors and many, many more friends. And I’m not saying this to be humble. I am saying this because it’s true. I want to name names but I’m afraid I would miss one out. You know who you are. I never forget to say thank you.
Founders underestimate how much a fresh perspective can do for you. I know some are too busy being scared of exposing their traction and risking their greatest secret sauce…yeaaaaah if that doesn’t sound silly to you, I don’t know what does (Spoiler: nobody’s got time to steal your “secrets” mate, and if they do and end up executing it better than you did, then you should just go home and admit defeat)
A friendly word of advice can take you a long way. Especially if that person has “been there and done that”. Letting them vet your decisions or simply just being a smart(er) soundboard for your ideas could save you a lot of headaches and more importantly; time (Tip: in some cases like this one, you gain more by giving up)
Next month our numbers will go back to red, and that’s okay. We’re used to seeing red. This green light was just a signal for me to pause for a moment, take a step back, let out a big sigh and be happy with how far we've come.
The next time I see this green light again, we would have achieved what we have set out to do. And yeah, I’ll definitely throw a huge fucking party for that.
Thank you friends, mentors and role models. Fastwork became profitable because you decided to help.
