Insights
What we’ve learned building companies.
Lessons from the businesses we’ve built with founders, and the ones that taught us the most.
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5 learnings from startup failure and success: fundraising.This is the first of a three-part article about startup success. If you haven’t yet read part one, you’ll find it here. If you want a shortcut to the lessons, you can find them in this Twitter thread. At some point in 2017, on a day that my subconscious has tried to forget, I realisedRead the post →
Zenn: create your own logo and branding onlineZenn founder, Steve Reid, has been fascinated by design and art from a young age. On a visit to a sneaker shop when he was 8 years old, he became enamoured with the Adidas logo, as well as the company’s “brand with the 3 stripes” tag line, and beautiful box packaging. 35 years later, thisRead the post →
Is there a good template or tool for startup content marketing?I’ve been in marketing, one way or another, since 2005 (a time when the term “content marketing” was barely used!). In the ensuing years, I’ve written my fair share of marketing plans – often (at the beginning at least) as lengthy Word documents. Thankfully, they’re now much shorter.Read the post →
There’s only one thing you need to launch a successful startup.If you could pick just one asset, what would you say is the single most important thing you need when setting up a new startup business? A great idea? A wonderful product? A good user experience? A cool brand? The best tech? Funding? An amazing founder? A network? Actually, it is none of theseRead the post →
Sales leads vs referrals when starting a businessSome time around 2017, I spent a very enjoyable evening on an island in Southeast Asia. My wife and I had been diving, and were fortunate enough to be introduced to the owner of the island. Coincidentally he was holidaying there too. Very kindly, the owner and his family invited us to join them forRead the post →
Update: August 2021Hi there, James (Jim) Green here with the first of what will become a quarterly mail about business, investing, interesting people, and startup life. I’ve added you manually from my little black book, which is why this first one is so much about me (more from Oliver and Arjun in future updates, I promise!).Read the post →
DQventures: the who and whyDQ was founded by James, Arjun and me, Oliver Palmer. Between us we have invested in over 75 start-ups, been involved in raising more than $200m, successfully exited companies we have started, and run accelerator programs across the world.Read the post →
Socioly: chat for organisersSocioly was born from a problem many of us face – difficulty arranging mutually convenient times for the participants of meetings and events. It shouldn’t be too hard, and it’s strange that no break-out solution has yet presented itself. This is, after all, something people struggle with on a regular basis.Read the post →
WeNetwork: recruitment done rightWeNetwork is a fast-growing recruitment company, with offices in Singapore and Indonesia. It will always be the first ever venture to leave the DQventures stable and it is therefore very special to us.Read the post →
Advice to recruiters-turned-HR-tech foundersWhen we started DQventures we made a commitment to help everyone we could – not just those we invest in. When two successful recruiters came to DQ for help launching their HR tech platform, we told them what we really thought. Our hope was that it would help them either reshape their idea, or saveRead the post →