Second Time Around: Building Product the Right Way
My first startup, PowerLinks, came close to being a breakout success. We had top-tier partners, strong market timing, and what could have been a very significant exit to a household name. On paper, it had everything.
Under the surface, we were building the wrong way.
We raised over £10 million from high-net-worths and VCTs. Our burn was at times utterly eye-watering — AWS bills routinely hit low to mid six figures monthly. We ran a second “ghost” payroll just to feed the machine. Every impression we bought cost us money. At peak, we bought <1% of the best 1% of inventory available. The wastage in hindsight was criminal
We built product ahead of revenue, driven by the belief that speculative innovation would create its own demand. That’s the VC model. And sometimes it worked — but only sometimes. It wasn’t su…
