Dr Vivian Chan is the founder and CEO of Sparrho, a science discovery platform that blends AI with human curation to help people stay on top of science. After completing her biochemistry PhD at Cambridge University and working in venture capital, Vivian founded Sparrho as a tool to help democratise access to science for people at every level of education across the world. An alumnus of Entrepreneur First, Vivian was named one of MIT Tech Review’s 35 Under 35 Innovators & one of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech in 2017. Here’s what she had to say:
First and foremost, adapt your operational model.
People management has always been a trial and error process from which I learn continuously. Operationally, as my business grew older, the main challenge we faced was how to successfully transition from a basic, simply-structured team into a much larger cross-functional setup that was then reorganised into Core and Enterprise divisions.
Now, as we scale again, we’re adding more team categories within these divisions: we have people working on B2B marketing, B2C marketing, outside partnerships, and more. It’s key for growing companies to adapt their operational structure on a regular basis: otherwise what you end up with is a massive team with unclear goals and unsure employees who don’t understand their place or purpose.
Secondly, don’t take all the advice you hear.
My accelerator (Entrepreneur First) was a great starting point for me when I was new to London – and at a time when London wasn’t the tech startup bubble that it is now. It gave me immediate and easy access to great networks and high-quality contacts very quickly. However, because the accelerator environment got me talking to so many people at once in the early days of my business, I was receiving mountains of different advice: one of the big struggles then (and now) is deciding which advice is relevant, and which isn’t, at each point in time. It was a learning curve for me to develop that internal compass – and I’m still working on it!
Next up, learn when to take a step back.
I’m glad that I took the time to disconnect every so often so that, as CEO, I could gain the perspective needed to identify holes in my business and pitfalls for its potential growth. Instead of being sucked in operationally, taking a step back gave me time to think critically and carefully about my business goals. I was also very grateful for the opportunities work afforded me to leave the country, which also allowed me to get into the right headspace for high-level strategic thinking and identify things that weren’t working with the company.
Don’t scale too fast. When your business is in a period of growth, it’s so tempting to burn all your new cash – especially on hiring. But if you haven’t worked out what operational style works best for your team, you’re not keeping tabs on employees’ individual metrics, and you don’t have a strong culture in place (strong enough that your line managers are able to communicate it effectively), your business won’t be able to grow sustainably. Don’t grow complacent and start hiring and spending left and right without a plan – particularly at this stage, you need to know exactly what you’re doing and how every action fits within your organisation.
Remember to set smart goals. This is where you ask for expert advice from mentors, investors and experienced entrepreneurs – whether online or offline. It’s important to read widely and take the advice of seasoned pros, but combine that with your own personal trial and error process so you can discern what will work for your business.
A smart entrepreneur is always keen to learn, but always ready to adapt. Here are my top 3 tips for setting smart goals:
1) In terms of scaling, keeping everyone enthusiastic about the business’ vision whilst pumping out operational tasks can be very hard. Successful companies have everyone at every level gunning for their mission: every employee feels proud about performing their particular role.
2) To grow a healthy business, it helps to have a diverse, well-balanced group: our 15-person team carries 12 passports between them (from Finland, Sweden, Australia, Portugal, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Belgium, India, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus and the UK). The more different perspectives in a team, the better!
3) As a leader, it’s vital to be as clear as possible when communicating your message. Prioritising clarity and transparency as team values helps you to stay aligned with your team, to hold each other accountable, and to make good hiring decisions. And as for hiring, sometimes it’s about finding the best personality and sometimes it’s about finding the best experience – everyone has different strengths, and it’s important to go with your gut. Finally, it’s important to remember that there’s always an element of luck in the process of developing any business: sometimes you just have to let the chips fall.