December 2023 - Purpose, Populism & Playfair:
Happy Christmas everyone! This month, we look at creating alignment and focus in a start-up, one of Ireland's best entrepreneurial exports, drivers of populism and Playfair's recent investment.
The Double Nudge: A relatable guide to personal growth
The words in this newsletter are entirely our own, but the insights and ideas have been inspired by others. Our goal is to synthesise the best information we have consumed each month, and relate it to our everyday lives.
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Quote of the Month: “"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Our Challenge of the Month - Our Vision, Mission & Strategy:
This month, I read an article from Matt Hodges of Equals, detailing how the start-up developed their vision, mission and strategy.
He quotes Patrick Lencioni in saying "If you could get all the people in an organisation rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time" because when you get everyone on the same page (literally) and rowing in the same direction, magic happens.
In a world where ruthless prioritisation dictates my day, I have too often allowed short-term thinking to rule. This has meant I have focused too much on the design of the boat, or what people hold the oars, rather than the direction we are going.
As we approach 20 people at Bounce, working in different cities and serving clients around the world, I’ve started to see the impact of having a blurry vision.
Matt’s article prompted me to put the work in to ensure that we have complete focus and alignment across every team member on where we’re going, why we’re going there and how we’re going to get there.
Let me dive into a bit more detail behind the challenge:
Why now?
The simplest analogy to explain why now is that, for years, we’ve been rolling a heavy ball up a hill. It’s the most frustrating, yet exhilarating experience building a start-up, but it’s a lot of perspiration for little gain most of the time.
In recent months however, the gradient of the hill has middled out, and it’s starting to feel like the heavy ball is moving downhill, going too fast for us to keep up with it. This feeling is what I imagine heroin must be like (for founders).
The issue is, when you’re rolling the ball uphill, absolute alignment isn’t essential as everyone is pushing somewhat in the same direction in the pursuit of progress, not perfection.
As we gather momentum, and things grow quickly, misalignment causes chinks in the armour that compound over time and can cause real damage. That is why we need everyone on the same page at Bounce as we enter 2024.
Why is it important?
The best performing teams and companies in the world have everyone driving toward the same end goal, with obsessive focus on what will get them there. This is particularly important in start-ups as the ups and downs are so intense that you can’t rely on external, short-term ‘wins’ for motivation.
This is something that I struggled with in the early days. One week, I felt indescribable fulfilment and excitement, the next, shuddering pain and doubt when the inevitable bad event happened.
We require people to be committed and focused each day, and not allow short-term wins or losses to divert us from the ultimate goal. If execution is our guiding principle for success, alignment is the thing that keeps us from failure.
There are only so many things you can control in a start-up. In my mind, being clear on where you want to go and intentional with the actions you take to give yourself the best chance of getting there is a non-negotiable.
If you’re interested in doing it in your company, I’d highly recommend checking out Matt’s article and implementing the process they ran to get everyone on the same page.
Our Trend of the Month - The Populism Problem:
Simply put, populism is appealing to mainstream groups that feel their voices are not being heard by the elite ruling class. Last month, we touched on Milei’s miraculous rise to power in Argentina, a prime example of a populist movement that now appears to be happening increasingly often.
Similarly, closer to home, many of our Irish readers will be acutely aware of the growing anti-migration movement in Ireland. The vivid scenes of looting and rioting last month in Dublin will be etched in many people’s minds for a long time.
So this month we dive a little deeper into one of the underlying causes that are catalysing such events in a bid to better understand them.
Perhaps this chart from Ray Dalio’s Big Debt Crisis sums things up best - as income inequality increases and the share of wealth concentrates into the hands of a few, populism emerges. This is one of the most important charts to understand today.
Source: Big Debt Crisis, Ray Dalio
Globally, the top 1% capture ~50% of the world’s wealth. Although Ireland compares relatively favourably, given the top 1% hold ~25% of the country's wealth according to RTE, Ireland too has seen it is not immune to the increased tension.
The exacerbation of income inequality lies at the hands of central bankers. When central banks increase the money supply, the lion’s share of the benefits fall to the most prosperous members of society i.e. asset holders (the Cantillon effect).
The subsequent inflation arising from more money flowing around society disproportionately impacts the poorer members of society. The following feedback loop results:
Inequality → populism → fiscal stimulation → inflation → inequality (and repeat)
Ultimately, until the current monetary system is fixed, division and populist movements are unlikely to abate. A system that requires consistent central bank intervention to grow will only lead to more dislocations and the second-order effects will be pushing out the political curve.
The money is broken and it is fragmenting society.
Start-Up / Founder of the Month - Oisin Hanrahan of KeyChain:
This month, we turn to one of Ireland’s best entrepreneurial exports in Oisin Hanrahan. A New Yorker, originally from Rathcoole, who sold the cleaner-for-hire services business he founded in 2011, Handy.com, to Nasdaq-listed Angi for a reported €100M in 2018.
For the last three years, he has been the CEO of Angi. His move from founder to public-company CEO showcases his remarkable ability to adapt to changing skill sets, roles and responsibilities.
It is perhaps no surprise, but still admirable, that he is returning to Day 0 with his new venture, KeyChain, a platform to help retailers and brands bring better products to our shelves, and to help build a better manufacturing supply chain for CPG products (see more here).
They have just announced that they have raised $18M in their seed round, and I’d say you’d struggle to find a person either side of the Atlantic that would bet against the start-ups success.
The Currency did a deep-dive into his new venture, interviewing Oisin here which I’d highly recommend. Adrian Weckler also interviewed the Dubliner here on his plans to overhaul the way consumer packaged goods are sourced.
Investment / Fundraise in Focus - Recycleye’s £14m Series A:
Since the proliferation of AI-associated excitement, I have been trying to understand its impact into legacy fields. Beyond the foray on search, where can AI be deployed to supplement or replace shift workers?
Recycleye and their AI powered recycling robots are doing just that. Their end to end solution picks recyclable materials such as plastics, paper and aluminium, at greater accuracy and consistency than humans.
Playfair’s “why we invested” blog post (always a terrific read) offers a great insight into the opportunity they backed a number of years ago. Since then, Recycleye has rolled out its offering with large clients and raised a £14m Series A earlier this year.
The solution is compelling for a number of reasons:
Large Market: The waste management market is large ($2Tn), growing (+5% CAGR) and increasing in importance, as currently, according to the OECD, ~10% of plastic waste is recycled and +20% is mismanaged.
Absenteeism / Human Costs: Waste management firms frequently struggle with staffing inconsistency and absenteeism making planning difficult and adding costs. In contrast, during trials it was found that the robots were available for more than 98% of the time, according to the Recycling Times.
Accuracy: Recycleye’s automated technology is more accurate and consistent than humans. In a typical 10-hour shift it can sort through 33,000 items. It can improve material quality, maximise recycling, reduce residual waste and ultimately reduce costs.
Often we hear more about the need to rescue emissions or cut waste, but much less so the efficiency of existing recycling facilities are mentioned. With less and less land available, perhaps it is time to double down on improving the current facilities.
Finally, having both been involved with the student entrepreneurship supports at Trinity and Imperial, it is awesome to see a business that was started at Imperial go from strength to strength.
Content Corner:
In Memory of Charlie Munger: A fascinating conversation between John Collison & Charlie Munger here where he shares the ingredients for long-term business success, his thoughts on American society writ large, and what makes Berkshire special.
Google’s Response to OpenAI: This month, Google launched Gemini, their long-awaited answer to ChatGPT here, claiming it’s the most capable AI model ever.
Brian Chesky’s New Playbook with Lenny Rachitsky: One of the best modern technology CEO’s going deep on a wide range of fascinating topics from product, marketing, growth and strategy here.
Entrepreneurial Supports for Female Founders: The Business Post published an article detailing the supports for every stage of business growth for female founders in Ireland, worth checking out here.
Des Traynor on How to Survive & Thrive in a World of AI: A masterclass given by Des on explaining complex topics concisely, and a really thoughtful explanation of how Intercom are thinking about AI, and what that means for other startups here.
Financial Advice for My New Son: Morgan Housel, the author of best-selling book ‘Psychology of Money’ who is like few others I’ve heard when it comes to his perspective on finance wrote this article when he had first child. It’s a great read.
How Ireland Can Learn from France on Startups: In 2017, Emmanuel Macron said “I want France to be a startup nation. A nation that thinks and moves like a startup,”. This month, six years later, a group gathered at Dogpatch Labs to learn from the success of the French initiatives that could be replicated in Ireland (see more here).
A New Type of Social Media? This month, Amo, was launched with the ambition to make social media social again. Techcrunch took a look inside what the company is looking to build here.
Good Start-Up News in Ireland: Start-up of the month from July, Soapbox Labs, was acquired by Curriculum Associates.
11 Reasons Not to Become Famous: A thought-provoking, and infamous blog by Tim Ferris about why you shouldn’t strive to become famous here.
Thought Provoking Graphics:
Meme Corner: