From busking Celtic Folk in Covent Garden, to running a fast-growing bootstrapped business, Bridget has had an eventful career and YouCanBookMe could almost be described as an ‘accidental startup’. The founders, Bridget and Keith, were on a mission to find the ‘sweet spot’ in scheduling that would allow their app to take off virally, and make money too. In 2012, Bridget started focusing her effort full time on building a business that would allow the product to grow sustainably and profitably. Their early call to grow without venture funding has had a significant impact on the business. Bridget discusses some of the implications of this decision as YouCanBookMe grows – the good and the bad – as well as some lessons has learned in recruiting a globally distributed team of people who all work remotely. www.businessofsoftware.org

1. Bridget Harris co-founder
& CEO
@bridgettoday

6. “We’ve got no money so we have to think”
Ernest Rutherford, Physicist

7. https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20151125052533-shutterstock-199610807.jpeg
You’ll grow
quicker!
You’ll make more
money!
You’ll access great
advisors!

8. “it takes about ten
years before your
company really hits
its stride.”
http://b-i.forbesimg.com/alexkantrowitz/files/2013/12/ben-chestnut.jpeg

9. “The strategies employed to
pursue the 30% for $3M,
are often in direct
opposition to the
strategies needed for a
0.3% shot at making $300M”
Image: http://cdn.everydaycarry.com/uploads/15-06-16/155801af1c1b8f.jpg

10. “Maybe some percentage,
larger than 95% of VCs,
add zero value,
and 70% of VCs add
negative value in
advising.”

11. “Government is the badge of lost innocence”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

16. “There are only two possible outcomes
to this decision: Hire or No Hire.”
Joel Spolsky, JoelonSoftware.com

17. We made three main
assumptions

18. not London
London
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedfordshire

20. Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedfordshire

21. Image: http://beatimpostorsyndrome.net/impostor-cat.jpg

22. We were wrong
about all three
assumptions

23. not Bedford
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville#/media/File:Spain_location_map.svg

24. not Bedford
not
Bedford
not Bedford
not Bedford
definitely not Bedford
not
Bedford
not Bedford
not Bedford
not Bedford
not Bedford
not Bedford
not
Bedford
not Bedford
not Bedfordnot Bedford

28. how we hire

30. actual
classical
musician

31. stage 1 - the advert

33. On stage one, we say NO when...

34. stage 2 - the
questionnaire

37. On second round, we say NO when we
see...

38. On second round, we say NO when we
see...

39. On second round, we say NO when we
see...

40. On second round, we say NO when we
see...

41. On second round, we say NO when we
see...

42. On second round, we say NO when we
see...

43. Stage 3 - the video
call

44. On third round, interview / skype round, we
say NO when

45. At every stage we are
looking for reasons not
to hire them.

46. If not them, then who?

47. stage 4 - the
contract

49. questions….