This June’s Hub8 Connect brought James Hadley, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Immersive Labs, to Hub8 MX for the day: an exclusive Founders Therapy session in the morning, then an open discussion in the afternoon on Immersive’s journey from bootstrapping in Bristol to raising $189m and serving over 600 enterprise customers worldwide.
For the founders and scaleups in our community working through the same questions, his takeaways are worth sitting with. We covered a lot of ground, but a few things that stood out to us:
Great mentoring with no strings attached
The best advice comes from people who didn’t expect anything in return. They were generous with their time and wanted to support what he was building. Over time, that circle gets smaller but stronger, and a lot more honest.
Talent and revenue solves all problems
You need both. Revenue gives you room to move. The right people make sure you move in the right direction. Without either, it’s tough. With both, most problems are fixable.
Customers vs competition
Copycats will come, especially in our new world with AI. Focus your energy on your customers. Build trust, stay close and act like a partner, not just a vendor. That’s what keeps you ahead.
On the UK ecosystem…
The UK’s not short on talent but the way we support startups and scale ups needs to change if we want to compete globally.
Too many success stories stay hidden. If a company is doing well in one part of government or industry, that should help open doors elsewhere, but often you have to start from scratch every time. Early-stage funding and backing still feels slow and fragmented compared to places like the US. And we’re still too cautious waiting for startups to be “proven” instead of being the early customers that help prove them, we need organisations to bring in innovators who can help them solve their most pressing problems.
Thank you to James and to everyone who joined us at Hub8 MX.
Hub8 Connect is taking a short summer break and will be back in September. Register your interest to be the first to hear when the next session is announced, or browse past Hub8 Connect sessions to catch up on what you’ve missed.
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