Entrepreneurs’ ventures is an early-stage enterprise capital firm in partnership with Entrepreneur Media that goals to support passionate and progressive founders from day one. In this series, we profile the amazing entrepreneurs Entrepreneur Ventures works with to share their insights on building and growing a successful business.
Give us your company’s elevator pitch.
my name is David WalshI’m the founder and CEO of the company Limelight. We created this pioneering collaboration platform for B2B creators that is revolutionizing the way B2B brands achieve virality. We help brands discover B2B creators who have built a large following in specific business niches, and on the creator side, we recommend brands that search for creators through a suggestion engine and allow them to book ads across all their channels (LinkedIn, newsletters, podcasts, etc.) on the platform, manage partnerships and performance, and pay each other.
What inspired you to launch Limelight?
I have been working in the technology industry for 10 years and after leaving my previous company, I took some day off and asked myself what I desired to do next. Take part in the risk race? Join one other company? I’ve come to the conclusion, “I want to be my own boss,” and that narrows down your options! I’m from Ireland and lived in Los Angeles. I had high rent and expensive childcare, so I made a decision I higher build something! My approach was very thoughtful. I knew I wanted to start out a revenue technology company because it was so uncertain. If you help your company grow, everyone will keep you.
That’s why I published content on LinkedIn to lift capital, build awareness and generate leads. In doing so, I became aware of the entire ecosystem that exists, the B2B creator economy. These people have built a large audience of fifty,000 to 600,000 by publishing content every day in a specific area of interest. As we know, individuals who buy products today are heavily influenced by the people they know and trust on social media. I spotted, why don’t we build a product for these creators? That’s what I did with Limelight.
How did you go about building it?
I raised capital last 12 months, closed down around December, and then told my latest investors I used to be changing my business model. I renamed the company and we talked to about 100 B2B content creators inside 4 to 6 weeks, and we launched our beta a few weeks ago. In lower than 30 days, over 100 firms registered with us, so the thesis is valid.
How is your team structured?
My interests focus on sales, marketing, recruitment, finance, operations and products. But coding? I am unable to do this. I discovered a really strong engineer who previously worked at Uber and is the fastest developer I have ever seen in terms of speed and quality. I have a really strong designer, a 23-year-old college-educated, phenomenal UI UX designer who just takes an idea, creates an image from it, and then the developer develops it. So now it’s the three of us doing it. And it moves crazy fast.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking for investment?
I think back on my experiences and the common denominator is that not all dollars are created equal. But before you think about who it’s coming from, it’s really vital to think about how much you wish. I used to think I needed as many tens of millions as possible because I wanted to succeed in unicorn status and scale as quickly as possible. Now I still think I need to build a powerful, scalable software business that is still a unicorn, but I do not think I would like that much money to do it. 2019-2022 taught me that extra money means more problems and are harder to scale.
So my advice is to calculate the amount you must build and grow and then close the round as quickly as possible because you’ll be able to spend all of your time fundraising for a 12 months reasonably than building the business.
You’ve written and spoken a lot about the power of hearing “no.” Can you explain this?
When I started off, I used to be doing a lot of cold calling every day and I loved it. The first thing you learn in sales is rejection. Today I teach my team members that we are going to all the time be rejected, so get used to it! Rejection is vital because it builds a thick skin and also teaches you what your company can do to higher serve potential customers. I have a recorded notebook and every sales call I make goes to my engineering team and my product team. I tag them and say, hearken to this, because that is the only approach to make sure you are creating a feedback loop.
Did you usually know you desired to be an entrepreneur?
When I used to be 19, my dad asked me what I desired to do. I said, “I want to own a tech company by the time I’m 25.” So I had this ambition even at a young age. I remember we were in a cafe and the remainder of the people were laughing at me. But I remember saying it and actually calling him when I used to be 27 and saying I used to be two years too late.
What advice would you give to young people with similar ambitions?
Seize those moments and opportunities when you’ll be able to do something unique and different. There is no age limit, but as you get older, you’ll have more responsibilities in life, which makes the decision to start out entrepreneurship tougher. If I could do one thing, I might go back to school and persuade every professor to speak about being an entrepreneur. At this age, the risk is simply lower. Also, follow great leaders and managers – not big ideas. Surround yourself with the best and you’ll dramatically increase your learning potential.
We hear a lot about coming to terms with difficult times and the need for perseverance to get through difficult times. You had your share.
Yes. I moved to the United States from Ireland and worked at Indeed. I loved my time there, but I knew I finally wanted to start out my very own company, so I made a decision to run an internal incubator at the company. I wrote an online guide on the right way to help immigrants navigate the talent acquisition process on a visa. I had 4 student visas at this point and felt like I used to be an expert. That’s why I’ve turned this guide into a blueprint for building Indeed’s distant talent marketplace and helping our clients hire non-US residents. There was a lot of interest in this and I presented it to the CEO and Chief Innovation Officer. Co-financed in the amount of PLN 250,000. dollars, but then I used to be called to the HR department. They said they didn’t know I used to be on a student visa and principally I could not stay with the company because I used to be technically replacing the job of an American worker.
So your offer to assist people work in America got you fired?
Basically, but I knew I could figure it out. I actually felt free. My wife thought I used to be crazy, but I felt it was a good thing. I used to be capable of use this story to arrange one other round. I had my very own business and was capable of stay in the United States. And would not you know it? Indeed’s enterprise team contacted us 3 years later and became an investor!
That’s why I think everyone has failures in their profession. Things take a turn, sharp balls are thrown your way and I think the way you react in that moment is the most significant element. Too many people immediately react very emotionally, as if the world is about to finish. But if you’ll be able to focus on what’s going to occur in 10 years and think that it happened for a reason, you’ll be able to normally find a path to your larger goals.