Flexy

Interview with Annette Muller, founder of Flexy

Annette was interviewed by we.are.DESI’s founder Christian Iachini, as part of a research project to write the article “Nature vs. Nurture: Are Startups All the Same?” published in September 2017 on Linkedin

Annette Muller, Flexy

Annette Muller,
Founder of Flexy

1. Which world-problem is your startup trying to solve and how did you come up with the idea?

World Problem: Unemployment! With an equal distribution of work and earnings, as well as leveraging technology to close the recruitment and remote working gaps, the world workforce will be more evenly distributed

Idea Generation:
I have always been fascinated by this concept of work since my first years doing organizational psychology at college and since then finding myself constantly optimizing and doing things differently in the workplace. I am constantly observing humans go to work, spending the majority of their lives and time doing so actually. In my previous company which I exited last year, I felt another parallel challenge first hand. The massive line on my income statement saying “salary and wages” and all the headaches coming with managing people, I thought there must be a better way to do this. Both recruitment and management as well as the allocation of human resources.
It makes me want to shake and flip the concept of “Employment” on its head.
So I get up every morning, with a mission to impact and change, in whichever small way, the way companies and people work together.

2. Did you find the funding exercise manageable or a nightmare? Tell us when you felt there was a real breakthrough.

I am still in the funding journey! Does it ever end? I have been fortunate with attracting the right strategic Angel investors, and unfortunately, South Africa doesn’t yet have an established VC eco-system, so fundraising is hard and forcing you to think about generating cash differently. A breakthrough for us is revenue, to rather see your clients as the funders and co-create and collaborate with them to fund growth.

3. With the startup growth, are you noticing a corporate culture evolution? And if yes, what are the tangible signs of it?

Not yet, we are still very early stage and the culture is far away from “traditional corporate” we don’t even have offices, and certainly do not plan on changing! We have, however, based on my and the other co-founders backgrounds – set up the company from the beginning with an eye for governance and systems and processes that can scale. So I guess there is a bit of ‘ corporate “ in the rigid process and operational perspectives. But definitely not in culture 🙂

4. If you could go back a few years, what would you do differently? Do you think that what you would have done differently applies only to your startup, or could be a one-fit-all advice for other digital startups?

I believe there are many lessons that can be translated to any business, especially if you look at it from a higher level. Stronger mentorship, more patience and perseverance, deeper knowledge of and relationships with clients and what they actually need and want, hiring A-Players sooner, going slower to go faster, being more calculated about certain decisions.

However, the granular detail from which these valuable lessons are learned is probably very different for everyone. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, and I believe having strong support systems all round is what moves one further than the other.

5. Of all the marketing activities you have done (events, competitions, articles, advertising, crowdfunding, etc), what do you think gave the best return of exposure and why?

For us Digital PR as well as network and influencers marketing. Most of our marketing comes from online word of mouth, referrals and social engagements [ please note, not actual social media marketing, but rather people sharing and talking about the brand and business online ]

6. 50% of all startup do not make it past 5 years and close. 53% aim to sell, ideally to larger corporations. 46% of the founders start a new one, sometimes on the ashes of the previous one. And 16% aim to launch an IPO. If you could fast-forward in the future, what do you think will realistically happen to your company?

Realistically or ideally? 🙂
So it is of course very difficult to say, but from where I am viewing the company and the growth trajectory right now, our aim is to build a long-term sustainable business. We are not chasing a quick exit, but rather focusing on stable constant growth in revenue as well as network members [ both experts and companies ]. We are not specifically aiming for an IPO or a corporate exit, but there are obvious exits on the cards. Our focus now is, however, is to continue to solve problems and build and scale a highly profitable and sustainable business.

Read the article now “Nature vs. Nurture: Are Startups All the Same?

Or read the other interviews.