To those in the Blippar Arena, past and present
Yesterday I posted my favourite quote ‘The Man in the Arena’ by Theodore Roosevelt on Twitter. I saw it with new eyes as the news broke about Blippar going into administration, as it seemed to apply so profoundly to the business journey and those whose faces are so marred by dust and sweat and blood this week. Repeated here:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Metaphors come thick and fast at times like this. Personally, I always disliked and continue to dislike the term ‘unicorn’ (albeit not what it represents in business terms — an incredible, aspirational and inspirational achievement). It’s mythical by nature, a pipe-dream and childish, to boot. My 3 year old loves unicorns. I love creating jobs, creating value, building rewarding places to work, driving innovation and leveraging technology to make people’s lives easier, more efficient, more connected or fun. What’s mythical about any of that?
‘Rocket ship’ is another much over-used metaphor in start-up land, but this is one that resonates.
I was invited to take a front seat on the Blippar rocket nearly 8 years ago. 5 years and 3 children later, I moved into a back seat and then eventually disembarked — but that rocket and the people I met on it are now a huge, massive part of my DNA. There’s a longer, fascinating, inspiring story here which will, I’m sure be told by many of the players over the coming months and by those closer to the final chapters, but for now I feel compelled, through a heavy-heart for those grieving this week, to add some much needed context to a story that’s bound to be sensationalised and boiled down to eye-watering valuations, funding rounds, burn-rate, personalities and lazy indictments. It was never about any of that that. It was just about a vision and a bold quest to pioneer, invent and create value at scale. A vision to swing for the fences. A vision that came from inspirational leadership and an infectious ability to attract true, talented adherents, investors, clients and pioneers to that vision.
There are incredible byproducts here that will last long into the future. 25 entrepreneurs (and counting) who have graduated from Blippar to build their own businesses; technical innovations and thought-leadership that has fed into (and is being built upon) by the global tech community; deep relationships forged; careers emboldened and accelerated — and for my own part, a hunger to build big, bold innovations for a better online world.
And yes, of course, there are so many lessons here — and I agree that journalists have a responsibility to share those for the good of all- but to distill them into easy conclusions of over-reaching, over-confidence or misplaced ambition does no-one favours. These are the wrong stories, and they potentially dull the ambition for other would-be men and women in the arena.
Right now, the priority is injecting this immense bank of talent back into the innovation economy and to find them seats on other rockets. Watch for them. Their experiences and talent will only increase the trajectories of others.
To them — past and present — to our board and investors, thank you for believing in Blippar with your careers, your money, your reputations, your support. To Rish, Omar and Steve, I can’t thank you enough for my rocket seat and I can’t wait to see which arenas you choose next.
