30 Years of Business Knowledge in 2hrs 26mins
TL;DR
Simon Squibb distills 30+ years of building 19 companies and investing in 78 startups into a free, end-to-end business curriculum. The core argument: start with passion and purpose, delay gratification, build a brand not a business, and structure equity correctly from day one. ---
Key Concepts
Delayed gratification
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Withholding monetization to build brand value and user loyalty first
Mind map
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A non-linear, evolving alternative to a business plan — starts with your hobby, branches into business model, revenue, team, partnerships, and products
Purpose
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A mission bigger than profit that manages people on your behalf
Sell the sizzle
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Lead with outcomes and emotion, not features or specs
Hack luck
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Luck is not random — it is manufactured through persistence, knowing your destination, and taking risk
7 and 8 rule
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Employees who are "almost good enough" are the hardest to manage and the most damaging to keep
Reference model vs. Leadership model
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Two strategies for scaling brand — sponsoring external talent vs. having a founder/leader embody brand values
SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)
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A tool to raise investment without needing to value the company at the early stage
Equity ≠ control
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Operational/shareholder agreements determine control, not percentage ownership alone
Bootstrap bias
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Running without investor capital is almost always healthier and gives full ownership
Notes
§How to Start a Business
- Start with a feeling or instinct, not an original idea — original ideas are not required
- Write down what you love doing and what you hate doing
- Get obsessed with what you love; outsource what you don't
- Find a co-founder or partner to cover skill gaps rather than trying to do everything alone
- Step 1 – First execution: Identify the simplest possible first action (blog, podcast, social handle, service offering)
- Keep it cheap and low-friction; improve quality iteratively
- Step 2 – Revenue model: Experiment rather than fix a model upfront
- Example: charge by outcome, not by the hour
- Step 3 – Purpose: Define how your business makes a difference beyond profit
- Purpose removes the need to manage people — you manage the mission instead
- Even capital-intensive ideas (e.g., apps) should start as a service business to generate early revenue
§How to Win in Business
- Delay gratification: Do work for free early on; over-deliver; build loyalty before charging
- Install culture: Culture eats strategy — make the business client/user-centric from day one
- Hack luck:
§How to Lose (Embrace Failure)
- Failure is the primary teacher; learning to lose is what makes eventual success possible
- Don't let possessions or ego define you — being underestimated by competitors is an advantage
- "A students" work for "D students" because A students are too afraid to fail
- Separate external ego (image, cars, status) from internal ego (private conviction that you know where you're going)
§How to Do a Mind Map
- Replace the business plan entirely
- Structure:
- Centre: your hobby / passion
- Branch 1: the business concept
- Branch 2+: revenue streams, team needs, partnerships, products, platforms, scaling ideas
- No template required; no fixed endpoint — add bubbles as the business evolves
- Items on the map that are years away still guide who you hire and who you keep in your network today
§How to Find Purpose
- The school system asks "what will you do?" — the right question is "what problem will you solve?"
- Steps:
- You can express purpose by joining someone already solving the problem — but always negotiate for equity
- Once purpose is found, seek out others who share it: 1 + 1 = 11
§How to Find a Co-founder
- Primary benefit: accountability (gym-buddy effect)
- Counter-argument to "why give up 50%?" — 50% of a successful business beats 100% of a failure
- Process:
- Equity note: default to 50/50 — giving 52/48 for "credit" poisons the relationship
§How to Sell
- Three-step system:
- The top 1% of salespeople contact prospects every single month indefinitely — not 5 times and quit
- Build a monthly contact system: holiday cards, relevant research, industry updates
- Never sell hours — sell outcomes
- Bring your authentic personality; the best salespeople occasionally tell you not to buy from them
§How to Market
- 50% of marketing spend is often wasted — experiment constantly
- Know your customer niche first, then expand (Facebook started only in universities)
- Build a feature or story that markets itself — the best marketing is something people talk about without you asking
- "Staircase" principle: find a bold, story-worthy act → get PR → evolve it → bring in a brand partner to fund the next step
- Systems matter: better to do one platform well than all platforms badly; use a single source video edited per platform
- Marketing should be fun — if you hate doing it, it won't be sustainable
- Internal staff experience is marketing (Starbucks early model: treat staff as partners → they become brand ambassadors)
§How to Get PR
- Target precisely — broad coverage that doesn't reach your actual customer is vanity
- Journalists are lazy — write the press release as the finished article, include high-res photos, give them a headline that serves their readers, not you
- Build direct journalist relationships via Twitter/X: follow them, comment on their posts, become a useful source
- Your own social media behaviour is your first PR asset — one inappropriate post can kill a deal
- Paid PR agencies are optional; direct relationships often outperform them for small businesses
§How to Get an Investor
- Ask yourself first: do you actually need one? Many businesses need a better sales system, not capital
- Six routes:
§How to Get a Sponsor
- Two reasons brands sponsor: ROI (trackable value return) and emotional fit (personal connection of the decision-maker)
- Three pre-requisites:
- Routes to a deal:
- Go direct to the brand's media buyer (holds the allocated budget)
- Approach the brand's creative agency (they embed your product in campaigns)
- Simply use the product genuinely in your content — brands notice organic advocacy and approach you
§How to Build a Brand
- A brand is the purpose and essence of the business, not the logo
- Start by defining your own personal brand (non-negotiables, values, personality) — company brand follows from it
- Two scaling strategies:
- Reference model: sponsor external talent/athletes/creators who embody your values (Canon, Nike)
- Leadership model: a founder or internal figurehead is the brand (Apple/Jobs)
- Each has risks: reference model = reputational exposure to the talent; leadership model = fragility if the leader leaves
- Learn to say no — the wrong client or partner can undo years of brand equity
- Build a brand, not a business — acquirers buy the brand
§How to Hire, Grow, and Build
- Hire around purpose — check candidate's social media and references; don't just take their word for it
- Give employees equity — aligns incentives, reduces turnover, reduces management overhead
- Replace generalists with specialists as you scale; build systems to enable specialisation
- Know why you are growing — ego, income, freedom, or impact? The answer shapes every decision
- Build MVPs — never stay stagnant; disrupt yourself before the market does (Kodak lesson)
- Replace yourself when a better CEO exists — this is a smart move, not a failure
§How to Fire Someone
- 7 and 8 rule:
- 9s and 10s: keep, reward, give equity
- 1s and 2s: obvious exits, happen naturally
- 7s and 8s: the dangerous middle — hardest to fire, most damaging to keep
- 9s and 10s leave if 7s and 8s are tolerated
- Signs someone is a 7/8: they come up in conversation more than once or twice a week
- Approach: ask "how can I help you perform?" before "you're not performing"
- Help them find a better-fit role elsewhere — this often produces lasting goodwill
- Fear of not replacing them is the main reason employers keep poor performers too long
§How to Go Global
- Going global reduces risk — multiple markets act as a hedge against any one market downturn
- Steps:
- Running a big business is easier than running a small one — don't trap yourself in one market or in a business only you can operate
§How to Get a Mentor
- What you actually need is not a mentor — it's answers to specific questions
- Reframe: ask a specific question first; define exactly what "mentorship" means (e.g., 10 minutes a week)
- Better alternatives to "mentor":
- Co-founder (accountability)
- Hired specialist (specific skill)
- Advisor / Advisory Board member (equity-based, structured, specific knowledge)
- Getting a referral to the mentor is far more effective than a cold ask
- Give value first — redesign their website, share useful research, help them unprompted; don't just extract
§How Equity Works
- Equity ownership ≠ control — the shareholder/operational agreement determines who makes decisions
- Don't sell too much equity early; model how much you'll need for all future funding rounds
- 50/50 co-founder split is recommended — 52/48 psychologically signals unequal contribution
- Solve 50/50 deadlock via a trusted third-party board, not by unequal ownership
- Giving staff equity reduces turnover and management stress — the benefits outweigh the risks
- Share options (stock market-linked) ≠ actual equity — know the difference before accepting or issuing either
- SAFE notes: let investors back you before the company is valued; removes the "what's it worth?" conversation; avoids early tax implications
- Reverse-engineer your equity structure from your intended exit (IPO, acquisition, MBO) from day one
§How to Sell Your Business
- The strongest negotiating position is genuinely not wanting to sell
- Five exit routes:
- Never pitch to investors that you are building to sell — build something you never want to sell; that is what buyers want to buy
Actionable Takeaways
- Write two lists today: what you love doing and what you hate doing — use them to define your business idea and your ideal co-founder
- Replace your business plan with a mind map; start with your passion in the centre and branch outward with no fixed endpoint
- Define your purpose as the problem you want to solve, not the job you want to do
- Build a monthly contact system for your top 50 target clients — reach out every month, forever
- Ask for advice from potential investors, not money — create FOMO, not desperation
- Before hiring anyone, check their social media to verify they actually care about what they claim to care about
- Give early employees equity — even a small stake removes the need to manage them
- Apply the 7/8 rule: identify underperformers, help them find better-fit roles, and act before your best people leave
- Research the journalist before pitching — write the press release as the finished story, include photos, make it effortless for them to say yes
- Reverse-engineer your equity structure from your intended exit before you take a single investor's money
- Look into SAFE notes as an early-stage funding mechanism to avoid premature company valuation
- Don't build a business to sell it — build one you love, and the right exit will find you
Quotes Worth Keeping
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Everyone's got a plan till they get punched in the face.
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Culture will eat strategy for breakfast every single time.
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The harder you work the luckier you get — that is not true. That is a lie designed to make you work hard. What equals success is taking risk.
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A big company is much easier to run than a small company.
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You can spend 30 years building a reputation — it only takes 5 seconds for it to go.
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Build a brand not a business — and I promise you that brand will live forever.
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Do not build a business to sell it. Build a business you never want to sell — people want to buy a business like that.
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1 + 1 = 11.
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It's not give and take — it's give without take.