Member Article

Young Newcastle entrepreneur pens first book

Young Newcastle-based marketer and writer Dominic Tarn has recently become a published author.

His first book, The New Goldrush: A Quick Guide to Startups, takes an in depth look at the world of the startup, featuring interviews with the entrepreneurs at the heart of many successful businesses.

We caught up with the Dominic, the CEO of startup communications agency Starticulate, to find out more about how the book was put together.

Why another startup book?

There are a few solid startup books out there, and I’d recommend the likes of Eric Ries (The Lean Startup), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn Chairman, author of TheStartup of You), Steve Blank (The Startup Owner’s Manual); not to mention the countless informative and engaging books many great entrepreneurs like SirRichard Branson have written over the years. In fact, in the resources section andthroughout the book I have linked to numerous overs I highly recommend.

But what I found is there is little out there from those who are building startupsright now. So I decided to find out for myself what its really like in order to pass onthe lessons and experiences to those who are considering founding their ownstartup or working for one.

Joel Gascoigne, the Founder & CEO of Buffer, a startup now generating $3.8million annual revenue (it started in his bedroom in Birmingham as just an idea),wrote the foreword, because, “I agree with the author’s hope that if this book helpsa few more people start their own business, I would consider my contribution agood day’s work.”

What excites you about the startup environment at the moment?

We are still in the middle of a Cambrian Explosion (a phrase used by The Economist and TechCrunch) for startups - the growth rate of innovation is exciting and unprecedented. The barriers to entry have never been lower, the amount of support - from governments, NGOs, to corporate giants - has never been better and there is tens of billions of dollars being poured into the global startup community (predominantly for software companies). T

The economy is still partly responsible for this, with institutional investors backing VCs for the same reason that angel investors are backing startups: everyone is banking on better returns from more high risk investments than they can get on the stock market. Which is one reason why there are so many people trying to launch companies. But the book comes with what I feel is a timely word of caution: this can not and will not last. The funding environment is too “frothy”, which means first-time founders should rely more and more on validation and traction before seeking funding.

How did you research and prepare the book?

This started with an idea back in 2012, which turned into thousands of hours of research and my interviewing dozens of entrepreneurs across the region and theworld. I got access to ignite100, our very own £1m accelerator, which has recently graduated its third cohort of startups and has exciting plans for the future. That helped. As did working for startups in the region, like Recite Me and GoPixel (an ignite graduate from 2012) and writing for dozens across the world in 2013. This personal experience helped enormously, as did my editors, who helped shape themany drafts into a finished text. Finally it was ready in January 2014 and published worldwide on Amazon (for Kindle) on February 11, 2014.

How have your experiences in the North East shaped the book?

The national media has been paying plenty of attention to this region recently - between the FT, The Guardian and Observer - it is great to know that what is happening here has been getting noticed. But that’s to be expected, since venture capitalists were talking about this regions startup scene reaching a ‘critical mass’ early in 2013.

In my experience I’d have to concur with this assessment. There are some fantastic companies emerging and scaling across the region, like Givey, Recite and CustomerSure, not to mention a supportive structure in place - from serial entrepreneurs to universities, the media, investors, grass roots organisations, like Refresh Teesside, Startup Beers and numerous others, and of course the work of

Paul Smith (ignite100) and Herb Kim (Thinking Digital Conference) deserve special mention. My experiences in the region have most definitely helped shape the book for the better.

The New Goldrush looks at the death of the corporate career ladderand encourages people to take a more entrepreneurial attitude towardstheir own careers. Do you think people are coming round to this way of thinking, or are notions of the career ladder still embedded?

In this economy people have to take more responsibility for their career path. Reid Hoffman is also a strong advocate of this. However, I wouldn’t go so far to say that the corporate career ladder is dead. Startups will never be large-scale sources of employment (Instagram for example only had a staff of 13 when it sold to Facebook for $1.13bn). But in terms of volume; smaller companies employ a greater percentage of the workforce, in developed economies, and this percentage has grown due to the recession - so the flip side of employment in smaller companies v’s larger is more people have a greater responsibility, not only for their own career path, but for the overall bottom line health of the organisations they work for.

Would you say you’ve followed your own advice in the book?

I would, yes. Without the knowledge I have gained along the way I would not have been able to launch my own company. But at the same time, without the act of launching my own company, I don’t think I would have been able to write The New Goldrush with the same amount of first hand knowledge and experience, which I feel has been invaluable.

Is anyone capable of being enterprising?

We are all to a certain extent naturally enterprising. Sir Richard Branson described entrepreneurship in much more relatable terms - he described it as being naturally playful, which I agree with. The best entrepreneurs are those, like Branson, who love what they do and have fun doing it. I see the entrepreneurial drive as something which its taught by experience, by necessity, and by the desire to make it happen.

For those who take the entrepreneurial path because they think its a cool thing to do, looks good on a CV, or you’re going to make a quick buck, you’ve taken the wrong career path. But for those who genuinely want to start a business there are certain factors which I feel should or will naturally be in play, which means its more a question of those who want to start a business, rather than something everyone will want to aim for. Most people start businesses either partly or mainly because they have to - which in my view is where circumstances meets necessity, meets some kind of ability, skill or background to make it possible.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .