Advice from entrepreneur, Tiago Mateus

Tiago Mateus, recently met with a group of UEA London Business School students for breakfast.  The students had the opportunity to hear Tiago's 'story' and to ask him some questions.  Here is a flavour of what we heard.....

Tiago (originally from Portugal) started life as an artist.  He painted, sculpted and designed websites for over a decade and participated in solo and collective shows in New York and Portugal.  He moved from being an artist to running a small events company based in New York.  However he gradually began to consider the fact that he had studied Finance at University and decided to put that to good use by becoming an Investment Banker.  Tiago worked for JPMorgan Chase for a number of years and during that time increasingly dealt with SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises).  When he saw more and more of their business plans he developed an interest and realised that actually what he wanted to do was run his own business.  He decided to go back to Uni again and this time went to INSEAD and completed his MBA.  While studying for his MBA he really focused on building his network with the other students and started the student entrepreneurial society.  Now he has established an e-bay type organisation, Sooqini where people pay for services.  The business is 2.5 years old and Tiago is one of the co-founders.

Tiago's advice to those that are thinking of starting their own business.

1) Get a very good developer!  They are invaluable as the website is so important - it's your shop front. (Interesting Tiago found his developer through Linked IN.  He said when he is looking to recruit, he always looks within his personal network first)

2) Be aware that you might not have any money in the bank for the first year of business.

3) Use your network and try to keep building it.  Make the most of being a student and seek to start building your network even while you are at University.

4) Take your time to start.  Don't rush.  Remember that 90% of small businesses will fail.

5) It's best to wait until you get a really good idea

6) Seek to build your skill set, including how to evaluate risk.

To find out more about Tiago and his company Sooqini see here