What an adventure. It all started with an agreement between my partner Nic and I to start a company without any idea what it would be. After a firm hand shake and an espresso to make it official, we embarked on our journey. What happened next was hours and hours of late night brainstorming sessions focused on identifying opportunities to apply our skill sets to the 3D parametric modeling and 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing) spaces, as we were interested in making an impact in the market by capitalizing on the disruptive technological revolution that is taking place. CadMakers Company Inc. was born with a mandate to leverage the technology in new ways to solve downstream problems in the market (we’ve since found some upstream applications too, especially serving the Real Estate Development market).
So there it was, just like that we had a company. Using the lean startup methodology, we went fast. Our goal was to take a step on the playing field, learn the rules of the game, make a mistake or two and focus on serving customers based on what the market needs. The excitement and energy an entrepreneur feels in the early stages of creating something from nothing is hard to describe. It’s all consuming. The venture takes over every single facet of your life as you’re constantly communicating the value proposition of your company to anyone and everyone who will listen. Like Guy Kawasaki says “When you’re an entrepreneur, life’s a pitch!”
However, let’s not make this seem like a startup is all peaches and cream. The reality is that I have seen why so many startups fail before they even start, the early days of a new venture are an absolute grind. Entrepreneurship is all about action. Having an idea is one thing, but actually taking action is a whole other ball game. Taking action is the hard part. Very quickly the sexiness of the venture wears off and you find yourself fully immersed in the grind. There’s no fancy elevator pitches and differentiated strategy talk here, all of a sudden you are doing things like:
-Creating business plans
– Registering the business
– Emailing lots of people
– Creating and finalizing a shareholders agreement
– Getting a bank account
– Pitching clients
– Applying for grants (not a trivial task)
– Setting up accounting codes and systems
– Assembling an advisory team
– Pitching clients
– Creating a website and adding/maintaining relevant content
– Thinking through branding and logos
– Legal stuff
– Securing office/work space
– Pitching
– Setting up target lists of potential customers
– Figuring out short, medium and long term financing
Of course, after all that there’s the small task of identifying, serving and collecting payment from customers! To be an entrepreneur you MUST love the grind, full stop. It’s all about performing the thousand small tasks needed to make a company run, without losing sight on the higher level strategic vision and direction of the company. When I was playing football we used to say that greatness is the sum of many little things done very well. This applies to startups too. While the pitches, ideas and value propositions get much of the hype, at the end of the day the success of a startup revolves around execution. Survival means out executing the completion. CadMakers Company is embracing the grind to not only survive but strive!
Javier
CadMakers Company Inc.
Coordinate. Create. Innovate.
CadMakers Company Inc. is a Vancouver based company that applies powerful aerospace engineering technology and methodologies to construction projects via 3D virtual construction services. The company was founded Javier Glatt and Nicolas Cantin, both graduates of the MBA program at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Both founders have experience in the construction industry, Glatt worked on many complex projects while with UBC Properties Trust and Cantin has provided 3D parametric modeling services for Frank Gehry’s $1B Barclays Center project in Brooklyn, NY and Hardstone Construction’s $720M Tivoli Village project in Las Vegas, NV.