Best Startup - California
John Burton of UrsaLeo.
Tell us about yourself?
Born in the UK, studied electrical engineering at University of Birmingham. I worked in the semiconductor industry for 30 years in the UK, Europe, US and Japan. I’ve started multiple companies in my career. I moved to the US (San Diego) in 2001 and San Francisco in 2011
What do you think is the single biggest misconception people have when it comes to startups?
Most people hear about the massive success stories where young tech guys had an idea and were billionaires a few years later.
That’s a very, very small percentage of start ups – most grind away and of course a very high percentage fail. It look us 2.5 years to really figure out what to do and another 2 years to execute and get to significant revenue.
What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you?
Most people are going to be happier and richer working for a established company. Start ups are hard – it takes a certain mindset and ability to withstand enormous pressures.
However, when it works it is the most satisfying job in the world. I’ve been bought a couple of times and ended up working for large companies for a few years – I’m happier on my own.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Don’t spend money on things like PR until you have a good market fit. I’m a sales and marketing guy for the most part and of course I want to spend time doing sales and marketing. In reality, until you have a good market fit it’s largely a waste of time. Focus on raising money instead.
A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?
Yes. It bleeds into every waking moment (and wakes you up in the middle of the night a lot as well). I’m better these days – I block out time on my calendar for Yoga and bike riding, but I was only able to do that after the pressure went down a bit.
But you’re not helping your company / investors by driving yourself into exhaustion or having a mental breakdown.
Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?
I wanted to do SW in the IoT space and connected with my co-founder Angie Sticher right at the beginning.
Angie has a background in SW development at Apple and Palm. Beyond that I wanted to do better UI for Industrial IoT as what’s out there is horrible for the most part. Angie has that Apple UI gene so she was perfect.
We kicked ideas around and actually went down a couple of blind alleys between April 2017 and early 2019 when we settled on a) Digital Twins and b) using a gaming engine.
Since then we’ve been on the right track and have had success in the building and energy markets. Then Facebook came up with the whole meta thing and we realized we had all those features already built into our product.
Today we call ourselves an ‘Industrial Metaverse’ company and things have really taken off.
What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?
Great UI – we have an insane focus on usability and graphical design. A lot of our engineering comes from the gaming world where UI is everything.
We also have a world class software team and Angie delivered products for Steve Jobs – she knows how to get products done. I’m no slouch in sales and marketing but that only works when you have a great product behind you.
How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?
Yes we have sales in US, Europe and Asia. Do something innovative – me to products trying to chase a market leader aren’t going to work. Form partnerships to get customer access.
What do you consider are the main strengths of operating your business in California over other states in the US?
Quality of talent available here (silicon valley) is better than anywhere else in the world. A good engineer isn’t 10x better than a bad engineer – they are 1000s of times better. There’s also an amazing start up infrastructure to tap into.
What (if any) are the weaknesses of operating your business within California?
It’s expensive and people can get extreme compensation which you are competing with (Apple, Google, Facebook etc.)
We are currently suffering through a cost of living crisis. With California already being one of the most expensive states to live in, how has this impacted your business?
Not really we have a core team here who love what they do and then we hire around the world to supplement them. Great engineering leadership pulls everyone up to a next level. We have staff in Argentina, Slovenia and the Ukraine as well as all over the US
It is no secret that California is the birthplace of innovation. But that also makes it incredibly competitive. How have you found the competitive environment of California?
It’s fine as long as you are the market leader. Our competitors come from the UK, Arizona and Germany. We are confident we can do it better.
Have you considered moving your company to another state? If so, which state and why?
No. How do I spin this out to 100 words? How do I spin this out to 100 words? How do I spin this out to 100 words? How do I spin this out to 100 words?
Where do you see your business in the next 5 years?
Global, still have to figure out Japan and China. Offices in UK, Germany, West and East Coast of US, Singapore, Japan, Shanghai, somewhere in Latin America maybe South Africa. Pushing $100M in revenue. A succession plan in place, probably around 250-500 people
And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?
Send an email to me [email protected] or fill in the contact form on our website www.ursaleo.com. Send an email to me [email protected] or fill in the contact form on our website www.ursaleo.com. Send an email to me [email protected] or fill in the contact form on our website www.ursaleo.com.
