Lost and Founder
15 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago -Being a startup founder is not all private jets and parties. Truthfully, being a founder is a lonely, difficult, stressful, yet rewarding way to spend your life. James Gill started GoSquared with two friends from school in 2006, and in this podcast he shares his struggles, excitement, and everything in between with refreshing honesty.
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Episodes
15. 16 years of GoSquared (Part 1)
February 28, 2022 20:34 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBRecently when GoSquared turned 16 years old (or young?) we shared a blog post with 16 lessons from those 16 years. We received a ton of great feedback on the post, so I thought it’d be good to share some of those lessons on the show and speak about them a little more. Here are the first 8 of the 16 lessons we’ve learned along the way so far... On ideas and building: Build something people want. Share early, share often. Constraints breed creativity — embrace them The details a...
14. The January Blues
January 06, 2022 20:54 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBI always find January a tough month — all the fun and excitement of Christmas and new years is over, the weather is awful, it’s dark outside, and to top it all off we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic. But fear not, there’s a world of opportunity out there! I’m spending some time at the start of January to reflect on 2021. I’m not setting myself huge audacious goals because I don’t know what the future holds, and I know the chances of success are low unless I use my previo...
13. The Great Resignation
November 20, 2021 11:32 - 21 minutes - 19.5 MBThis year, the term "the Great Resignation" has been increasingly used to describe the explosion in people wanting to change their careers. As a planet, we're in unprecedented times – and it's no wonder that many teams are going through a tumultuous time with changes never seen before. If you're anything like me, handling team changes is one of the most challenging aspects of being a manager and leader. I find it hard to even know where to begin on this topic, but I thought I'd sh...
12. Steve Jobs
October 10, 2021 19:49 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBAnyone who knows me knows I have been a fan of the fruit company from California for a long time. In this episode, I talk through how I became a fan of Apple early in my life – from hanging out in the design agency my mum worked at, to being fortunate enough to get an unwanted Mac from my dad's office. Steve Jobs influenced me in many ways – through his keynotes, his showmanship, his stories, and through the many products his company brought into the world. In this episode I summ...
11. What to do when Everything Breaks
September 26, 2021 17:08 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBI have spoken a lot about habits and healthy routines on this podcast in previous episodes, but this week I wanted to change the focus to what happens when you fall out of touch with those routines and start to feel overwhelmed. It's so important to give yourself time to rest and recharge – it's only by pausing you can truly reset and move forward stronger. As the renowned street artist Banksy once said: "Learn to rest, not to quit." Actions / take aways Find ways to check in wi...
10. Time Management
September 04, 2021 10:52 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MB"The secret to doing good research is to always be a little underemployed; you waste years by not being able to waste hours." — Amos Tversky Opposite of "traction" is "distraction". Making time to make time - weekly reflection on your previous week, be deliberate about your upcoming week. Tracking and awareness is the first step to acknowledging and improving. How I've been using a calendar instead of a todo list for a few weeks. Pomodoro technique – try it for the most challen...
9. Finding Focus, Writing, and Habits
August 26, 2021 17:34 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MBIn episode 9 I talk through a bunch of topics on my mind in the last week – finding and regaining focus as a team, how writing helps me break down complex topics, and I check in on some of the habits I've been trying to build. Focus It's really hard to gain once you lose it as a business. Loss aversion can hold you back from making the right decisions. You often lose focus for very good reasons – regaining it can cause people to be short-term frustrated. Difficult transition, bu...
8. How soon should you launch?
August 20, 2021 12:11 - 12 minutes - 11.8 MBLaunching is a lot like inviting your friends over – it forces you to focus. But when is it too early to launch, and how do you tell if you've waited too long? Let's dig in to find out. Actions / take aways Set a deadline Assign an owner if you're in a team Be clear on your priorities If in doubt, optimise for speed Links and further reading Launching is like inviting your friends over: https://www.jamesgill.co/invite-your-friends-over/ Lead Forms by GoSquared: https://www....
7. Ask Me Anything (AMA) Special
August 12, 2021 20:20 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBIt's hard to scale down an hour long conversation, followed by an evening of written Q&A on Reddit into a ~20 minute show, but tonight I tried. On this special episode of the show I have experimented with a different format – with three questions from the AMA, and a summary of my answers. Hope you enjoy the episode! In this episode I share my answers to: How has working with the team changed over the years? How have we managed to get publicity for GoSquared over the years? What...
6. Planning, and Building Healthy Habits
August 04, 2021 21:21 - 16 minutes - 15.2 MBIn episode six, I share my distaste for planning and how I have been reframing planning in my head to encourage me to do more of it. Setting a deadline, and making myself accountable for what I am planning has been useful for showing an outcome to my thinking in the last week. I've also been reading a helpful and practical book called Atomic Habits, by James Clear. It's all about improving your life by adopting positive, healthy habits, and trying to eliminate your bad habits. I'm...
5. Working On vs In the Business
July 28, 2021 19:38 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBIn episode five I chose to focus on one topic that's been on my mind: spending my time in the best way possible as a founder, and as the CEO. I'm sure many of the others founders listening along also started out as makers – either as programmers, designers, or perhaps another creative field. But as you've grown your business and added people to your team, perhaps you've struggled with what I frequently come up against: prioritising time between actioning work "in" the business and...
4. Vision vs Profit, Realism vs Optimism, and How to be More Helpful
July 21, 2021 17:32 - 18 minutes - 17.1 MBLOTS of people reaching out after episode three either going through similar struggles or know people who are. YOU ARE NOT ALONE! In episode four I surface a few of the many things on my mind since last week – whether it's OK to be unclear on the vision of your business, why startups are so hard, how to balance realism vs optimism, and how to be more helpful with your team. Key highlights / actions this week: Vision is good, but a business is better (in my opinion) – ideally you ...
3: Anxiety vs Exercise, Bad Decisions vs No Decisions, and Goals
July 14, 2021 18:49 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MBEpisode 3 is here and I am so grateful to everyone who's been tuning in so far. I've been hearing many lovely stories, and helpful feedback to make this podcast better. Thank you. This week, it's been a tough week. I started this podcast as a way to speak some of my thoughts out loud, and I said I'd be as open and transparent as I possibly can be. This week you'll see that I wasn't lying. This episode runs a little longer than previous episodes, but the thoughts were flowing and I...
2: Strategy, Tactics, and Building Habits
July 05, 2021 17:14 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBThank you so much to everyone who tuned in for episode 1 last week! This week I wanted to follow on from some of the topics we touched on last week – particularly around starting a new quarter, and the need to define strategy without a crystal ball to see what works. I also touch on when to use data vs your gut and why sometimes gut is under-rated (and how it's not something many want to admit to using these days). As a second part of today's episode, I talk about forming habits ...
1: Intro, New Quarter Anxiety, and OKRs
June 28, 2021 18:13 - 16 minutes - 15 MBIn the first (and hopefully not only) episode of Lost and Founder, hear how a new quarter is causing some anxiety for me, and what to do when everyone looks to you for answers. This episode, because we're talking about a new quarter, naturally goes into discussion about OKRs and how to set goals for the team. We can go deeper on all these topics in the future, but the primary goal of this episode was to share what's on my mind right now and get a show out there. I hope you enjoy t...