philipletts

Today blur Group announced raising a further $11.5m on LSE AIM. We are really excited to welcome a bunch of new, leading public institutional investors as well as such broad support from existing institutions.

It’s really cool watching blur, a pioneer in Cloud computing - after all we were one of the first tech companies to run 100% in the Cloud - also a champion of Crowdsourcing (yeah, we invented Expertsourcing) and the creator of the Services Commerce space (s-commerce), getting so much support.

I believe it is deserved - we always deliver outsized revenue growth, outsized customer service, really ground breaking technology and have a strong path to break even over the next year or so.

I am most excited about the incredible talent we attract from all over the world and the difference that they make for our ecosystem (of buyers and sellers) and each other every day. Businesses are migrating to them at a fantastic rate. Nearly 30,000 businesses in 141 countries have adopted blur’s s-commerce platform - now growing by nearly 1,000 new businesses a month.

I am passionate about the success we have with our customers, service providers, partners and investors. But I have to confess that I am most proud of our people. Today and tomorrow.

They are blur’s heroes. Every single day. Thank you all - and join them if you dare!

It’s been nearly 20 years since e-commerce was born, fundamentally changing our consumer buying behaviour. Prior to this we had a long, long history visiting merchants at their stalls and later in shops. The high street and mall became the engine of consumer purchasing through the 20th Century - ultimately driving the modern economy.

Then it started shifting online through the likes of Amazon and eBay. Consumers were asked to trade experience and habit for speed and efficiency. Two decades later it worked. Digital is the future of shopping.

But what about businesses? The dial up era proved too slow for business purchasing to shift online and in any case the players that emerged forgot a simple lesson. E-commerce worked because it focused on what consumers really care about which is ‘goods’. That is not what moves business needles.

What businesses care about is ‘services’. It is people, technology and projects that drive them and help them adapt - and that’s a tonne about services projects. So someone had to come along and crack services commerce (s-commerce). Many have tried and nearly all have failed. But, in the end, the category is so huge that an Amazon of the services commerce space had to emerge - to shape and drive it. It has arrived.

blur Group, (since 2006) has been quietly developing a grass roots movement with the technology and model to crack s-commerce. It is not easy. Like eBay it requires a large universe of leading merchants - small, medium and large service providers from around the world, covering all core business services: from marketing services, tech services, creative solutions and media services to legal and accounting services. All available on one trading platform designed for corporate buyers throughout the planet. A place where any core corporate service can be bought or sold. Designed for small, medium and large businesses.

It needs a powerful, highly scalable, enterprise class Cloud platform that a little like Amazon for consumers, powers businesses through the discovery of services, their efficient purchasing, supporting management tools, ratings and payments. All done via a tailored auction model.

From a tech perspective pretty much everything is done in reverse to e-commerce - after all this model has no physical goods you pull off virtual shelves. s-commerce is about walking into a virtual auction room and making an ask (for a project) - then responding to live pitches and bids until the ultimate solution is sought and bought at the best price. Using the commerce platform to ensure successful delivery of the services. As we expect a book or boot to get to us on time and in shape with e-commerce - so with s-commerce. Call centres replace warehouses but the principle remains.

As Amazon set the online world on fire in the nineties with e-commerce so blur can enliven this decade with s-commerce. Approaching 25,000 businesses around the globe already seem to think so. Should you?

Staying with the IPO discussion just a little longer - we have recently been discussing why there are not enough hot UK (tech) IPO’s. A question further debated at Innovatrs.com survey.

A core issue seems to be the lack of high growth, mid cap public companies - something Nasdaq thrives off. Germany lives off. So it got me thinking about which sectors could lead the way in the UK:

1. Sports & Leisure - the UK has so many great clubs (particularly football) so maybe we should have more such public companies. Manchester United’s IPO on the NYSE has highlighted that issue! Yet the Olympics re-enforced Britain’s excellence in sports - well, that and betting.

2. Creative Sectors - music, bands, artists, design firms, architects, venues etc. Surely some of these could scale to become IPO candidates.

3. Media - after all we did invent the English language and that’s what powers global media - just. So come on folks.

4. High tech manufacturing - More Carclo Plc’s please!

5. Tech - we have plenty of scientists, we have a few global leaders. We need more.

6. Retail - tomorrows here. E-commerce, M-commerce, tomorrow’s high street. I thought we were a nation of, well shop keepers. Right?

7. Financial Services - the UK sure could use a chunk of innovative, mid sized challenger brands to shake this space up.

If I’ve missed any key sectors then shout. If not, let’s shift the debate to how we load the sectors up with thriving, driving mid size, mid cap public Brit challengers. That’s a post Olympics challenge.

We seem to have a summer of tech IPO love, or at least debate, going on. Innovatrs.com has even democratised the dialogue with a call to Crowdsourcing entrepreneurs views - get involved here.

Last night someone asked me whether an IPO suited every business. I think the answer to that is no. But, I believe that an IPO should be a real alternative for any ambitious company that aspires to become a category leader.

Both the US and Europe have plenty of these whatever the Economist says about the European entrepreneurs malaise. (Though they may have a point about there being less encouragement for entrepreneurs in Europe).

On the other hand maybe European entrepreneurs need to take a different path from their US counterparts. You see the US is all about BIG. Big markets, big money, big VC’s, big stock exchanges and the endless race to ‘be big’.

Going forwards it may be that big is not necessarily best. Perhaps it would be better to be small. Small yet high impact. Small while category innovator and leader - but small. Europe does small really well - just take a look at their most iconic cars and roads.

Europe is also a world leader in small cap regional stock exchanges. In which case maybe the best European route to financing the next Google is by going from concept to friend and family round to Angel financing to proven business model to small/mid cap IPO to scale to secondary offering to really big business.

Cutting out VC and going for IPO may prove to be the liberating factor that will finally let the European anti-malaise genie right out of the bottle. Let’s see.

There’s a huge spotlight on tech IPO’s right now and a stirring debate about Nasdaq versus London (Stock Exchange), v Singapore, Hong Kong or wherever. NYSE Euronext has just leaked that it plans to launch a new pan-European stock exchange for entrepreneurs.

Facebook’s saga has made this hot business topic all the more sizzling - at least it’s not European debt for once!

It got me thinking about what really matters to growing tech/media/creative-tech ventures and whether this debate will help them understand any more about how they should grow their business. (Disclosure: at blur Group we care loads about this community, see Innovate).

After all, an IPO is a fund raising event. A bigger, broader, more advanced version of an Angel, VC or debt deal - but none the less a cash raising exercise. So which of these flavors is right for you?

It strikes me that once you get passed the noise and bluster and VC’s trying to lobby the press, er markets, to promote their portfolio companies then the options are simple.

1. You want to sell your business: If you do and do not need extra capital to pull it off then hire an M&A boutique - and get on with it. If you do need capital then get in bed with a VC and he/she will sell it for you - ideally within 3 years.

2. You do not want to sell your business: If you want it be a quality, niche player then keep it private. Period. Use cash flow and debt to finance its progress -use dividends to reward investors. If you want it to grow really big then use Angel financing followed by an IPO. The latter could be the new way - particularly on the smaller European or Asian markets.

Sorry if this is a bit simplistic but for those of you starting out or deliberating options it might be best to keep it simple.

Lean startups are getting a lot of attention right now. Perhaps it’s a cultural nod to the post Lehman, pro-austerity climate mirrored through the latest business winnows. Or a desire by new breed entrepreneurs to do their bit for occupy Wall Street - a two fingers to yet more slush fees handed to bankers, brokers or VC’s. The counter culture to cash gorged, venture capital primed, one hit wonders.

At blur Group we believe so strongly in lean that we wrote our own framework for it called Innovate - which is now freely available on the Web at http://Innovate.blurgroup.com. Because so often the most successful innovators have succeeded long term without being propped up by artificial chubbiness.

But what makes a startup truly lean? Put most simply lean means that you are laser focused on what truly matters. On the process for building a great business: Understanding a real market need, building the exact right solution, cost effectively discovering the early adopter market for it and using this traction to chart the most direct route to sustainable growth and profits via satisfied customers, partners and employees.

Lean businesses care as much about the bottom line as the top - in everything they do, at all times. They get that turnover at any cost is the business equivalent of gross obesity. That capital raisings are distractions from the core and that lean is a long hard slog. Succeed at it and you probably build a longer term, more valuable business with the right economics to make it through thick and thin.

A truly lean startup is as passionate about being lean as they are about their brand and products. It is a way of life - an ‘organic’ business. Corporate retro - back to basics. Where your number one goal is cash generation, your best route to this is a total customer focus and your surest path to failure being poor products and weak cost controls.

I leave you with one last thought - is venture capital the greatest enabler or distraction to building a truly authentic, lasting business? Is lean the real answer.

It’s a weird reality when you get that your venture has reached scale. It kinda sneaks up on you. After all, you’ve been cheer leading the thing so hard to get it here that you fail to appreciate its point of arrival.

I say that ‘cos reaching scale is only just the end of the beginning. I.e. you’ve survived. So many folk have different perspectives on scale/tipping points/maturity/whatever-else-ya-wanna-call-it.

For some its $5 Million of revenues, for some 10 Million monthly views, others sustainable profitability and there are more. None are wrong. In the end though its about realising that you are best positioned to take immediate advantage of a good sized market opportunity.

At blur Group its just about getting that we have actually gone beyond lean startup and have the scale and resources to make a bigger difference. Our mission has always been to level out the ad industry with a cool, quality Exchange for creatives which helps them get a larger, healthier slice of tomorrow’s marketing and ad pie.

Well, tomorrow’s about here. blur Group’s Exchange has listed nearly $1 Million of creative briefs in just the first 6 weeks of the year. We’ve celebrated this by publishing more daily Exchange stats at blurgroup.com and made a larger commitment than ever to Exchange tech and support. Try it.

I plan to share our journey at my blog. To call BS when we see it, to speak out for creatives everywhere and creativity in general. To give some insight into what its like running 15,000 creatives and agencies collaborating with hundreds and soon thousands of businesses and brands, helping them work, create and transact better together. ‘Cos that’s how we roll here.