Zaask: from MBA classroom to the world
Zaask, the online markeplace leader for local services in Portugal and Spain, is one of the several examples of the entrepreneurship after completing The Lisbon MBA programs. The critical aspect that led the company to such a success was the failure and the process to learn with it.
Interview with Luís Pedro Martins, Zaask CEO
Albert Einstein once said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” [1]. Innovation is, indeed, directly related with this but how? The process is simple. It’s impossible to create something new, from scratch, without making any mistake even the smallest one. Luís Pedro Martins, Zaask CEO, points that mistake and failure are the basis of success of any company either small or big ones.
Before discussing the reason why mistake is important for any entrepreneur we found interesting that 90%[2] of the startups fail and stop making business. There are a lot of reasons but there are 5 that are particularly important: No market need for the product, Running out of cash, Not picking the right team, Get Outcompeted and, lastly, the Pricing/Cost Issues. From these reasons[3] you may find the following as the most important ones: Lack of sufficient capital to fund the idea (29% of cases), Picking the wrong team (23%) and a superior competition (19%).
Why are mistakes so important in a life of any startup? Mistakes are part of life of any company or entrepreneur. The key is how your company or you deal with this. There are two options: the first one is accepting it and trying to learn what could do better. Alternatively, there is also the second option which remains in resisting to learn with it and keep insisting on the original option. This, usually, doesn’t work for anybody.
Making mistakes – we all make – but there is a process immediately after it. There are two possible outcomes: or you learn with the mistake and evolve as a person and professional or you keep insisting in that mistake and you won’t learn anything from your experience.
Several studies demonstrate that there is, in fact, a relationship between mistakes and professional success. An interesting story about mistakes and how to deal with them was about how former President Kennedy ran his cabinet. “He used to assemble the smartest people he could, throw a difficult issue on the table, and watch them debate it. Then at some point he would end the debate, make a decision, and move on.” This is similar to judicial processes and it’s smart because he’d get the most important feedback through debate.
When we understand that we made a mistake we can see the problem from a complete different perspective and that helps us to act in a complete different way.
How mistakes drive the startup ecosystem towards growth? The startup ecosystem is largely responsible for the development of several economies worldwide, including Portugal. In the last year, according to numbers from Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), the Portuguese ecosystem boomed twice as fast as the European Union Average. [4]
It’s impossible to learn without making mistakes. Eventually there are some mistakes that could be avoided if we had more experience in this field of knowledge but in Portugal that’s difficult because the ecosystem is very limited.
The growth of the ecosystem represents the investment that the Portuguese Government and other public entities, among dozens of private initiatives, have made in Portugal in the last few years. Big events such as the Web Summit will allow Portugal to be placed among the best countries.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/mistakes
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/01/16/90-of-startups-will-fail-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-10/#3ca1e8a76679
[3] http://fortune.com/2014/09/25/why-startups-fail-according-to-their-founders/
[4] http://observador.pt/2017/06/07/startups-ecossistema-portugues-cresceu-o-dobro-da-media-europeia/