Notes from inside: lessons from Rob Stokes on building Quirk [Net Prophet]

Hot on the heels of the sale of his company Quirk to global mega-corp WPP, Rob Stokes took the stage at technology and trends conference Net Prophet to divulge some lessons he’s learnt as an entrepreneur.

A few weeks ago, WPP announced it was in talks with Quirk to purchase a majority stake in the company. Quirk’s unaudited consolidated revenues for the year ended 28 February 2014 were approximately R140-million, with gross assets at the same date of approximately R68-million. It’s understood that the deal was made, at least in part, to aid in the company’s expansion into Africa.

While Stokes has refused to put a number on the figure, Ventureburn sources say Quirk sold for between R350-million and R400-million, which means the company probably secured a P/E of between 10-12, which is favourable, but in line with Quirk’s market-leading status.

According to Stokes, the story of building Quirk can be summed up into 10 lessons that, in hindsight, helped him build the company up to what it is today. For the quick-talking ginger, these lessons are useful when starting a business and trying to make it sustainable.

Surround yourself with people better than yourself

Stokes reckons that by hiring people who are better than you, your business has a better chance of success. In the case of Quirk, doing this allowed Stokes to be a better founder and worked for the betterment of the business at the end of the day. He does however think that not enough people do this — largely out of fear — and that needs to change for the sake of the business.

Timing does matter (just hard to predict)

When it comes to starting a business or rolling out a product, it really is all about timing. Stokes reckons that the problem with most entrepreneurs is that they think they are ahead of their time, which is useless if you are selling something that no one is buying.

“The right time is just hard to predict,” he says.

Always play to people’s strengths

There is no point trying get people to do what they can’t or aren’t good at. Stokes thinks that it is better for entrepreneurs to find people with strengths different from your own and play to those. This also has to do with identifying your weaknesses as well as the team’s and filling in those gaps.

If you are going to do something, commit fully

Starting a business is hard enough, if you’re not going to give it your full go, you’re going to get nowhere. When it comes to running a business, it is better to commit fully to it. For Quirk, this meant hiring someone in London who could help its London office rise to the next level through business development.

Be generous with your knowledge

The best piece of marketing for Quirk was giving away knowledge through its emarketing textbooks that have helped educate a rapidly growing industry.

“Find out what you’re good at, share it with the world, and you’ll reap the rewards,” says Stokes. He believes that if people are generous with their knowledge it will come back to them as business karma.

You need luck, it happens through perseverance

Entrepreneurs get lucky and, most of the time, it is a case of being in the right place and the right time. Stokes argues that though this is true, the need for perseverance to be in that right place and right time plays a huge role.

“There were so many times that our business almost died, but it was that perseverance that kept us in the game and bringing out that luck.”

Make yourself saleable, even if you are not for sale

Before the WPP deal, Quirk had been flirting with some interested buyers but never really took their offers too seriously. According to Stokes, he had to think about what would happen if he did decide to sell, so he got sell-ready. He reckons that all business need to make themselves “saleable” even if they aren’t looking to sell, because when things change, it makes the process that much simpler.

Businesses struggle to innovate internally

Building companies or innovating within an existing company is not a very good idea. More often than not the new innovation suffers and bows to the whims of the established business. According to Stokes, the best thing he ever did for in-house innovations was to spin them out into their own independent business that didn’t have to answer to Quirk.

The most adaptable to change survive

In an industry that is ever-changing, you have to ask yourself what your future is. Stokes advises loving change, especially in the tech space. He concedes that in most bigger organisations, change is a little harder but it is necessary to surviving the changes that tech and the world of business brings about.

Just. Fucking. Do. It.

In the world of innovation, no one will do it if everyone is sitting around waiting for someone to build it. Stokes references the mystical “they” that we are constantly asking to build some piece of technology or platform that we feel we need.

So go build it.