The Sill Raises $5m

https://techcrunch-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techcrunch.com/2018/08/22/plant-focused-startup-the-sill-raises-5m/amp/

The Sill, a startup founded 6years ago selling  potted plants online and in physical stores,  have raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Raine Ventures.

The company wa was bootstrapped until last year, when it raised seed funding from Brand Foundry Ventures, Halogen Ventures, BBG Ventures, Tuesday Capital, Blueseed and The Chernin Group. (BBG Ventures is backed by TechCrunch’s parent company Oath.)

 The Sills founder , Eliza Blank said her vision is bigger than “just putting plants online and being another direct-to-consumer brand.”

The Sill doesn’t just sell you a plant (along with basic care instructions). It also allows you to ask questions of the company’s plant experts — and with the opening of its first brick-and-mortar stores in New York City, it also offers weekly workshops.

“We have a much longer relationship than a typical transaction business,” Blank said. “Making the purchase is almost like the start — or maybe the middle — of a conversation.”

The company says it sold more than 75,000 products in the last six months, with sales up 500 percent year-over-year, and anticipated revenue for the year of nearly $5 million.

Business Builders Group: Millennials are different from the Gen-Xers and Ba...

Business Builders Group: Millennials are different from the Gen-Xers and Ba...: Millennials are different from the Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers   who have a specific set of skills and value systems they focus on We not I ....... read more

So where’s the opportunity?

The power of advocacy

Great Insite by Jason Ross 

Imagine your life in 5 years, sitting at your desk, having come in late and without any intention to stay longer than lunch.

Imagine the clients you have, or the people that you lead.

Imagine these people take your calls or quickly get back to you when you phone or email them. They complete their objectives and work with enthusiasm, pay their invoices on time or listen when you offer advice; the advice you are more than qualified to provide.

These aren't an online collection of pseudo ‘friends’. You have deliberately surrounded yourself with people that make your life easier, not harder in real terms and it didn't happen by accident. A great network doesn't just ‘turn up’.

Imagine that this network of yours, of 50 or even 100 people. People who don't just know what you do for money, but who you are as a person. 

More importantly, what if these great people actually opened doors for you into the relationships they valued. Introduced and referred you to people (and business) just like them; great people. Imagine this and then ask yourself; would I ever want for new clients, business, or career opportunities?

Of course you wouldn't. Abundance would be a word you'd become very familiar with.

Now consider where you are today. You are (hopefully) clear that a strong network of genuine relationships and advocacy is the holy grail of success, in your career or business so you're out networking at an event.

What would you prefer to walk into a room of 100 people and promote yourself, one to one, selling yourself and your wares? Repeating your ‘elevator pitch’ while assessing and being assessed based on the premise of ‘can we do business?’ Politely offering and collecting business cards to be discarded when you get home.

Wash, rinse and repeat. Over and over.

Or would you rather know 10, trusted advocates who know the other 90 people. Advocates who will deliberately and strategically know when to bring you into a conversation and their relationships?

Which would you choose?

Again, the choice is (or should be) obvious, because having people who advocate for you is far more time and energy effective, and advocacy comes with the power of trust. It's the lubricant that smooths the pathway to results and opportunity.

This isn't new. It's common knowledge. Yet, even knowing this most people (rightly or wrongly) still pursue the strategy of self promotion. Investing time and energy in one on one coffee meetings and networking events where they rely on their own efforts and an elevator pitch.

Wash, rinse and repeat.

Advocacy is the key that opens the door to opportunity, but it requires a network founded on a basis of strong relationships. Relationships, that are themselves based on a culture of genuine collaboration between everyone involved, and that requires trust. 

The strength and reach of your personal network (not the business or organisation you work for) is directly related to the opportunity available to you and, the success you will achieve.

It is relevant if you're an employee starting a career or new job, an entrepreneur with a new idea or business owner with a business that is growing or failing. It's relevant if you are in a corporate environment or a not for profit. Everyone needs a network if they want more.

BUT if it's just you searching for great connections, building new relationships, strengthening the trust and making the calls to connect to others, how on earth are you going to manage the time and energy to build strong and genuine relationships with 10 people, let alone 50 or 100?

Where are you going to find the time when you're already working hard in your job or business, have a family, a social life or contribute to your community?

The answer; it depends.

It depends firstly on your desire to (incrementally) alter your short term focused strategy of wash, rinse and repeat (which only leads to more wash, rinse and repeat) into a long term one that provides an abundance of opportunity.

Secondly, it depends on if you're prepared to actually be deliberate with your time and energy; which is always required, regardless of the endeavor.

Finally and most importantly, it depends on your ability to create leverage or "personal scale", because if everything was down to you being the ‘magic’ that strength and reach is immediately going to be limited.

3 great insites we can learn from Silicon Valley

I  am sitting the airport waiting to board flights back to Australia and have just concluded a three-day trip to the Valley.

Tens of meetings and three days later, I feel exhausted but enriched by what I have learned. While I cant go into the specifics of our meetings but I want to share cultural lessons I have learned.

1. Collaborating and sharing Ideas openly

Ideas are worth nothing - if you cant execute them. Everyone here shares their ideas openly. They are optimistic that their idea will make them a billion dollars but they are not scared of sharing it. They know that ideas are worth nothing if you don't execute. The openness helps with problem solving and collaboration. After all, when you are trying to solve big problems, trying to do it alone makes little sense.

2. Giving generously and sharing connections 

One meeting leads to another, and there is a strong and instant follow up on actions. Prior to the trip, I had a fairly booked calendar of meetings. But once the first meeting started it lead to the next and then the next. Very quickly, I could not even find time to scratch myself. Another thing, I found was people in the Valley are very good at following up. When they say let me connect you to "such and such" person they really mean it. And it happens quickly, many times we had not even reached the car to drive to the next meeting and our next meeting was already set. This leads to a culture of everyone knows everyone and the extent of collaboration is simply hard to comprehend.

3. Culture of Disruption and wanting to change the world 

People in the valley think big and want to change the world. Back in Australia, we think much more about incremental innovation than disruptive, but here in the valley, disruption is the name of the game. And it makes sense, if you don't think big you won't achieve big. When you are there to disrupt, you will fail many many times. That is well accepted here, it is actually a key part of the resume for anyone successful.

In Australia, we cant and don't need to replicate the valley but there are so many lessons starting with learning from their culture.

Let's all of us do our bit and help with this cultural change, our country's future and the jobs of the future are at stake here.

What is your startup or best opportunity?

Name your startup or one that you think is awesome - with the city it is in 

Who will be the next titans

From Heather McGowan www.heathermcgowan.com. 

 We are moving from the 3rd to the 4th #industrialrevolution #4IR or as John Hagel refers to as it from scalable production to scalable learning. 

If you look at our largest companies by market capitalization, 

100 years ago we extracted value from natural assets using access to capital as the key differentiator. 

50 years ago the competitive advantage was rooted in access to both technology and a deployable/trained workforce to produce human made assets at scale. 

Then a trained workforce was one in which predetermined skills and existing knowledge had been codified and transferred. 

Too much of education focused on #knowledge transfer with students as vessels for stored, existing stocks of knowledge (as required to create that deployable workforce to scale production). 

Now as rising #technical #capabilities can do much of what is mentally routine or predictable we need a workforce filled with knowledge generators and value creators. 

• Can we make this shift? 
• For all? 
• Who is responsible? 

We have only digitized about 20% of our economy so much of our workforce came out of the old factory pipeline model of education to work. 

Who helps those left behind?