As Dayshape turns 10, CEO and Co-Founder, Andrew Bone reflects back on a decade in business by drawing parallels between growing a company and raising a child.
When people talk about Dayshape to myself or Al, they often refer to it as, “our baby” and this feels like a good analogy, especially because we now suddenly find ourselves with a 10 year old. In fact, my eldest son is eight and a half, quite similar in age to the company, and I’ve often thought that there are a lot of similarities.
Conception
When Al and I started our first jobs after university, we were put on a course called, “Kissing with Confidence”. Unlike when most babies are conceived, you’ll be disappointed to hear that no actual kissing was involved. It was a course on communication skills and one of the exercises instructed Al and I to stare deeply into each other’s eyes for an uncomfortably long time.
Who would have thought that our eyes locking across the room could lead us to conceiving Dayshape. So my first thank you is to my Co-Founder, Al. I couldn’t have asked for a better co-parent, and it has been a privilege to share this experience with you.
Babies & community
When babies are really little, the parent makes all the decisions. What they eat, where they’re going, what clothes they’re wearing. It’s the same with companies. Small companies are easy to control. It’s easy to know everything that is going on because they are operating in the confines of a small play pen.
But pretty quickly, babies start to get their own ideas. You put them down somewhere and they aren’t in the same place when you look back. You have to start to trust other people with your precious bundle. Teachers, grandparents, and friends become part of the community that raises a child.
Baby companies also start to move and change of their own accord as more people join the team and work their magic. You no longer have complete control of the codebase, or every customer interaction. You have to trust other people so that the baby business can grow.
We have been so fortunate with the people we have trusted. A special mention is needed to those people who have given more than six years of their lives to Dayshape and will remember this baby stage the best: Richard, Jakub, Keir, Will, Andy, and our Chairman, Paul. All of you have had a fundamental role in shaping the company. Thank you for sticking with us through all the growing pains, we are lucky to have you. Also, I want to thank Al’s wife, Rachel and my wife, Heather. Their support and advice has had a bigger impact than you could imagine.
Children & values
As babies become toddlers then children, they start to do such wonderful, exciting, and creative things. Of course they also talk back, and do frustrating and annoying things.
As their independence grows, you have to start trusting them. Have faith that the good values and good heart you’ve instilled in them will serve as a guide. That’s one thing I am most proud of in Dayshape. We have built a company with good values and a good heart. And that’s down to all of our team who have created that.
I’m excited to meet teenage Dayshape. I expect there might be some questionable choices at times, some mishaps and japes, but there will also be lots of adventures and growth.
In this next stage, I hope we continue to stay true to our values. In particular:
- Ever-improving. Just as education is a big part of a child’s upbringing, I hope that we keep our focus on learning and ever-improving, always striving to be better tomorrow than we are today.
- Sense of humour. Just as kids love to be silly, I hope that we never lose our sense of humour and our sense of fun.
Humility is also one of our company values and I believe it’s really important. However, I’m officially putting that on pause for a while. Let’s celebrate the fact that we’ve done amazing things: we’ve built a great product, we’ve brought together a brilliant team, and we’ve helped excellent customers. All with the shared vision to improve people’s working lives.
Thank you all, I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Dayshape.
