Adrian Osman is a serial business builder from Brisbane, and CEO and Founder of a startup studio called Pitch Blak.

So what is a startup studio? Billed as a startup education and advisory company, its purpose is to provide that much needed support for early stage startups. To transform people into great entrepreneurs and help fix the huge blackhole that exists between initial idea and a viable business.

Their mission is to create an environment where entrepreneurs get it right the first time.

They are working with youth who have a great idea, to experienced executives who’ve sacrificed 150k-200k salaries to pursue a new path as an entrepreneur.

Adrian has also founded, invested in and advised a bunch of startups himself. His insight into startups, entrepreneurship and business is truly fascinating and if you have any interest in these subjects, you’ll get a lot out of this one.

We cover a lot of ground including…

– what it takes to be a great founder
– why the popular narrative about failure is wrong
– the abundance of opportunities to be had in the Australian startup scene
– what you can do as an employee to find a great idea for a startup
– why B2B represents an enormous opportunity for Australian entrepreneurs

Some Quotables

“We believe failing sucks.”

“Failing a real startup means, the founder gets hurt, the founders family gets hurt, the investors lose their money and get hurt, the customers that use a shitty product get hurt. Obviously the founder learning something but they burned thousands of people [in the process]”

“You can test with experiments nearly every component of a business before you even make a product”

“If you are willing to work hard here, you will excel really fast in Australia… it’s really not that competitive here”

On recognising opportunities in your industry (as an employee)

“It’s far more likely that you will create a great business from that experience and your understanding of that industry… than the little thing you notice while driving to work”

“Creating great ideas is something that can be taught to anyone”

“Culture is what drives people to work late at night, it’s what retains your staff, it’s what attracts good people, it’s what makes your team want to go above and beyond, which could mean the difference as to whether the product makes it or not”

Insights

The early signs of a great founder:

– Curiosity and resourcefulness
– Being a great communicator and ability to sell the story
– Ability to switch between big picture thinking/strategy and quick decisions + execution
– A little bit of self delusion goes a long way

The failure narrative is wrong. Though its important to encourage people to try things and take risks, glorifying failure can be dangerous.

Through rigorous testing we can limit ‘failure’ to a smaller scale and mitigate its impact.

Your business will pivot and change, but your purpose shouldn’t.

Being passionate about solving the problem should be the most important thing.

Deep comprehensive strategy is detrimental to early stage startups.

In the early stages, it’s all about micro strategies

You don’t have to be the biggest to win. With mergers and acquisitions, lots of people still win. There are more opportunities than you think.

Life is a “sprinting marathon”

Cultural narratives play an important role in how we view entrepreneurship. Compared to the US, Australia doesn’t (yet) have that same mentality.

B2B ideas are hugely lacking in Australia and startups who nail this stand to profit in a huge way.

Wake up at work. Identify big problems in your industry then find solutions. You have a far higher chance of success than coming up with a consumer facing idea.

Books Mentioned in Show

Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
Purple Cow – Seth Godin
Think & Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill