BY GUILLERMO DEL RIVERO
Ready to Fight
One of the biggest fears of all the entrepreneurs out there is failure. After all the effort, time, blood and sweat put into a project, seeing it die from lack of clients or investors is a lethal blow for most of them. But not for Richard Moross, CEO and founder of Moo.com a successful design and print business card company.
Failure is not an Option
What started as a failing printing company turned in seven years into a multi award-winning company that today prints business cards for people like Warren Buffett. "I worked for two years in a company that failed, and that failing feeling was an incredible experience. It was very motivating. Failing is a way to find your way in business, it is a necessary stage." Remembers the founder of Moo who has won the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award from Ernst & Young. With statements like that it is easy to understand why.
From Pleasure Cards to MOO
"Initially, the name of the company was going to be "Pleasure Cards" which turned out to be the worst case of company naming in history" confesses Richard Moross. Even if you have a solid and carefully studied marketing strategy, sometimes consumers don't understand your product or what you are trying to communicate with it.
Richard initially designed and sent free samples of his product to key influencers and businessmen like Seth Godin, a public admirer of Moo.com. "They thought I was opening a new club. Others didn't understand what I was trying to get from them." Also, in his original business model it was all about his own designs and the personalizing feature that people love from Moo.com didn't exist. A double mistake that Richard quickly learned from.
An initial rejection of a project is disillusioning for any entrepreneur but it could also be an excellent opportunity to identify the weak elements in your product and correct them. That was exactly what Richard did, turning that initial failure into an opportunity to rename the company, add the users own designs to the production process and start again.
Also he went through a thorough process of talent hunting until he got the right team. “I was very lucky to be surrounded by very talented people from the beginning. It is the best strategy you can think of for any kind of project because you always get to learn something valuable from every talented mind.”
From that point to the international company which now has millions of users, more than 250 employers, and locations in UK and United States there has been a huge journey and lots of mistakes to correct. "Packaging has been very important for us from the beginning, but even in this process we made mistakes. Once we were dealing with lots of big orders and forgot to order the -famous- little boxes in which we deliver the business cards. Thankfully, by that time the royal wedding was going on so we took some white boxes and made a big marketing campaign celebrating the royal wedding by using white boxes in all our deliveries. It was a big success." Another great example of how to turn a mistake into a royal success.
The Oscars for the WEB Industry
3 Weeby awards, ranked in the Top 10 UK Start-up Companies by the Guardian, Entrepreneur of the Year… Undoubtedly, Richard has a brilliant future ahead, but he also had a difficult beginning. His talent was to overcome all those difficulties and learn from them. When he was asked about future projects he was clear "I will definitely keep on working on Moo.com. Every day there is something exciting happening and we have interesting times ahead. 3D printing is here and is an incredible technology which will develop interesting products, but right now we can not integrate it in our production scheme. You have to invest in ideas that your audience is going to understand.”
For the Love of MOO.com
I confess to being an absolute Moo lover, from the friendly website to their informal and warm company communication style. I really love this company. But what I really admire about Moo.com is their high level of creativity that they put into every product. To get a taste of it take a look at their blog, where they publish intelligent and funny articles like this ingenious infographic about cinematographic characters and their business cards during the Oscars awards. Or this promotional short directed by Kessel Kramer where they open the door to the production department. Simply Great.
Richard Moross was kind enough to sit down with Startup Grind London for a fireside chat in March 2014. To check out photos from the event, click here.