Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Matthew Dennis, Co-Founder of Hurdle, located in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Hurdle is a software tool that simplifies issue management, streamlines backlog grooming, and automates sprint planning. Hurdle helps engineering team managers plan and allocate work more effectively while enabling developers to work faster and with less overhead. Our customers are agile software development teams at small, mid-size, or large companies.
Tell us about yourself
I've worked in engineering at companies of all sizes, from small startups to large, globally recognized brands. Throughout my years in the industry, I've spent a lot of time working with engineering teams to optimize their processes. From speaking to other managers and engineers, it was clear that there was a lot of time spent on process tasks that took away from the focus on their real goal. Having experienced that monotonous work myself, I've always wanted to make lives easier for engineering teams and the teams that interact with them, to allow them to spend their time building.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
From a business side, watching and hearing about the benefits of the time savings from our tool allows our users and us more time to work on solving problems. From a personal side, managing to maintain a balance between bootstrapping the business and spending time with my family.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Among many others, I would say time management and fast decisions. In the early stages, you've got to constantly be pushing and actively looking for feedback to make sure you steer in the right direction. This often leaves you in a careful balancing act of where your time is spent, making sure you're being as efficient as possible and trusting your gut when decisions need to be made quickly. Luckily my co-founder and I are in sync and able to move quickly and with purpose.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
This is a tough one; a lot of the classic advice out there seems to be good; it's all about putting it into practice. If I had to choose some of the most impactful as far as getting results from my experience, it would likely be:
- Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You've got to get your ideas out there fast, it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting something to be perfect, but you have to get your eyes and hands on it as soon as possible.
- Don't be afraid of failing. I had to retrain my mindset a bit to be okay with failing, and understanding it's a natural part of the process; in fact, it's where you get some of your most valuable insights.
- Actively listen and accept feedback. Getting frequent feedback is really important to make sure you're delivering something that will actually help your customers, but you have to put that feedback to use.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.hurdle.dev/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HurdleHQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hurdlesoftware
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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