As CEO of a young startup, you can often feel what you are facing right now can make or break your company, can make or break you. And you will likely find yourself in this place more than once. Nigel Sharp, CEO of Armenian based Lion Sharp, finds himself in one of these very moments. He feels the energy of a promising product, and the reality of 6 months of runway. How do you balance the excitement and challenges? How do discuss the reality of your finances with your team? How do you discuss your fears, not only of failure but of success?

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Welcome to the Reboot podcast. I'm Dan Putt, one of the partners here at Reboot. I could not be
more excited about this show. I've known Jerry for almost seven years now and without a doubt,
could say that my work with him has had a profound impact on my life. In this show, we're
opening up the coaching couch to the world and bringing everyone in on this conversation
around this work. We're here to showcase the heart and soul of authentic leadership, and to
inspire more open conversations around, what we consider the most important part of
entrepreneurship - the emotional struggle and hopefully opening up some heart along the way.
We are extremely grateful that you have taken the time to be with us, and look forward to this
journey ahead with you. Now, on to our conversation.
Work is difficulty and drama; a high-stakes game in which our identity, our self-esteem and our
ability to provide are mixed inside us in volatile, sometimes explosive ways. "Work is where we
can make ourselves; work is where we can break ourselves." And that quote comes from David
Whyte from "Crossing The Unknown Sea". As CEO of a young startup, you can always feel that
what you are facing right now, the choices in this very moment can make or break your company
and can make or break you. And you'll likely to find yourself in this place more than once. Nigel
Sharp, CEO of Armenia-based Lionsharp finds himself in one of these very moments. On the
one hand, he has the tremendous promise and excitement around a product and his team. He is
getting very positive feedback from all over the world. On the other hand, he faces the reality of
not only six months left runway but also the challenge of leading the fundraiser between
Thanksgiving and New Year's. How do you balance the excitement and the challenges? How do
you discuss the reality of your finances with your team? How do you discuss your fears, not only
of failures but of success? Hear Jerry and Nigel explore these questions and more in this episode
of the Reboot podcast.
Jerry Colonna: Hey Nigel, how are you?
Nigel Sharp: Great! Thanks Jerry.
Jerry Colonna: Good, good. Hey Nigel, before we start, why don't you give us what

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Lionsharp is and who you are and that sort of stuff?
Nigel Sharp: Sure. Okay, so Lionsharp is a creative technology company. We're a little bit
eccentric in the fact that we're actually based in Armenia. So Armenia is over
in the Caucasus and we're quite far out of the way but we are trying to build a
world-leading technology company. What we currently do is we work with
really cool futuristic stuff like voice control and voice recognition and also
gesture control. So, we mix like some of the latest and greatest technologies,
build 'Minority Report' style interfaces for products that we think are gonna
help business productivity. So, we are very focused in the business
productivity area. One of the first products we are working on is called
Voiceboard. Voiceboard is a tool for allowing you to use voice and gesture
controlled presentations. So, it's just a sort of a separate way from the
traditional PowerPoint type presentation; a much more into bringing things
into a natural and interactive type environment. It's actually very exciting to
watch, it's very exciting to be a part of and we've just got ourselves set up in a
couple of pilot locations around the world. So we are really excited about
what the progress is there. So we are just kind of - yeah, we are kind of in that
- how can I say, as far as phase, we are currently in sort of a seed kind of
phase of the company where we are hoping to sort of, you know, go into the
next level of growth and we should hopefully be hitting the products market
later this year. So pretty much, everything is happening right now.
Jerry Colonna: Oh, I see. So - well, thanks for that and I think if I remember correctly, where
you are in terms of the maturation of the business speaks to the issue that you
wanted to talk about today; is that right?
Nigel Sharp: Yes, indeed. It's interesting how a lot of things have happened and they have
culminated in the need for talking about things like growth and expansion of
the company. I'm having two advice sets coming from various people. One
advice set is saying, be frugal, be careful, you know, cut down to the absolute

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minimum core number of people you have, get down to the absolute basics
and just drive forward from there until you are in a position where you are
generating revenue or you have secured further investment. The other side of
the hand is sort of saying, well, you know, to get to that point, you need to
expand, you need to grow, you need to do as much as you can with having,
you know, just keep bringing onboard as many interested people as there is
and just keep growing the company because that's how great things are gonna
happen. So, I'm kind of fighting with that dilemma and I'd like your opinion
on that.
Jerry Colonna: So, it's really - you're in this funny stage right now where you've made enough
progress that - if I remember correctly, you've raised a seed round and now the
question is, do you really press it hard and expand and sort of take advantage
of the momentum that you have or do you hold things tight and just sort of
focus more on organic growth? Am I understanding that right?
Nigel Sharp: I think that's right and I think there's a slight finesse to the whole thing
because the issues is that as you know, with investments you have a certain
runway and our current runway, at our, say current burn rate would pretty give
us from today's date probably about seven or eight months. But in reality to
where we are with our current progress and expansion, I think we are in a
good position but I know that to raise a future round of investment or
whatever could also take six-seven months. So it's like - especially
considering we're coming from an Armenian background, we're not based in
Silicon Valley so things take a bit longer from that side of the world.
Jerry Colonna: In the note that I received, you also talked about being concerned about
becoming a corporation or losing that small team feel; is that also a concern?
Nigel Sharp: Well, that's the other thing that I'd like to talk about; yeah, recently I recruited
a lady and she came in and we had gone through three phases of interviews,

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we got to the last interview and she said to me, "Okay, what are the benefits
and the plans and whatever of the company?" I said, "Well look you know,
we're a startup; we're gonna work a lot of hours, we're gonna be working
really hard and can't really promise you much else other than that." And then
you know, I got a nice email back a day later that saying, "Sorry, thanks very
much, not interested." I suddenly realized that people coming to us and
looking to us as if we were already a established company and realizing that
we're starting to already lose that identity of being a small startup where
people can come in and get involved in the excitement of growth as opposed
to, say, the big corporation benefits.
Jerry Colonna: Yeah, so there's a bit of a struggle because - I mean, do you like being a small
company?
Nigel Sharp: That's not the intention; you know, Lionsharp is gonna grow global and we
have to for what we want to do and for the way we want to change the world
let's say; to use this futuristic technology on various different platforms and
ideas we have. It's just never gonna work to be a small company. So - I've got
big dreams and big plans - big vision, let say, on where I want to see the
company go and the things we do and I just can't imagine as staying to be a
small group of people sitting in Armenia, for example. That's just not - that
was never the plan.
Jerry Colonna: You know, I can give you an opinion and I can put on my old VC hat and act
as if I'm a board member and give you a - you know, an opinion about what I
would do. The problem is, and this is true for a lot of advice-givers you're
gonna get. You're gonna talk whether they are mentors or investors or friends,
they are not you.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.

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Jerry Colonna: And you actually have to make these decisions. So before I give you my input,
which is what I think is the right thing to do, is for you to take input and then
see. I really want to understand what it is; what the pros and cons that you see.
So for example, taking this woman for example, who rejected coming into the
company because she perceived it not necessarily to be, what would you say,
like a solid enough company yet?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah, you know, she basically said that she did not want to take a risk inside
the job. She wanted to have a guaranteed job with guaranteed benefits and
salaries.
Jerry Colonna: Yeah. See, if you notice, all of the questions which are pragmatic and
understandable and practical and real, but they all sort of hinge around fear.
They all hinge around risk; right?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: There's a risk in growing too quickly. There's a risk in not growing quickly
enough. There's a risk in becoming too corporate and losing that sort of 'esprit
de corps' that only a startup can have. And there's a risk in not growing
quickly enough and really becoming professional enough 'cos you're gonna
lose some really mature and talented potential employees. So it's really about -
what you are really asking is how do you navigate this growth curve? Does
that make sense?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah, I have asked the exact question.
Jerry Colonna: Yeah. So, what do you see is the risk of - I think you said you've got a team;
how many people do you have on the team now?
Nigel Sharp: Currently, we're at about 11 people.

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Jerry Colonna: All right, and you just closed the seed round; is that right?
Nigel Sharp: Well no, actually we've just closed the second [Unclear 0:09:56] of the seed
round. So we closed the seed round back in May - sorry in March and we've
used the first - so the first half is gone. So now we are on the second half of it.
Jerry Colonna: And how long with that cash last you?
Nigel Sharp: The second half will probably last us around - I don't know, conservatively, I
think about seven months if we carry on with the same, current spending rate
and if we were to make some drastic cuts and things then yeah, we can make
it last a bit longer.
Jerry Colonna: What does your instinct tell you?
Nigel Sharp: My instinct tells me, go for broke. Otherwise we are gonna basically - either
it's gonna become, you know, just a slow death or a fast death, it doesn't make
much difference either way. I mean, either way, if you don't make things
happen, you don't make things happen. So, to make things happen -
Jerry Colonna: If you were to go down that path, when would you be out? I presume you still
anticipate having to do another capital raise?
Nigel Sharp: Yes.
Jerry Colonna: So probably; what, in another three or four months?
Nigel Sharp: I start actively, yeah, in the fall.
Jerry Colonna: So like November?

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Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: So what do you need to see, milestone wise, in the development of the
company between now and November to know that the company has got a
better-than-average shot at fundraising?
Nigel Sharp: I think the main [Unclear 0:11:17] would be to engage with - I mean take
what we have in our R&D lab in Armenia and sort of take out that technology
and actually get out into the real world with - I don't know whether you call
them customers or pilot users; I don't know what you'd call them exactly, but
those guys out there who are actually using it to give us real feedback. I think
that's the thing. Getting out of the comfort zone of being - I mean this is
another fear that I have and we'll talk about it separately, getting out of the
comfort zone of being in Armenia and getting into the real world, which is
exactly what I'm doing on this current trip over in California. So, I mean,
we're learning a lot from that.
Jerry Colonna: So you're meeting with potential customers in California?
Nigel Sharp: Well, we've actually just set up the Voiceboard system in Silicon Valley at a
large showcase location. So the incubator called NestGSV - and yeah, those
guys there have kindly hosted the Voiceboard system and so we are hoping
that they are going to be able to give us some great feedback. And what I have
noticed so far in the past few days in meeting with various people is that the
feedback from Silicon Valley is definitely tough. It's definitely much more
realistic. In Armenia, people would be very soft and say 'well done!' They'll
give you a pat on the back for anything you achieve.
Jerry Colonna: [Laughs].

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Nigel Sharp: Here, it's a much rougher game. People have seen everything and they really
want to make you the best of the best.
Jerry Colonna: Yeah well, see I'm feeling the same impulse. My instinct is, rather than tell
you, you should go for it or you should not go for it or you should be
conservative, what I would like to see you do and if I were on your board of
directors, what I would mandate that you do to the degree what that one can,
is set yourself up with like six-week milestones.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: Six to eight weeks; we're at the beginning of September now, you basically
have eight weeks and I want to see broken down, week by week milestones.
What do you accomplish, what do you need to get done next week? What do
you need to get done the following week; you see what I'm saying?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: Because what I would like you to be in a position, is to say in November, if as
I suspect will happen, you are not hitting your milestones you slow the
spending down and you buy yourself an extra month.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: I think the worst thing that you can do, forget for a moment the choice that
you have set up - do I go for it or be conservative right now and in effect,
spend nothing. I think the worst thing you can do is to move into this next
phase without a clear, definable plan of action and then no way to gauge, to
hold yourself accountable as to whether or not, you are in fact, making
progress. So you have to be - this is a very critical time because this is the
time period where a lot of self-delusion starts to kick in and you start to tell

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yourself you're making progress when you are not.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: And this is dangerous and what I would like you to do is still have
maneuvering room by, let's call it, November 15th 'cos at that point, you'll still
have theoretically about six to eight weeks of cash; right? And you could slow
things down again at that point and buy yourself another month.
Nigel Sharp: But I like the idea of just sort of setting something shorter term, I think -
Jerry Colonna: And I mean, I would point out something else; let me ask you, the people who
are on your board of directors, were they the ones who gave you the second
[Unclear 0:14:48] of the seed fund?
Nigel Sharp: One of them, yes. So we have -
Jerry Colonna: Okay.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: So, if you notice, by keeping that person up to date and part of the process,
even though you have missed a few milestones or one milestone -
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: - they put more money in.
Nigel Sharp: Indeed.
Jerry Colonna: And so there's another lesson in there which is you really have to treat your

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investors as partners. The last thing I want to see you do is surprise the heck
out of your existing investors. If you keep them up to date and you -
Nigel Sharp: No, they deserve more than that.
Jerry Colonna: That's right.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: That's right and so you could give them a report; I mean I want you tracking
this weekly.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: But you can give them a report every two weeks and it doesn't have to be very
long. It could be three or four bullet items, number of customer calls, number
of Beta users, number of installations, number of - whatever it is that you are
measuring and every two or three weeks, you are sending then an update so
that they feel that, let's call it by November 15th, you're making a joint
decision about what you want to do. Now that said, they are still going to look
to you to lead.
Nigel Sharp: Of course.
Jerry Colonna: Because you are ultimately still going to be the one responsible for making the
judgment call as to how you go forward post November 15th. But I also want
you to remember too that after November 15th, you're gonna start getting into
the holiday period here in the States.
Nigel Sharp: That's a big concern of mine and we were there last winter, the company ran
out of cash around, actually funnily enough, around the same date; around

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November 15th and we'd already had a signed term sheet from our investors
but just the process was immense to get everything done. And there was huge
amount of structural work - I mean the company had to be done and legal
work and it dragged on till around February-March [Unclear 0:16:40] and
yeah, the winter was very rough. It was very rough for the whole team, for
morale, for everyone, so it was a very rough time.
Jerry Colonna: All right, so what are you gonna do to prevent that from happening again?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah, have a better plan but actually, I mean, I think last year we also had a
good plan. What I didn't - I guess, the experience I had last year was I didn't
understand - people told me it could take a long time to do things, I just didn't
believe that things could take that long. Now, I'm much, much more aware
and as I said, now I know that if we had a six or seven month runway, then it
means that we need to start fundraising now and not in four or five months'
time because it would take too long to close the whole process and then things
would get very uncomfortable while we are sitting in between those zones and
that's a very bad place to be for any company.
Jerry Colonna: That's right. That's right and you know, the last thing you want to do is be in a
position of running out of cash.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: Not only does it put you in a terrible negotiating position with potential
investors or existing investors, but as you noticed, it destroys morale -
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: - and it's so distracting that you then start to miss opportunities that are right in
front of you. You know, closing a customer, that sort of thing because you are

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so anxious about cash. So, cash management; you are in the cash management
phase right now -
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: -you're not so much in the 'should we grow the company or should we not
grow the company' phase; you really are in the cash management phase. That
doesn't mean get parsimonious and get souse and get be driven by your fears.
You know, one of my favorite Zen sayings is, this being so, so what? And it's
an aphorism that basically teaches to really deal with the reality that is; to lean
into the reality that is and this is a situation. What you've done is set yourself
up to run out of cash around January 15th.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: [Laughs] Don't do that.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: So, you know, is there a line of credit that you establish, can you have a
conversation with the investors? For example, you can start to have a
conversation with the investors in the next three or four weeks and say, 'listen,
if we are close and we sign a term sheet before say Christmas -
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: - are you willing to roll a convertible note to cover us while we get the
paperwork done?'
Nigel Sharp: Yeah sure [Unclear 0:19:02] Mm-hmm.

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Jerry Colonna: Exactly. It doesn't even have to be a full round, it's just a note and it'll convert
into that round and then you get to negotiate from a place of strength 'cos you
got 100,000 - 200,000 dollars in the bank.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: Part of your good governance and good leadership right now is to look down
the road and make sure that you've got, you know, things covered.
Nigel Sharp: Well, that's something that's become harder and harder to do. As companies
grow and I've realized that forward-looking perspective, we actually had a
very interesting meeting a few days ago here at Silicon Valley where there
was a great guy; he met up with me for breakfast and we talked about the
product and things and he was very interesting. 'Cos you know, one of the
things that he noticed was that originally when we started the company about
a year ago, we were talking only about products, vision, the future of the
company, the future of the products and that's where we are always pitching.
Now, we have something to show people, you know, [Unclear 0:20:01] say
sights into the future has actually shortened considerably into the next feature
and the things that can come up in the next couple of weeks and he was
asking, 'what's the vision, where is this thing going?' And I think that the same
has happened with me regarding the whole companies, as the companies got
bigger and as we've had more, say, day-to-day operational type things to deal
with, as we started to talk with customers and things happening now, and
things are happening soon, we keep forgetting about what's gonna happen in
the future.
Jerry Colonna: Yeah, and you're in a difficult phase of maturation because on the one hand,
you need to be focused and on the present and the here and now and at the
same time, you need to be thinking down, you know, ahead, down the road.
And you're expressing the duality of that. There's another way to think about

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this though; instead of thinking about it so much as the here and now versus
the down the road -
Nigel Sharp: Sure -
Jerry Colonna: - the one thing to think about is, your job is not necessarily to build the
product. Your job is to build a company.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: Okay? And the company will have multiple products and the company will
have multiple iterations in the same product. So part of what your job is right
now, is to build the resources into the company so that the company can not
only survive low points of cash but different iterations in the product.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: So, there's a big difference between building a company and building a
product. Building a company is about building sustainability into the system
and resiliency in the system and that means, you know, when we think about
looking down the road, it's about making the system more capable to survive
the seasonality of, say, cash or the seasonality of customer purchasing habits
with a seasonality of just the economic conditions that you are operating in.
Does this make sense?
Nigel Sharp: It does. I think it's - it's at a constant balance because I think I'm much more
comfortable and the products field where there's cash to build something great
and you're doing that and you want to get out there and do great things with it
but building a sustainable business is something that has become, I guess,
more relevant now that I have more weight on my shoulders, now that I have
noticed there's more staff, there's more employees looking towards longer

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term plans and we want to - you know, I don't want to see any of these guys
out of a job by Christmas and I don't think there's any reason for a startup to
be talking in that kind of way because at the moment, we are in a very positive
phase. We are in a very positive - like everything, the investor's board has just
met this week and they've been very happy with the progress. I mean people
are - it's a very positive time and yet the worry is always there that at least
these guys, you know, to look after and all these guys to make sure that they
will - they will have something to take home at the end of each month and be
able to care and grow in the business with them. So -
Jerry Colonna: That worry, Nigel - that worry never goes away.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: No matter how safe and secure the company feels, the worry never goes away
because the stakes always get higher -
Nigel Sharp: Yeah -
Jerry Colonna: You'll have more employees, more people focused on you, more customers,
reputation, more investors and that sort of thing. And so as part of that
'building sustainable business' process, we also want to be focused in building
resiliency within you.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: Right? So - and the impulse that you identify, which is to stay focused on the
product, I'm gonna say two things about that; the first is that - well, three
things; the first is that it is very, very common. It's very common and staying
focused on product makes a ton of sense if the game you want to play is to
shoot for an - to be acquired in the next 18-24 months -

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Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: - and a lot of people have made a lot of money and brought a lot of successful
products to market by staying focused on that and there's no shame in that
being a strategy. I know it's politically correct to talk about purpose and
meaning and all that and we'll get there in a moment.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah sure.
Jerry Colonna: But there's no shame in just building a great product that somebody needs to
have and acquire and then you make some money and then you turn around
and then you help the world. Great! However, if that's not what you are
interested in, and based on some past conversations, I know that you are
interested in making a difference in the underlying economy in Armenia.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: We talked about before, Armenia really important to you.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: And so, building a company becomes the more sustainable path. What I would
also suggest is that it's - you know, I don't know if you follow baseball at all
but in baseball there are people who swing for the fences and try to hit home
runs all the time and there are people who just don't care, they just try to get
on base every single time they are up. And, you know, a great team needs
both. There's something powerful about both styles; for my money, I like the
guy who is always trying to get on base because they always make something
happen and in my view, that's a much less risky strategy. It's a much less
riskier strategy than trying to build a product that, come hell or high water,

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somebody has to come in and buy because all of a sudden, your future starts to
be dictated by external economic conditions and you have no control over
that. Whereas if you build a sustainable business, or a sustainable and
repeatable business and then someone comes along and wants to acquire you,
well, it's up to you as to whether or not you want to sell.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: You're not back -
Nigel Sharp: I think the greatest companies in the world, I mean, all of them have all taken
that latter approach to building a business and I think that although I don't
want to over-blow what it is that I want to achieve, I do think that, as you said,
for Armenia and for other places that we have been and the people and the
people who supported us, I think it's very important to not just go for that first
step. For me, it's a two-part process and I agree that I'd much rather see a team
of people that are actually working in jobs they love, building products that
may or may not be successful in the market. Some may and some may not, but
when you are a part of a company that has that environment where they can
actually work on the type of tech they are interested in and, you know, get
things out to market as they go as opposed to you know, a one-shot, one-hit
home run as you put it so -
Jerry Colonna: That's right and so if that's what you want to do then your focus has to at least
be equally on building a company as it is on building the product.
Nigel Sharp: Indeed, yeah.
Jerry Colonna: And that means securing a steady source of capital and smoothing out the
vagaries in your capital expenditure so that you are determining the best
moment when you are fundraising; not your bank balance. This is your job

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and this is the time to be focused on it 'cos you've got some maneuver room
right now.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: But you don't have a lot, you only have a few months.
Nigel Sharp: We have never had a lot so that's one thing I can say coming from that side of
the world is that we have never had a lot. Last year we were operating with,
you know, on average, maximum sort of three month runtime and it was very
rough, you know, very, very rough. This year we have had double that each
time between the rounds and it has still been pretty tough because the team's
got bigger and the teams got - as you said, the stakes increased. So, it's a very
interesting way to look at it; to not be dictated - don't let the bank balance
dictate the decisions and instead focus on the overarching plan to make sure
that things are happening. I mean I had a very interesting discussion again this
week where, you know, it was really brought up to me that how I thought
about, you know, taking the company through a bootstrapping phase for some
period of time because people have said, they see that we are very close to
having our products that is maybe not globally applicable but definitely there
was probably enough potential out there that - it can probably sustain the
business in its current form for quite some time until we can build something
more, I'd say, globally appealing. And that was also a very interesting idea
because I hadn't really considered that up to this point. I mean most of the
time I had considered that we would follow a standard kind of [Unclear
0:28:53] around investment type of process but it seems like there is lot of
value now and also looking at just, you know, keeping the business
sustainable for some period of time, you know, lower the expectations of
growth. But I do worry then, and the only worry I have there is that how will -
how will the team, how will other people around the business react to that if
they see the business not - I wouldn't call it stagnate but it remain in sort of,

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one, sort of stable positions for some period of time building a smaller
product, just generating enough revenue to sustain the business for a short
period of time, possibly become self-sustainable for a long period of time but I
mean, I don't know how this is going to be perceived by everyone around
because I think a lot of people want to be part of that fast-growing, exciting
tech startup and they don't want to be part of the -
Jerry Colonna: What if you talked it over with some of the senior, more mature people in
your team?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: What if you got their opinion? What if you actually gave them the choice or at
least gave them the opportunity to give you their input? What if it wasn't
always on your shoulders, Nigel, to not only to identify what the problem was
but walk in with the solution?
Nigel Sharp: I always had a good team Jerry; recently one of my co-founders, he just - he
sent me a message, it was my birthday a few days back and he sent me a
message and he said, 'happy birthday' and then at the end of the message he
wrote, 'thanks for holding the torch every day and coming to work and to keep
things moving along, keep pushing things along. Really appreciate that.'
Jerry Colonna: What's this guy's first name?
Nigel Sharp: I'm really happy with the team that we have so -
Jerry Colonna: What's this guys' first name?
Nigel Sharp: Alessandro.

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Jerry Colonna: Why don't you sit down with Alessandro as soon as you can and sort of lay
out the - use the fundraising, use the cash balance as the structure to then have
a really clear conversation where the two of you craft the strategy? So you lay
out what you think the milestones need to be, you lay out what the decision
points are, 'cos there's no point in having milestones unless you attach a
decision to the milestones, right? By October 1, we are gonna be deciding X
or Y.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: By November 15, we're gonna decide, you know, A or B. And you lay that all
out and you could even, as you get closer, you could even get into anticipating
if you have to cut expenditures, what would you cut? Would you cut people or
would you cut salaries? Or both?
Nigel Sharp: That was also the advice that came in from one of our post advisors; he's
based here in L.A. and his view was like, consider everybody. Cutting
salaries, consider the whole team taking a step back, considering just like,
really, really tightening the bolts in every single person, make sure that
whoever is around, needs to be around and no one's extra weight right now.
And his advice from an outside perspective, sounds very clear, sounds very
sensible, it was nothing I could disagree with. But at the same time, being
inside of the [Unclear 0:32:01] and hearing that, I immediately felt defensive.
I felt that somebody was saying, that look it's not going - I don't know why but
maybe it's just perspective and again, as I said, you can become very easily
clouded when you are inside the system but when I heard it, I did become
quite defensive. I was quite like, 'whoa, why is he telling me that I should be
taking -' because I don't feel that anyone is like particularly taking huge
salaries or taking an advantage of any of the system. We are not, let's say, an
Americanized startup where you hear crazy stories in the news. I mean we are
nowhere as crazy as that. So we are quite sensible with everything we have

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done and we are quite responsible with everything we have done but at the
same point, I hear his words and I see that he's got a good experience with a
lot of setting up businesses before, and I'm wondering, well, where does he
see that the risk is? And his point was, keep things very, very, very tight
because you don't know where the next cash is coming from.
Jerry Colonna: I would argue that he's not even saying that. I think what he's saying to you is,
keep things real; meaning, know what your plan is going to be. Know what
you are gonna cut, know what you are not gonna cut, know what you can cut,
know what you can't cut. I think it's interesting 'cos you heard a criticism and I
didn't hear the criticism. Now I wasn't in the first conversation; but you got
defensive.
Nigel Sharp: It was - I mean, the situation was that, you know, we were talking about
taking the company forward and there was basically just an email out of the
blue more or less, after an investor update. There was an update and the
update was just, you know, the general news about where we were in that
month and what had happened and the fact that we were looking to close the
second half of the investment and the response back to that was, from him was
just like, 'just tighten the bolts down, keep everything, you know, potentially,
cut salaries -' And he said it in a dramatic way. 'Cut everything by half,
everybody across the board, just halve everything you can. Halve the
expenditure and then give yourself more time, give yourself more runway,
you're gonna need it.' And the end of his sentence was very clear, he doesn't
want to see us run out of money.
Jerry Colonna: Well, I think what you are dealing with is that the investor was giving you the
best possible advice they could give you based on their emotional read of the
situation.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.

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Jerry Colonna: Which was, if it were them, this is what they would do.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: Right? And rather than seeing it as a potential criticism, see it as one potential
path and as we laid it out - I mean to me facts are, you are going to be out of
cash on such and such date which means you need to raise money by such and
such date, which means that you need to have the fund raising begun by such
and such date, which means that you need to have milestones in place so that
you can have a successful fundraising by such and such date.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: That's the way to respond to the theoretical conditions that you are all dealing
with in this moment and the person who knows those facts best is you.
Nigel Sharp: Absolutely, yeah. I mean the other thing about - I can say about fundraising
and it's just something I have learnt again through experience over the past
year has been that you want to be in the strongest possible position at the
moment when you're negotiating. And that's hard because you want to try and
force everything in the company to be in that strongest possible position. So
for example, the product, you wanted it to look as strong as it possibly can be.
You know the more time will make the product better but at the same time, if
you don't show it, then you're gonna miss that window of opportunity where
you can actually get something signed up and done. So, I think at the moment
we are fighting that balance of being - of being in the strongest position if we
not, then things do take a back-flip where people go, 'oh, this is okay', but it
doesn't get them excited to do you only have that fist impression that first
time. So -

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Jerry Colonna: I think that's absolutely right. I think that's absolutely right and I think in the
same - another thing to think about that will put you in a strong position is you
know what your scenario B is. Scenario B is, 'and if I don't raise money, here's
what my new salary will be, here's what Alessandro's new salary will be.
Here's what Joe's new salary will be.'
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: And we've already discussed it and these are the conditions and nobody is
getting screwed 'cos we are all in this together.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: And, you know, maybe it's not just a salary cut, maybe it's a deferred salary,
maybe it's equity in lieu of salary.
Nigel Sharp: Yeah.
Jerry Colonna: Whatever it is, but have that discussion now. The benefit of having that
discussion now is it will tighten the team.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: See, my concern is that you are - and maybe you are not doing this but my
concern is that you are taking all of this burden on yourself and I hear you;
you've said to me several times, you have a great team. I am sure of that and I
want this burden shared by the team 'cos that's what a great company is.
Nigel Sharp: Mm-hmm.
Jerry Colonna: A great company is not everything is on the shoulders of one person. That's

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just too risky and that's not really fair.
Nigel Sharp: No, it's not fair to anyone. You know, I don't want to have so many
discussions and so much stuff that makes people panic that things aren't going
well rather people believe that you know, guys are gonna throw money at us
in the next few months if we just keep [Unclear 0:37:38] and keep people on
high spirits that -
Jerry Colonna: Nigel, people are not gonna panic based on what you say.
Nigel Sharp: Sure.
Jerry Colonna: They're gonna panic based what you feel when you say it. So, if you feel panic
and you tell them 'everything is fine', they're still gonna feel panic. And if you
feel that things are under control, and that you have a sense of a plan and you
lay out what the challenges are, they're not gonna panic.
Nigel Sharp: Hmm.
Jerry Colonna: It's a mistake to assume that people are gonna respond to your words more
than your own feelings. This is the function of leadership. You know, I just
finished George Washington's biography and so forgive me, 'cos I keep
referencing back to him in my head. And there's this great scene at the very,
very end of his presidency and it's the Whiskey Rebellion. And this is a
rebellion that occurred in the western part of, what was then United States,
and they were rebelling against the tax put on whiskey. And they were
basically armed rebels who were moving against the government and you
know, he moved the army in there as commander-in-chief and there was this
one scene where his back is incredibly in pain and he can barely hold himself
up on a horse and him being on a horse was such a powerful image. And so he
took a carriage from Philadelphia out to the hinterlands of Ohio and he gets

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there and gets off the carriage and he gets back on his white horse 'cos he
knows he needs to do that. And he rides through the troops and the troops are
faced off with the rebels and he says nothing but just rides through the troops.
And the troops start to cry just looking at him at the way he sat on the horse.
That's what I'm talking about; that's your leadership opportunity; you know?
Nigel Sharp: Yeah, it's a very powerful image, yeah.
Jerry Colonna: That's the hardest part. What I'm talking about right now, is the hardest part of
being the CEO. It's about your bearing; it's about your being. It's not about
what the words you use or the plan you put out. The plans are really important
but if you say to the team, those ten other people, 'we're in it and we're in it
together' and you feel it in your gut, it'll be all right. Will you keep me up to
date and let me know how the fundraising goes and how the fall unfolds for
you?
Nigel Sharp: Absolutely Jerry, yeah. I have taken onboard a lot of what you said and I
thank you very much for your time.
Jerry Colonna: Oh it's my pleasure, it's my pleasure and good luck with everything. Take care
of yourself my friend.
Nigel Sharp: Thanks Jerry, thank you very much.
Jerry Colonna: Be well.
So that's it for our conversation today. You know, a lot was covered in this episode from links, to
books, to quotes, to images. So we went ahead and compiled all that, and put it on our site at
Reboot.io/Podcast. If you would like to be a guest on the show, you can find out about that on
our site as well. I'm really grateful that you took the time to listen. If you enjoyed the show and
you want to get all the latest episodes as we release them, head over to iTunes and subscribe and

26. Reboot 003_So_What
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while you're there, it would be great if you could leave us a review letting us know how the show
affected you. So thank you again for listening and I really look forward to future conversations
together.
[Singing] “How long till my soul gets it right?
Did any human being ever reach that kind of light?
I call on the resting soul of Galileo,
King of night vision, king of insight.”
[End of transcript 0:42:02]