I recently went one-on-one with Laurent Vernhes, co-founder of Tablet Hotels and founder of mva.wine
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Laurent: I’ve spent a lot of my life abroad, building things in places and cultures that were different from those I grew up with, first in Asia, and then in the US. This journey wasn’t without its setbacks and failures, especially the near-death experiences of the entrepreneurial part. It took years before Tablet became a recognizable brand: I can still picture myself in the tiny, windowless office a friend made available to me in the beginning, working alone to the blasting sound of music to keep me from giving up on it all. But I don’t believe in meaningful success without setbacks and failures. It’s when you learn the most, and it’s when your style as a leader can emerge.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Laurent: I learned, over the years, that most of my ideas find their roots in frustration. More precisely, frustration with finding very little reliable help to live my passions to the fullest. I have numerous passions, and therefore, I am a frequently frustrated man with many, sometimes very unrealistic, ideas. That being said, I take no pride in it, because having an idea (even a good one) is never enough. Ideas are cheap and they’re never unique. It’s 99% about the execution. That’s why I’ve always refused to sign an NDA that covers just an idea, to communicate to the ‘genius’ owner of that idea the simple fact that they’ve done nothing yet. Ideas need to be shared and challenged for them to work. And gatekeeping doesn’t help.
I know that’s hard to hear, so here is an example. On my journey with Tablet, I had a conversation with an early CEO of Expedia. I knew, entering the room, that he had the means to execute what I wanted to do, and what’s more, to do it faster. But I still went, and confronting my ideas with his professional perspective helped my ideas develop. I won’t bother you with the details, because it was a pretty technical conversation between two people obsessed with hotels. But my point is: I did not get poached. I got help. So go out and talk to people.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Laurent: I don’t think you ever know until you execute enough of it to demonstrate product-market fit. It often takes more than one test. In fact, it takes multiple evolving executions of the same idea, and you need to accept that you must adjust it along the way. But that’s fine, because as we said, ideas are cheap. If one of them doesn’t work, just discard it and move on.
It’s hard to do, because that’s not necessarily what’s expected of you. In the early days of mva.wine, a lot of people asked me what the business plan looked like. They never got an answer. To me, you should never launch based strictly on a business plan: it’s going to change, because the reality of the market demands it. So we just launched and refined the product as we went, taking into account what our members and partners said. The only thing that never changed is the core problem we are trying to solve.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Laurent: A business needs to be scalable conceptually. The first step is to establish product-market fit without betting the house on each version of the execution. And if it doesn’t work, you do it again, until one day the spark becomes a flame. The second step is to establish a clear, scalable path to profitability from a customer acquisition cost perspective. If you have these two ingredients, then you should be in the clear. Oh wait, that’s not right. A myriad of problems will come up unannounced and disrupt every plan you made (chuckles). Add a dash of emotional resilience to the recipe: you’re going to need it.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Laurent: Audiences evolve over time (SEM, then social…what’s next?), and you need to find out how to address them in a relevant way. This is not an academic exercise that you can learn from a book or a case study. There are a lot of those, and believe me, if they worked, the success rate of entrepreneurs would be much higher than it is.
Being an entrepreneur is a calling. If you choose that path, how long can you tolerate the existential pain of possibly losing it all tomorrow (and you need to feel that kind of pressure at some point to succeed)? And if you know that’s not for you, can you adjust and find a balance in corporate trench warfare? Neither option is easy. It just takes different kinds of people to thrive in one or the other. You may think that you hate the corporate world, but can you handle failing as an entrepreneur? I think the only way to know is to try.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Laurent: People are not stupid: they can tell when you play a part instead of truly embodying your role. Be radically transparent and [have] grit. Expose doubts when you have them and share some of your emotions. And most importantly, be clear about the values that matter most to you.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Laurent: Being the smartest person in the room is not a good sign. Attract talented people who align with your values and are complementary to you. And when you scale, be relentless about aligning everyone and accept that it takes a lot of repetition. I might add: accept that you’re not going to execute even what you’re good at yourself. At that point, you need to let the talented people you have with you do their job. Because if you’ve hired well, they will be better at it than you.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Laurent: These are different jobs requiring different core skills. What they have in common is that you must BE that person, not play a part.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Laurent: When the internet bubble crashed in 2000, I was desperate for cash to keep the lights on and no one was giving me any. One of my shareholders, who is himself a celebrated entrepreneur, told me candidly: “I won’t give you any money, and not because I lost a lot in the crash.” That was the excuse everybody else was using. He then added: “Now we’re going to find out whether you have what it takes or not.” These were very depressing days. But you know what? Hearing that put me out of my misery. It motivated me.
You need to get to that level of survival, having lost the option to raise money and being close to losing it all. Only then will you know what kind of entrepreneur and leader you are.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Laurent: There is no formula for success. There are many flavors and many paths that work. They’re all interesting – accept that the one you’re on is yours to walk and hopefully to enjoy.
