In our recent chat with Anna Sainsbury, Chairman & Founder of GeoComply, she shares the importance of understanding what the market wants to solve prior to creating solutions. Being a prominent figure in the iGaming space, Anna knows the value of staying current with the market’s needs and how it impacts the direction you may take.
Some of our favorite bits from the episode are below:
Do you think it’s important to learn what the problems are before you start building anything?
Yes, I mean, we are problem solvers primarily. We ask ourselves what are our expectations of this industry being successful? I think that you know, that’s really the key to success. If you’re coming out with a product and you’re all marketing and you’re all sales, and you’re not spending a lot of time researching. It makes you wonder what do people care about? What do the regulators care about and what do the players care about? Who do we want to be in this equation? It is one thing that motivates our team and really drives us but also, I think, has propelled us to where we are today.
What piece of advice would you give to the younger generation of founders?
I think, you know, the biggest piece of advice, I would, say is to focus on the problem and focus on communicating how to solve that problem. It’s definitely something that we’ve done. And one thing that I recognize is that you need to look out for if you have a problem, the market needs to also solve the problem.
There are like, lots of problems that are out there that people don’t want to solve. And if you come across talking about the problem too quickly, it can be seen that you’ve created it. So timing is also everything, but if you spend all your money, and I think, you know, I always recommend, and I’ve listened to some of your other podcasts that, you know, as much as possible, spend as little money as possible, and build products that someone will buy, and build your business from selling things. So that at the end of the day, when you do become successful, you can own more shares in the company that you work so hard to create.
What’s the one lesson you got from your first job to prepare you for what you’re doing now?
I mean, when I worked at a coffee shop, it isn’t quite the same now, but I used to know, everybody’s drink, so I could start making it before they would order it. Throughout this experience, I learned to hustle and be busy, but also constantly focus on a customer. And I think, you know, ultimately, that’s the same skill you need. When you’re running a business, you’re not thinking about who’s going to be consuming what you’re making, then you’re probably not thinking about the right things.
Anna Sainsbury is the Chairman & Founder of GeoComply and has worked in the area of compliance for the gaming sector since her first role at Technical Systems Testing (TST) in 2005.
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