Mario Medina is from the Dominican Republic and lives in Miami, FL. He is the CEO of drvn, a self-proclaimed introvert, and a renegade techie, founding several telecommunication companies with a desire to shake up the industry.
What were the top 3 mistakes you made as an entrepreneur, and if you could start over what would you do differently?
Only focusing on the upside.
I approached my first venture with a focus on how much revenue we could produce, how much profit could be made on that revenue, different markets and accounts that we could build on, and so forth. While this was useful, it left the company exposed to a lot of downside forces that were not given the attention they deserved. The tough lesson learned was that the first focus must be downside challenges. If you manage those, you provide an environment for the upside to flourish. With drvn, our collective focus is to proactively manage challenges as they appear. This mindset enabled us to endure a year of pandemic months with revenue off by 50% and more. That endurance paid off because we focused on fixing underlying issues that otherwise we might not have found the time to address pre-COVID. For example, we implemented a simple QMS (Quality Management System) through the process of getting our ISO 9001 certification. The positive changes we see internally and the positive feedback (from customers and vendors) we got externally is stunning.
Not taking enough time to network.
I am an introvert, on a steady road to recovery. When I was starting in business, I thought being as independent as possible was the way to go. But in fact, no successful business can be run without a team. Businesses need people. It took me a while to see the value in networking and learn to be comfortable meeting new people. There is a saying, “if you want to go fast, go alone – but if you want to go far, go together”. I realized the truth in that adage and now I network wherever and whenever I can – and encouraging this among team members is part of the drvn culture.
Underestimating the time and money really required to complete projects.
Every project undertaken takes 3 times longer than planned and will cost twice as much. We laugh about it simply because it is the human condition and in my experience, way too often true. Ignore it and you put your business in peril. Plan for it and you are putting your business on the path to success. Stewardship requires us to see situational reality for what it is and what it is not. ‘Marking to the market’, a bedrock principle of investing illustrates this clearly. It is fundamental to investment managers (stewards of their business) that the fair value of an investment or their portfolio must be known, or estimated, at any point in time (situational). I have learned that all critical components, especially projects and initiatives, of my business must be looked at in the same way – knowing where they are, how they stand, and how far they have to go is essential in stewarding my company.
Mario Medina, Founder, CEO, drvn.com
Top 3 Business Mistakes: Nellie Akalp Founder of CorpNet: My Top 3 Business Mistakes
