Jarred Baker from Groupee: "People think the startup journey is an easy one. It's not."

We’re all familiar with the oft-quoted and overused statistic: 98 percent of all startups will fail.

That's a number that entrepreneur Jarred Baker found hard to swallow. After closing his first business venture, Jarred found himself feeling exhausted, isolated and burnt out.

This story is not unique. As entrepreneurs and business owners, we all have ‘blind spots’; aspects of business that we don’t naturally gravitate towards and can be blindsided by.  

But as Jarred discovered, the good news is that these blind spots can actually reveal real opportunities to grow and thrive.

Here’s how Jarred overcame his blind spots and is now finding great success with his new venture, Groupee.

Every business has its blind spots.

Post closing-up shop, Jarred took a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of startup to reflect on his business journey. And we’re delighted he did.

“I think all of my loved ones could tell I was pretty exhausted and mentally drained so, on the advice of a friend, I decided to take a career break and work as a waiter for the summer. And everything goes full circle I guess because I would never have thought of Groupee, my current business, unless I had actually worked in a restaurant and realized that there was an enormous problem with split bills.”

Re-energized and determined to have a different outcome, Jarred tackled the challenging issues of his first business head on.  

To refine his approach, Jarred turned to Fingerprint for Success (F4S).

F4S uses data from a world-first 20-year qualitative study to identify the common attitudes of the top performing entrepreneurs and business builders - the areas of focus that can actually help businesses succeed. With this insight, F4S helps smart founders like Jarred pinpoint areas they can optimize, as well as highlight areas where they need more focus.

Knowing your blind spots…

For Jarred (as with most people who use F4S) the results were illuminating. (We don’t call them “blind spots” for nuthin'!)

“Despite being quite an outgoing character, in a work context, I needed to be more assertive”, said Jarred.

This blind spot affected Jarred’s communication style and made it difficult for others in his team to understand his expectations or requirements.

… is your greatest strength.

With a new-found awareness of his blind spots, Jarred is now consciously compensating for them and is making rapid progress with Groupee. With the help of F4S, he’s able to articulate his expectations more clearly in his business and is enjoying positive outcomes as a result.

“If not for F4S, I would never have addressed my low assertiveness as a ‘problem', so it was extremely eye-opening and helpful in terms of my personal development.”

The power of balance.

Jarred now uses his F4S results to balance his behaviour and attitudes against the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. And this time round, Jarred is able to run his new venture, Groupee, with his eyes wide open.

“Groupee is growing rapidly and I feel like I’m in the best possible position to ensure its success”, says Jarred.  

Now, this entrepreneur holds a very different attitude towards his first startup experience.

“I think coming off the back of my first business I needed that time to reset. I needed that time to figure out what excited me, what I’m passionate about. And I am passionate about problem-solving and creating things, and I know that had I not been through the F4S process I would never have learned these things about myself.”

Find out your blind spots and max your success – find out how F4S can help you today.

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Groupee allows you to instantly split the bill at your favourite bars, restaurants and cafes. Follow Jarred and Groupee on Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin.

Groupee has received investment early-stage global investment group Investible. Investible provides high-potential founders the financial and entrepreneurial support needed to scale, with a growing portfolio of startups located around the world. They believe in cultivating founders throughout their startup journey, from seed capital through to exit or IPO.