37. Will Davies, Car Next Door // Why You Need To Start Your Business Before You're Ready If You Want To Change The World

The Make It Happen Show

No one knows better than the Founder of Car Next Door, Will Davies, the concept of starting before you're ready. Launching as a 'lean startup' with a mission of breaking the 'One Person, One Car' mentality to reduce carbon emissions around the world, Will has learned everything he knows about business the hard way... and he wouldn't change a single thing.

Now with over 220,000 members, $34 MILLION paid to car owners, and investors on board such as Suncorp, Hyundai and Shark Tank's Steve Baxter, Will shares the invaluable lessons he learned from his business journey on this episode of The Make It Happen Show. Listen to how Will made it happen, from how he cold-called investors to get them on board, to managing the complexities of a growing team, and scaling hard and fast, there are so many pearls of wisdom in this ep. If you also want to change the world, or just change one issue affecting a small group of people, this is the podcast for you.

Timestamps:

[2:32] How Will started his business with the goal of reducing carbon emissions

[4:52] Why purpose is your most sustainable source of motivation

[7:03] Why Car Next Door is so passionate about what it does

[8:43] Car Next Door's impact and how it addresses environmental issues

[11:29] The technicality behind bringing Car Next Door to life

[12:44] The lessons that come with experiencing perpetual embarrassments in the early stages of business

[13:56] The importance of giving yourself room to grow and improve

[18:32] Will Davies dives into his Shark Tank experience

[20:15] How to attract and retain investors

[25:43] Coping with and balancing structure and fluidity during business growth

[29:22] How the business managed through border restrictions and a pandemic

[33:20] How to build leaders within your team

[35:40] What you need to remember when experiencing growing pains