Paul Cannavan, the founder of Buddi and product consultant at With Impact in Mind, is a key mentor for Spacecubed's growth programs, including Office Hours, Plus Eight Leap and the Pre-Accelerator and Accelerator program. Over the past year, he has mentored numerous local startup founders, providing tailored guidance to help them grow their businesses.
We recently sat down with Paul to discuss his business journey, his experience mentoring local startups, and why he believes it’s essential for founders to connect with business leaders.
When asked about his business journey, Paul shared, “I started my journey developing digital health solutions for the NHS in the UK, and working directly with the consultants, doctors and nurses across many specialties. I learnt from an early stage the importance of listening with empathy when interacting with users and customers.”
“It made me recognise the value of understanding problems to build strategies and products that make a difference and have a positive impact on both the business and user. It has inspired over 20 years of experience in developing digital products and helping grow businesses in Australia and the UK.”
“I have worked with great startups such as HealthEngine, Evergreen Life, and Imminently which have motivated me to run my own consultancy business while supporting the local startup community, as well as exploring my own startup journey developing a health and wellbeing companion app.”
Discussing how he approaches mentoring startups at various stages of the business life cycle, from early-stage to high-growth, Paul explained the following.
“I like to simply begin by listening to their story, experiences and challenges, to better understand their journey, and empathise with the problem they are trying to solve. From there explore and innovate on what a solution could be, which can range from developing a product, to defining new value propositions or identifying customer types, all depending on what stage the business is at.”
“This ensures that we can focus on what makes a difference, and how to create and add value that has a positive impact to them, their business and their idea.”
When asked about his most notable success stories from mentoring, Paul highlighted his experience running a masterclass for the City of Joondalup Pre-Accelerator program.
“I was approached by one of the participants who had some questions regarding the platform they had built and the challenges in knowing what to do next. It was great to see how the conversation we had helped the participant identify who their customer actually was, and narrow down on a strategy to focus on a specific section of the market they could realistically address.”
“Being able to support and guide through these interactions is really rewarding as you get a chance to remove frustrations and provide motivation to act in a valuable way,” he added.
When asked about the unique challenges local startups often face, Paul shared, “A common challenge is to ensure that you are delivering value to an identifiable customer. This may sound simple, but can be lost in an overcomplicated solution, a large target market, or a weak value proposition.”
Building on that, Paul explained why he believes mentorship is crucial for the growth and success of startups.
“It's really powerful and reassuring for startups to know they aren't expected to have all the answers when they start out and that their journey can be improved by the experiences, knowledge and guidance of others who have had a variety of challenges and experiences themselves.”
“Mentorship allows startups to tap into a vast amount of experiences and learn in order to find what will work for them. The support and guidance is there to enhance and multiply the value that each startup has and increase the overall impact that we all can have in growing the community in which we all contribute,” he concluded.
Did you know Spacecubed members can enjoy year-round access to our Office Hours program, offering free 15-minute 1-on-1 sessions with industry professionals each month. Memberships start at just $50/month +GST. Ready to join? Book your free tour today!
