Ep155 – Ash Davies (Founder & CEO – Tablo) on pivots, side hustles and self awareness

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep155 – Ash Davies (Founder & CEO – Tablo) on pivots, side hustles and self awareness September 30, 2021 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep155 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Founder & CEO of Tablo, Ash Davies. Tablo is one of the world’s leading book publishing platforms which allows over 100,000 authors to publish and distribute printed books at the touch of a button. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing! In this interview, Ash Shares for the first time how a failed acquisition offer from Apple, led to a pivot and evolution into building the business that Tablo is today. Outside of Tablo, Ash also runs two highly successful side hustles, name Nonsense Inc, which creates parody car air freshners such as Elon’s Musk and last year he launched Melbourne Mask Company, which has become Australia’s largest distributor of reusable face masks. In this interview we also discussed: How he’s taken a data-driven approach that has allowed him to grow the business 40-50% YoY despite only raising $400K in funding 7 years ago.How 2 successful side-hustles have helped him to focus and create a better business at TabloHow Ash approaches execution of new ideasEarly mistakes Ash made when trying to grow TabloThe importance of self awareness as a founderHow a failed acquisition by Apple led to a pivot and evolution into creating the business that Tablo is today& much more! Timestamps  2.34 – Introduction to Ash and Tablo 3.25 – How Ash’s passion for business came from building go-karts6.41 – Ash’s experience at University and deciding to pave out a unique career path9.05 – Starting Tablo after seeing first-hand the struggles of self-publishing and ebook publishing 12.31 – How Ash first built a version of Tablo with very little technical experience 15.23 – Why it’s important to launch a product rather than spending too much time perfecting it17.01 – The value of using free trial offers to validate an idea and connect with customers18.31 – The benefits of participating in an accelerator program 20.24 – The importance of building a solid business rather than focusing on just raising capital23.26 – Partnering with Apple and pivoting after the project fell through28.28 – Deciding what is important to focus on and what isn’t worth continuing with 29.49 – Why Ash suggests launching customer-facing features first so you can find pain points in the backend initially 32.43 – Keeping calm and making smart decisions in times of stress 35.44 – Why it’s important to have a deep love for the product and be able to turn ‘failures’ into opportunities 39.46 – Why Ash prefers working on multiple projects and businesses at the same time47.01 – How Ash started a reusable mask business at the start of the pandemic 48.34 – How past projects falling through allowed for a successful move into print publishing 52.25 – Spending over a year working on print publishing without knowing whether it was the right move for the company 54.16 – Focusing on customers and building a great product over PR and marketing in the early days 57.39 – Building customer relationships as an early-stage founder 1.00.29 – How to get in contact with Ash  Links Mentioned  Ash’s Links Ash’s TwitterAsh’s LinkedInAsh’s Instagram Ash’s YouTubeTablo’s WebsiteTablo’s Twitter Tablo’s LinkedIn  People Mentioned  Adrian StoneAlex EckermannRudyard Kipling (Poet of If–) Companies Mentioned  Top Gear SquarespaceWordPressAppleAmazon WooformAngelCubeElon’s MuskMelbourne Mask Company Past Episodes Mentioned Episode 23 – Adrian Stone Special Thanks: Special thanks to Amy Lee and Alex Eckermann for their help with research for this interview! ? Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. Find all links to the podcast here. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep155_-_Ash_Davies_Founder__CEO_-_Tablo_on_pivots_side_hustles_and_self_awareness.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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