I am no stranger to failure. In fact, one might say it’s my one constant success factor, so when I had the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at the chance. Failing to Win by Mike Quinn is a well-written codification of the success and failure of a FinTech business.

Mike Quinn was the co-founder and CEO of Zoona. In this book, he has done a deep dive into the anatomy of why he believes that the company “failed to win.”

The business, an early play in the payments transfer space, was a success and was undoubtedly the darling of the impact investing community during the early 2000s. As he explains, the startup – faced with a rapidly changing market, fierce competition from mobile network operators (MNO), and a supportive but somewhat uncertain investor base, didn’t manage to reach its full potential.

Books like this one, a first-person account of the life and time of a business, are a single person’s perspective and prone to bias, over-exaggeration or a tendency toward a mea culpa from time to time. However, Quinn masterfully provides a balanced view of what he sees as Zoona’s rise and fall.

Trials and tribulations

It reads like a business thriller and is a real page-turner. I found myself rooting for the boys at the helm of this business and disappointed when they were let down, often at the last minute, in their deals and dealings (sorry – belated spoiler alert).

Quinn sets the scene and then chronicles, through eight successive chapters, where and how he and his team failed to win. These failures include team formation, culture development, managing the board, closing investment rounds and market expansion.

Each chapter ends with an ‘Embracing failure: Lessons learned’ that acts as a cheat sheet for what went on and where lessons can be extracted from the teams’ actions or omissions. In hindsight and without the pressure of being on the ground and making decisions in real-time, seemingly obvious: spend less, build the team more slowly, get rid of underperforming staff, etc. 

For the armchair entrepreneur, it’s always fun and easy to second guess those in the arena, but I didn’t envy Quinn and his co-founders. They started the business in Zambia – a market they knew well and then looked for ways to expand – in Malawi (which went well) and Mozambique (total disaster) – while at the same time running the development and operations from Cape Town, South Africa.

Remote work before Covid

Investors were scattered around the world, making board meetings in a time before Zoom that much for challenging. By the time the dust had settled, Zoona had raised $35 million in investment and effected the transfer of $2.5 billion in funds. 

This is a profound success – at least in my judgement – given the difficulty of moving money around in many African countries, especially from urban to rural areas. Zoona made a real difference in the lives of many people. 

It seems a little churlish to look back now and be critical, as this business launched long before many tools and methodologies became available that help speed up a similar business today.  While Zoona had to ultimately reinvent itself as the MNOs closed in on its territory and technology, the idea was sound and the execution was reasonable given the time, circumstances and context. 

Pondering the content

I was left with gnawing issues after reading the book. I wondered if Quinn was being overly modest. After all, the product worked. It generated plenty of revenue, raised a truckload of capital and had a real impact. What more could one ask for? 

Yes, some strategic errors were made, and Zoona struggled to gain traction outside of Zambia and Malawi to scale the business across the continent. However, given the high failure rate of startup businesses – some say as high as 75% – this does still look like a success, if not a SUCCESS.

In chatting with the author, I understood more keenly that writing the book was a cathartic experience for him; the ending of the business – and his exit as CEO – was stressful and emotionally draining. This seemed like a good way to process all that had occurred, and I am certainly richer for having read of the experience.

Reading the book also reminded me why I so love reading – especially these kinds of books. For the low price of $8.00, I got a ringside seat to the Zoona story and  a nicely framed set of rules and principles to apply if ever I get fed up with my current work and start a business again. The trails, tribulations and emotional roller coaster are all mine to enjoy at a safe distance.  

The entrepreneurial life

The other oddity for me was Quinn’s challenging process, given his excellent pedigree. He was educated in Canada and then the UK with degrees from the London School of Economics and Saïd Business School at Oxford. He admits that he is a privileged entrepreneur and has a great network.

Yet even he struggled to make it work. I wondered to myself what chance these rest of us have, given that we may enter a venture without the academic credentials or the network access.

I posed this question to him during our chat, and he was gracious enough to see the point, but he also argued that much of what he created took persistence or perseverance. I’ll give him that – being an entrepreneur, with or without a leg up the ladder, is no easy climb.

I thoroughly recommend this book – it should be essential reading for every existing or aspiring entrepreneur. The lessons you will gain from these 300 pages may make the difference between success and SUCCESS.  

 

Inc