'Bad advice' for some people can also be good advice for others.
Today we had the opportunity to interview Will Billingsley.
As co-founder and CCO at ApTap, Will leads on all things commercial, as they look to use open data across banking and beyond to make bill management easy.
“Bill management is bad, and that’s why we’re fixing it – we’re working towards a world where you can switch services with one tap.” – Will says
Will adds
“I’m passionate about startups in general and find myself mentoring a handful, trying to showcase my mistakes, so they don’t make the same ones. I’m always happy to help a fellow founder. Outside of work life, I like to keep busy through football, cycling, kung fu, gaming, and drumming.”
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Table of Contents
Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Will Billingsley: At ApTap we are building a fully integrated subscription control center, that allows banking customers to manage their recurring payments and be presented with deals tailored to them, at the right time.
We are connecting users and suppliers, through the banking app; using open data to drive insights, engagement, savings, and revenue for all parties. Banks can get closer to customers, suppliers can tailor deals and get in front of users at the right time, and users can cancel, switch or sign up to services with just a few taps!
We recently launched with TSB Bank, offering our tools to their 5 million customers. Together we are on a mission to inspire financial confidence in customers, and give them the ability to take action straight away.
We have some exciting partnerships lining up for the summer and we are looking at launching a first-of-a-kind, one-click switch with some big brands! No more trolling through looking for deals best suited to you, no more filling in forms, just tap and save.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up?
Will Billingsley: There’s a fine line between ‘considering giving up’ and weighing up your options. It’s in my nature, and of most founders I know, to do a critical analysis of your options and routes you can take. That decision to continue is often grounded in a steadfast desire or confidence to succeed. Of course, there are doubts sometimes but it’s important to have a vision that inspires you to keep moving regardless.
There have been countless hardships along the way for the team and me; countless investor or accelerator rejections that hurt at the moment but over time help you become (harder) better, faster, stronger. These ‘failures’ often help or force you to reflect and make improvements. Mistakes and hard times aren’t exclusive to the beginning of a journey either – Bezos for example will tell you that he’s made billions of dollars worth of mistakes throughout Amazon’s history.
Reflecting back, about 6 months into the journey I was camping on an uncle’s sofa, not being paid and frankly, a bit lost in the finance and start-up worlds; cumulatively this situation took a pretty hefty mental toll, but I didn’t realize it until much later. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Taking care of your mental and physical wellbeing is ultimately the most important thing for continued performance and success.
It was that vision, the somewhat ignorant perception that we were going to make it to the next level, raise investment, sign that deal, secure that partnership, get to the next level after that, that kept me going early on, and frankly still does. The journey doesn’t get easier.
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. What’s the worst advice you received?
Will Billingsley: “This is impossible”; “This will never work”; “You’re too young and inexperienced”; “You don’t know enough about the space”; “Get a corporate job to learn the ropes first”; “You need to raise a lot of money to build this”; “You need one big client to be successful”; “Apply to some safety universities”… The list goes on.
A lot of ‘bad advice’ is usually just because people can’t see a path to where you want to be, or they think it will be too hard to get there – I’ve tried to use that as fuel to clarify the mission and vision of the company, simplify down our value proposition and messaging to get it across more clearly and push myself to work harder.
‘Bad advice’ for some people can also be good advice for others. For example, getting a corporate job is a very good way of getting a deeper understanding of an industry, applying to some fallback universities will guarantee that you’ll get in somewhere.
That said, neither of those points was good advice for me. In fact, the worst advice I got was before I truly grasped that advice has to be taken with a pinch of salt, and an understanding of perspective. Leaving high school I was told by teachers and counselors that I should be aiming lower in my university applications and career aspirations. Thankfully I have parents who supported me in rejecting that counsel!
On a different tack, I believe that following your ‘passion’ is often bad advice. Passion is a developed concept for many people, and that type of advice can leave people floundering for purpose. Dive into things that you might find interesting and move on if you’re not. I really wanted to become a professional football player when I was younger, inspired by a huge passion for football that I still have, but realizing that wouldn’t be my career and that I could develop other passions helped me spread my wings.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Will Billingsley: Resilience for me is the ability to bounce back from a stressful event and can manifest itself in so many different ways. During the series of lockdowns in the UK, I have fully thrown myself into work more than ever, but it also allowed me to get more regular exercise done.
Lucy Hone’s Ted talk is well worth a watch: she notes that resilient people know suffering exists and that they may well encounter it in their lives. Resilient people can choose where they select their attention and focus on things they can change, rather than what they can’t. Resilient people are able to identify whether something will help or harm them.
Of course, it’s easier said than done but focusing on what you can control (things like work and exercise), understanding there will be tough times, and learning from your mistakes are fundamental to running a startup, and to life in general.
I write about this further in my ‘Founder’s Starter Pack’ and ‘Founder’s Mental Health’ article on my LinkedIn profile!
What is most important to your organization—mission, vision, or values?
Will Billingsley: I think the three are intrinsically tied together – the vision set by myself and the other two founders will shape our values as a business. We are here to build a subscription control center that will evolve into the world’s subscription store. The mission is to offer clarity, control, and savings to everyone. The people we attract to work at ApTap will hold values that align with that mission and vision, which in turn helps mold and shape our company as a whole.
We have been quite proactive about culture and diversity from the beginning, which will only help us expand our perspective and our future horizons. Sitting around the (virtual) table and seeing such a broad range of people, with such different backgrounds and opinions and thoughts, who are fully brought into ApTap’s vision, is probably the thing that makes us as founders the proudest.
Delegating is part of being a great leader, but what have you found helpful to get your managers to become valiant leaders as well?
Will Billingsley: Empowerment and structure. We are still a small business so are relatively flat in structure, but we’ve seen that empowering people to make decisions and find solutions while improving the way we communicate, has been critical to the evolution of the business.
As a founder, you realize quickly that you can’t do it all. That said, you have to do it all until you can bring someone in to help. We have focused on bringing people in who are better than us at marketing, tech, data science, product, etc. so that letting go is a bit easier. We then have to give these talented people the tools to succeed and get out of their way. Accountability is a key factor here and is central to our business.
We’re here to offer guidance, opinions, build an operational structure, and set boundaries, but if our employees feel empowered to act, fail, learn and improve, then we’re doing the right things. Of course, you need to inspire people, which goes back to the question about buying into the mission, vision, and culture of the company.
However, I think it’s also important to show some vulnerability as a leader – admitting mistakes, holding yourself and other leaders accountable, showing that you’re learning and improving, giving 110%, getting your hands dirty, and knowing when to step away or take time off. The people working with and for you will learn to pay these things forward.
What have you learned about personal branding that you wish you had known earlier in your career?
Will Billingsley: It’s not that deep! You’re going to piss some people off and some people are going to absolutely love what you’re putting out. I don’t read too much into either side, instead, I try to focus on the things I enjoy and can control.
Personal branding gets lost in the world of influencers in my opinion – there are plenty of fake personas on the internet. I think being a real person, with real stories, content that’s rough around the edges, and opinions that are going to annoy some people are so much more organic and valuable.
Ultimately, my advice to those building a personal brand (from someone who’s just getting started) – be yourself. Start posting, start reaching out to people, and start asking questions – just start. Too many people are worried about the opinions of others and are nervous that their content isn’t good enough. At the end of the day, who cares?
I can’t even count the number of investor and client conversations I’ve landed over the last year purely because I’ve regularly posted on LinkedIn twice a week and they’ve recognized my name or the name of the business.
Conversely, don’t get too caught up in it. As a founder, I have a business to run! Remember to focus on the things you can control, and the things that are truly going to drive value.
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Will Billingsley: Hands. Off. I won’t get started on the detriments of micromanagement. I hate being micromanaged and I hate micromanaging. In fact, I’m pretty bad at doing it. I don’t have the patience or the time.
Calling back to some of the previous questions, I think leadership is about showcasing what you want to see in the people that work with/for you and empowering people to perform. I’m happy for people to make mistakes and will make plenty of my own, but if there isn’t a growth mindset, a drive to improve and learn, then that gets concerning.
I think when we look at leadership styles from the perspective of an MBA (commanding, visionary, democratic, etc.) it’s about time and place. There are times when you need to put your foot down and make a decision for the team, and there are times when everyone needs to have their say and vote. There are times where you need to coach, and there are times when you need to set bars.
In every aspect of business (and life), one of the key skills of a good founder/manager is the ability to know when to zoom in and when to zoom out.
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What advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Will Billingsley: Test and learn.
Not everyone is an entrepreneur but I think a lot of people would benefit from trying it out. It’s a lot of hard work, stress, and pressure; you have to be aware that there are often sacrifices financially, socially, and beyond. Entrepreneurship is also immensely rewarding in ways I can’t put into words. The last deal I signed felt like scoring a world cup winning goal.
Entrepreneurship also doesn’t have to be about becoming the next Musk or changing the world. It can mean a steady income with ownership over your schedule or a side hustle that lets you afford to go on a sweet holiday every year for example.
It’s easier than ever to start a business but be wary that user standards are also higher than ever before. Putting out a sh*tty MVP might not cut it. That said, start small, find a niche, and deliver real value to customers before trying to scale anything. A small group of very happy users will be much more valuable to you and your business than a large group of not-so-happy customers. Keep it lean, test, learn and iterate!
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Will Billingsley: *Searches “best quotes” on Google*
I haven’t really ever aligned to a quote or to a particular role model in my life. I think I’ve just tried to apply a hypothesis approach to life, business, and everything in between. I’m a champion of execution: planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
Maybe I’ll get a bit nerdy here with a bit of Yoda: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Will Billingsley for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Will Billingsley or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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