A Timely Look At Devoted Founding Personalities

On paper, most founding teams look great. It is typical to see Ivy League education, impressive job performance, and an extensive intellectual property portfolio. However, this does not mean that the team will be effective. Here’s why:

5. Life goals

Everyone has an idea of their ideal life. For some, this is a stable job with benefits, and others prefer to make their own path. Despite what is said, many founders just want a stable job. This becomes an issue when the company they start fails to provide income for the first year or two.

4. Commitment

When founders want a job, they quickly become disappointed, stop hitting deadlines, and drag other team members down with their complaints. In all fairness, many do not fully realize this until a funding round is missed, a significant opportunity gets delayed, and their paycheck is compromised.

3. Competing opportunities

We see this with college football, professional sports, and startups. A superstar joins a team but never makes a difference due to competing opportunities. The failure to truly commit leaves the most talented team member unable to contribute at a high level. Often, such gifted individuals cause division and problems among the other team members.

2. Delayed Gratification

The single most significant indicator of future success with children is the ability to delay gratification. This character trait allows someone to continue building without seeing an immediate reward. When we look at companies with substantial growth and large exits, we see a pattern of delayed gratification for each founder on the team.

1. Pain

Navy Seals have received a lot of press due to their superhuman ability to continue under immense pain and discomfort. Cold temperatures, injury, and even life-threatening conditions do not stop these elite soldiers from achieving their objectives. The problem with many founding teams is that they struggle to continue when the pain becomes overwhelming. What is never said is that the pain will often be overwhelming for a young company.

Hope this helps

- Todd

I desire to help companies scale with investment, advice, and support. If you need help, have a question, or are seeking funding, email me at [email protected].