Beyond the Tech CEO: Understanding the Diverse Range of Startup Founders

Think of the term ‘startup founder’ and the good and not-so-great of tech's biggest CEOs immediately fill your mind: Bezos, Musk, Thiel, Zuckerbeg, Jobs….

Such images are illusory, however. These are all big tech entrepreneurs and perhaps less-so startup founders. No doubt they have all been successful and are emblematic of their companies fortunes, but they represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the model of a startup founder.

So what traits do these kinds of CEOs have in common? There’s probably quite a few facets that knit the personality of a founder together. Having all of these qualities or two of them is no indicator of success. That boils down to an ideal mix of the right time, ideal circumstances, great team, perfect product and business case, as well as a hundred other variables which fall into place at the appropriate opportunity. The idea and intended trajectory for a startup initially comes from one person to a handful of people, but you might see a few qualities below manifest themselves while you have shaped (or are shaping) your own startup, company, service or product.

Vision

A real must-have. This is what kicks it all off – that moment when the lightning strikes, the lightbulb turns on, the penny drops or that epiphany is experienced. From this point on, the startup founder is on a quest to make their idea real and work on the process of achieving this. We think of startup founders as a generally recent invention, but that would be to ignore the discoveries of history: Robert Stephenson’ ‘Rocket’ train, Thomas Edison’s microphone and movie camera and even Marie Curie’s discovery of radiation. These feel as far away from a startup as one can think, but in their own way, these inventors still possessed a vision that they couldn’t shake, and made these ideas manifest as tangible, world-changing creations.

This vision must also be accompanied by business nous – that is a way of taking all of the smaller parts of the business, knitting them all together and forming a big picture of how that vision will get from idea to business plan and onwards to viable business opportunity. Along this journey though, the vision must be communicated clearly with all of those who engage and come into contact with it, as well as remaining pure and unclouded in the face of some much-welcome growth. Founders might want to ask themselves ‘At what point has my vision been achieved?’ This self-awareness might easily be said to ride tandem with vision – if the startup founder can remain true to themselves, the better the likelihood of remaining true to their vision.

Goal orientated

In relation to vision, many startup founders have to be realistic and remain focussed. In the embryonic stage of a startup, there will inevitably be brainstorming sessions, ideation meetings, the first flirtations with investors, business angels, investors or advisors and networking events. Out of this, many exciting and alluring ideas will spring up – the flush of the “vision” is being stoked and renewed, which is accompanied by the spectre of imagined possibilities and rewards. This is better known as “mission drift” and can lead to the startup losing its direction in its germination or the early days of setting out how to get from A to B to C. It’s vitally important though that founders can learn how to avoid this temptation, remain focussed, and not let the “ifs” of the future cloud the events of the present. To start changing one’s tack can dilute the original vision – altering the direction of the startup, and turning one mercurial fintech app into the next version of Wonga almost overnight.

Resilience 

To be fair, we all need resilience when you’ve just spilled your mocha on your keyboard and you’ve used all the data on your phone hotspotting while working from home. For the startup founder, this is extremely small beer. The odds are seriously stacked against startups from the very beginning. The cliched stat about 95% of startups failing could be trotted out, but it’s true that the vast majority of them will face significant challenges on their route to business product and beyond. Lack of belief, economic and funding challenges as well as countless other complications, regulations, legal issues, mix-ups, missed opportunities and general shitstorms will befall a startup founder. The ability to carry on regardless, and plough through a field of negativity is enough to disrupt even the most zen-filled of founders, seriously disrupt the chi of others, and almost send the rest back to the research or teaching departments of their alma maters.

Successful founders find a way to carry on, to frame any challenge in a positive light and find a way to roll with punches. 

Team builder

Many founders begin the startups path thinking that they can, like some spiritual leader or knight on a crusade, trying to convert someone to their religion 3,000miles from home in a foreign land with religious fervour as their weapon of choice (and look how that turned out for them…). What these spiritual leaders or knights couldn’t do, however, was manage a social media content calendar, design an investor pitch deck, write highly entertaining and informative blog posts, or project manage the delivery of an ad campaign. A large proportion of startup founders will appreciate that they can’t do everything – self awareness should help them out with that one. So inevitably, they will need to build a team of people they can trust to help get from vision to business.

This involves becoming a HR person, talent acquisition partner, headhunter and acerbic reader of people from the start. No doubt, it helps if you already know some people who you have worked with before, trust and you believe have the qualities to join your venture.  Not only this, but they also have to believe in you and your product to take a risk joining a startup with all the above odds stacked against their livelihoods too.

As much as it's difficult to find the right people, the startup founder will have to be ruthless and make difficult decisions at critical moments. This may mean that relationships which were previously on good terms can quickly be dissolved and feelings hurt in order to achieve the goals and growth journey of the startup.

Humble

Yes, startup founders should be confident leaders, able to make decisions under high pressure and lead a path for others to follow. But there also comes a time when they have to listen, not just hear. Taking advice on board from others is a key skill for startup founders – they must be cognizant of the potential weaknesses and propensity for failure that their startup embodies not just from business advisors or consultants, but from their whole team. They may have an aversion to being seen as weak willed or indecisive.

 It’s one thing to remain implacable, but startup founders must be receptive to different perspectives, criticism, insight or advice concerning their vision. Failure to do so and alter the course of the vision or product slightly will spell trouble for a startup, unwilling to accept a slight change in tack, and a good startup founder will be able to recognise this.

Magical thinking

Something of a toxic trait for some startup founders. This quality is often germinated at the same time as vision, when the idea for a product or service seems 100% assured. There’s no doubt that the idea itself is good… it’s just whether the founder can resist the subsequent leaps of imagination that occur in the months after their initial vision. Good startup founders will learn to quiet this kind of distracting internal dream, and concentrate on the rails of the core vision to continue their journey to success.

Selling

Almost last but by no means least, the founder has to know how to sell. This isn’t to be taken literally – a founder won’t exactly be found doorstepping people or on a market stall in all weathers. In all seriousness, they have to be savvy and adept at pitching their product in one sentence, making it sound interesting, compelling and viable at the same time. They might not have been marketing or advertising types to begin with, but these are the skills they’ll definitely start to hone when on innumerable sales calls, at networking events and when trying to convince other people, CEOs or investors that their company is the one that it really needs to use or be involved in that will do well for them!

Acumen & Perspicacity

Finally, the startup founder is business minded through and through. They will devour business strategy, marketing examples and success stories to learn what makes startups work or not. Every interaction and client win or loss is a chance to learn, be that from mistakes or successes. The more the startup continues, the more experience is gathered and the more lessons are acquired to provide better insights and shape the crucial business decisions of the future. This links to perspicacity: “the quality of having a ready insight into things”. Putting experience, insights and learnings into practice, and being able to employ them into the context of running a startup and guiding it ( and the team that work alongside you) from vision to success is a key talent for startup founders.