No One Will Ever Love Your Startup More Than You
Founder Lesson #1
Being a startup founder or entrepreneur is pretty much the most toxic relationship you can be in, because it is entirely one-sided, and any small success will be more than enough to keep convincing yourself that you are just about to make it. One month you are down to your last dollar, and the next month you find an unexpected way to bring in revenue — and the rollercoaster ride continues. Up, down, all over the place and yet without the saving grace of the ride eventually ending. You’re just perpetually holding on.
So perhaps, it’s not surprising that alongside the sad fact that your startup will likely treat you worse than the main character in a Taylor Swift song circa 2012, you’ll also find out the first of many cold, hard founder lessons:
No one will ever love your startup more than you.
It’s true. Your family, friends, employees, investors, you name it, will all never really understand why you can’t just let it go. They’ll empathize with the struggle and may even applaud your persistence, but they’ll secretly wonder why you are hung-up on a company that treats you so badly. Why not move on?
Maybe it’s because entrepreneurs are hard-wired to believe that they are just one stroke of good luck away from making their idea come to life, or maybe it’s because we have loved our startup so unconditionally that it’s become impossible to see it objectively.
But one of the hardest and most uncomfortable lessons that I’ve had to learn (who am I kidding…still learning) as a founder is that no one will see your company in the way that you do and so if you can’t learn to communicate the value of what you are building to both investors and employees alike — you are likely going to struggle to gain traction.
But in a Silicon Valley-influenced world, we’ve also grown up on tales of truly innovative ideas that the public didn’t know how much they needed. Startups that almost weren’t, but thank god, they pulled through and can now dazzle and delight the masses with their product updates and flashy tech. So as a founder, you convince yourself that people just aren’t ready yet for what you are building — maybe that’s true and maybe that isn’t but either way you’re probably less likely to survive than those cute, little tardigrades that crash landed on the moon.
In order to build something with staying power, you’ve got to focus on developing a clear purpose, mission, and conviction of strategy.
The sooner you are able to clearly communicate to everyone where you are headed, the faster you will be able to get people excited about your idea.
Full transparency here, I’m still working on how to do this and I’m learning to slow down a bit to make sure that I reformulate for the road that lies ahead.
No one will ever love your startup more than you. It’s scary to say out loud I know, but the sooner you come to terms with it, the sooner you can become a real leader on a mission. Focus on clearly defining your goals, values, and projected path to the people that work with you and the people that may or may not invest in you and you’ll be launching from a much more solid foundation.
What’s the point:
Get over the fantasy that people will automatically see the value of your startup.
Entrepreneurs are hardwired to not fall out of love with their startup, so it’s impossible to remain objective.
Every founder thinks they are the exception and not the rule.
Employees, investors, friends generally all want to understand your passion, but it’s your responsibility to effectively communicate it.
Ideas and vision are great but mean nothing without consistent communication and execution.
Action:
Don’t take it personally when people don’t get what you are building, instead figure out where the disconnects are and work to better communicate your idea.
Accept that being an entrepreneur is a long, emotional, and isolating journey — building something sustainable takes time despite what Silicon Valley may want you to believe.
Focus on clearly defining your goals, values, and projected path and stick to it!