5 Marks of a Fantastic Founder

Be a Superhero

I recently sat down with a founder of a startup in the Promus Ventures community. He built a talented team that quickly developed a solid product and platform. Users loved it, but, alas, it wasn’t scaling as planned.

Instead of banging harder to prove a flawed storyline, he tackled the hard stuff head on and proved the great leader that he is by sticking to these principles:

1. Focus on the data. Data is hard and cold, and (unfortunately) reality. Ignore at your own peril. Recognize and own its conclusions, and the truth will set you free.
2. Stay lean in the burn. I’ve seen too many teams bite off more than needed early in their cycle. Increase your burn early and the bets go up exponentially. By remaining small and nimble, there is less pressure to “have” to make it work, and more freedom to reset and retool.
3. Say no to the good to get to the great. The good is usually obvious, the great often looks scary. There is far greater pain involved in the great, so lean into that feeling and go after it. Good gets you nowhere.
4. Never stop iterating. Listen to the learns from each day and continue to throw it all up on the wall. Fight the urge to “get something done” and keenly observe every move your users make. Focus on what one key unlocks the door to your model and build off that.
5. Make the team process fun and creative. Keep your head up, don’t get rattled, and stay positive. Keep looking for fun and offbeat ways to engage your team. Set up competitive teams, present findings in a demo-day style, build offbeat traditions along the way. Set the tone that others notice and want to join.

The end to this story? Still being written. Under less capable leaders, this company would have already been one and done.

Fantastic founders know that the process of solving the puzzle is the gold. Focus on these five areas and your odds of building a great and lasting company will increase exponentially.