It’s All About You/It’s Not All About You

Episode Summary

In this episode, Heidi discusses how founders tend to swing between two extremes — thinking it’s not all about them (when actually, it is), or believing it’s only about them and their company (when it really isn’t). She’ll review both sides and point out what founders often get wrong — and how to get it right.

Full Transcript

HEIDI: Welcome to The Startup Solution. I’m Heidi Roizen from Threshold Ventures.

Today is a milestone for the Startup Solution, because it’s our 40th episode. And while my voice is most of what you hear, it actually takes a village to put this podcast together. I’m going to put links to the others in today’s show notes, but I want to give a few shout-outs right now.

First off, to my partners Emily and Josh for sponsoring the program. To our director Nick, to Forrest in the sound studio, to Wendy who manages our distribution. To Marc and Dave for all the startup work and the great artwork, and to Brad for our wonderful theme music. I also want to shout out to the many volunteer voice actors who’ve brought the characters to life, and to the many industry experts who’ve helped me get the details straight. And I want to thank the amazing Carol Wentworth, who’s been with me from day zero and has left her mark on every single episode.

Last but not least, I also want to thank all of you who listen to The Startup Solution. I really appreciate how many of you have reached out to me or commented on LinkedIn or elsewhere about it — that always makes my day. So, thank you.

. . .

I’m going to use the excuse of a capstone episode to reflect on the role the founder plays in their own startup, and to highlight two things that they often get wrong. In one case, a founder thinks it’s not all about them, when it kind of is. And in another case, the founder thinks that it is all about them — well, them and their startup — and yet it really isn’t.

Let’s start with the first case, something that is very much about the founder, even when they don’t realize it.

And that something is that the founder is the principal architect of their company’s culture. Now, admittedly, most founders are not surprised by this statement. After all, if not them, who would be responsible for setting their company’s culture?

But what many founders misunderstand is how a company culture is set. Many believe that setting a company culture is an exercise. You do it at an offsite, talk about values with your team, write up a nice statement, and memorialize it in an email or on a sign on your office wall.

And look, I’m absolutely a fan of founders being both proactive and deliberate in determining what culture they want their company to have.

. . .

But culture is not the stuff you write on the wall. Culture is action, and action is modeled most powerfully starting at the top. Every startup I’ve ever worked with is its own microcosm, and within it, the founder almost always occupies the supreme position as the person whose actions set the culture. People will look to the founder to see what actions are acceptable, everything from what kind of language to use, to more subtle things like how to dress or when to come into the office.

And people will also model things that are less obvious, like abrasiveness, sexism, respectfulness, and even honesty. As I've said many times, we humans are social animals, dependent on fitting into groups for our very survival. And we are very good at picking up clues from others, especially those in superior positions. Founders are constantly sending clues about what is and isn’t accepted in their company’s culture with every behavior, in every meeting, email, or phone conversation, no matter how small or subtle. Even whether they acknowledge the person at the front desk when they walk in can ultimately have a big effect on their company culture.

So, if you’re an entrepreneur, this is the part that’s all about you, even when you don’t think it is. Your behavior and your actions will be the north star for your company culture, and so it's very important to be thoughtful and deliberate about everything you do, yes, the big stuff, but the little stuff too.

None of us are superhuman — at least I’m not — so I don’t expect any entrepreneur to be perfect about everything all the time. But I do expect every entrepreneur to recognize their outsized influence and behave accordingly. And I guarantee that if you say one thing but do another, the thing you do will set the culture, not the thing you say.

. . .

So that’s the part where it really is all about you. But now let’s visit the other end of the spectrum — about when a founder thinks it’s all about them and their company, when actually, it isn’t.

I can generally classify this mistake as thinking that, however you, the entrepreneur, feel about something, you assume that your team will feel the same way that you do. But what you’re forgetting with this assumption is that while your company is likely your top priority, it is almost certainly not theirs. And because of this, they’ll process that same information quite differently from how you do.

I see this mistake most glaringly when there’s a cataclysmic company event, such as a critical funding round falling through, or a quarter being missed big time. These events might necessitate layoffs, killing off some product development, or even pivoting in a dramatic new direction. Or a number of these changes all at once.

From the entrepreneur’s perspective, these catastrophes need to be managed in any way necessary to keep their company alive. Because the company is their baby. And they’ll do anything to keep their baby alive. They’ll work crazy long hours, take reduced or even no pay, and go without seeing their loved ones for long periods of time.

I totally get why founders do this, and I did it myself when I was one. But I’ve also seen founders make big mistakes when they get in this mode. And that is, founders forget that they are also leaders of people — and that the people they lead usually don’t prioritize the company over everything else in their lives.

. . .

In my experience, when a startup hits a crisis, pretty much everyone other than the founders will immediately think: “how is this going to affect me?” Sure, employees may love working there and love the company’s mission. And they may also love the community, the other people they work with.

But, in pretty much every startup, everyone is in a ‘work for hire’ situation, and if the company can’t afford to keep them, they may lose that job at virtually any moment. And unlike the founder, the company is not their baby. They probably don’t have the same amount of ego wrapped up in it, and also aren’t going to make the kind of return off their work that the founder will.

Most people have other priorities – bills to pay, mortgages, tuition, car payments, children, and spouses to see and care for. Also, most people don’t have a huge financial safety net, and so they have to be pragmatic about their employment, no matter how much they like or believe in the company, or how much they enjoy working there.

This is the reality that comes with hiring all of us messy human beings. It’s a fact of life, and until AI takes over, it’s something that every founder has to contend with. The mistake I see founders make in these crisis situations is that they’re so wrapped up in their own perspective that they forget to consider how this will affect everyone else. Yet, that effect will have a huge impact on how the company actually gets through the crisis.

. . .

Because all those other people matter — or you wouldn’t be paying them to work for you. So, when you think through what actions you’re going to take to navigate the crisis, you also need to consider how all this is going to affect the other people that your actions impact, and come up with ways to mitigate the downside or even create more upside through it.

Even the people you’re laying off matter. How you treat them will influence how their friends and colleagues think about the company — meaning, it will impact the people you want to keep. How you treat the people leaving might also impact your company’s reputation as a place to work in the future. And remember that for the people staying, they’re not only losing friends from their day-to-day life, but they may also be taking on additional workloads because of those departures. So, you need to think through that and either mitigate it or at least acknowledge and reward those people for the extra work.

Even a hiring freeze might have the same effect on some of your people — especially those who were depending on getting help for workloads that are more than they can handle.

The people staying are also going to view the changes in terms of their future prospects. Your employees may worry that their lofty stock option dreams are going up in smoke. Or that their job might disappear altogether. And for people with little or no safety net, that might force them to look elsewhere.

So, just as you had to explain to your board and investors why this short-term pain will result in long-term gain, you’ll have to help your team understand that too. After all, they’re investing their sweat equity in your company, and in doing so, they’re paying a big price — that being the opportunity cost of not making that investment somewhere else.

. . .

I was on someone else’s podcast yesterday, and he asked me, “If you could wave a magic wand and have all of humanity get better at one thing, what would it be?” I said, “I just wish everyone would turn up their empathy.” I just realized that that’s pretty much the summary of my advice to entrepreneurs in today’s episode.

You will be a more effective leader if you get out of your own head and consider what you’re doing and saying from the perspective of the people around you. It will not only make you a better leader, but it will also make you a better human being, too – and that’s something the world could use a lot more of right now.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Startup Solution. We hope you have enjoyed this episode, and if you have, please share it with someone who might benefit from it. I’m Heidi Roizen from Threshold Ventures.

It’s All About You/It’s Not All About You

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