Are the startup founders speaking the truth?
TL;DR
(a) Do founders really care about their vision and mission or it is all just about money?
(b) Do investors care about your mission or is it only about the financial return?
Full text below
In the process of pursuing things of major importance to me, I keep on repeatedly asking myself the question if what I am doing is inspiring and meaningful, and also I inquire about how do I feel on this journey.
Startup founders often build their companies around a lifelong passion but still, the challenges that emerge in the process will frequently trigger a rainfall of questions related to why am I doing this, what should I be doing, what am I building, how did I get myself here, etc.
For someone who hasn’t tried building a startup, this might sound odd. Why would anyone question what is she/ he doing? If anything, isn’t that part crystal clear in the head of a founder?
The existential challenges and other heavy hardships that come with trying to make one’s own company will push so many buttons that in moments, which sometimes can last for days or weeks, one is questioning everything and it usually starts with “why am I doing this (to myself)”.
In those difficult moments, what keeps you afloat and helps you stand back on your feet is your WHY.
The WHY according to Simon Sinek, is: “The compelling higher purpose that inspires us and acts as the source of all we do”. It is one of the key pillars holding the entire foundation of starting one’s own business.
Your WHY is what you will come back to during all those minor and major challenges, hustles, pains, and difficulties, and in getting your company off the ground and scaling it to whatever one defines as a success.
How strong is our WHY
Having gone through the above-described inquiry process many times, I often find myself deeply curious to learn about other founders too. What is their experience like? Are they in alignment with what inspires them? What do they dream about and how do they cope with the extreme and never-ending challenges?
(*I do this so I could benchmark my conclusions and views and not for the sake of finding “who is better at this”. An immense amount of learning happens in conversations with other founders and quite often it is the only mechanism one can use to course-correct and coordinate).
Traditionally, the startup founders embarked on a journey to bring their vision and dream to fulfillment. But what is it that we really dream of? What is the WHY?
In meeting numerous founders and hearing about what are they building and why are they doing it, a new question came up — is it possible that for some founders out there the compelling higher purpose that inspires them and acts as the source of all they do is to make lots of cash
The answer: Yes. It seems that it is not only possible but widely present.
In trying to answer why build and create anything the vastness of possible answers somehow boils down to doing it (a) to make a difference or (b) to make money (first).
Indeed, these two options are not mutually exclusive but there is certainly a favoring inclination to one over the other. Although, for some, those two factors might be of equal importance.
Nonetheless, if we were to place those two objectives on a straight line where the left corner is all-in “making a difference” and the right one is all-in “making money $$$” — where would you place yourself?
What’s your score: 70:30 in favor of making a difference, 10:90 in favor of $$, etc.?
*Disclaimer*
- there is no right or wrong answer;
- this ain’t a trick question;
- and if you are in it just for the money that is by all means totally fine.
The reason I am bringing up this question is the following— regardless of the answer and where you put yourself on the scale, the underlying question is what is it that we (the tech startup founders) actually communicate as our WHY to all of our business key stakeholders and the world out there?
Are we honest with them?
Even more importantly, are we honest with ourselves?
That honesty goes as far as questioning if we as founders ever take the time to dig into ourselves to find out that truth? Because maybe we don’t.
Maybe we never take the time to meet ourselves and be honest with ourselves about how we feel overall, how we feel about our work, about our lifestyle as a founder, about our health, how we feel about our team, and even about our reflection in a mirror.
When, if ever, do we intentionally invest energy and will to question all of those items, and how often/rarely do we do it in this ever-evolving blazingly fast-changing nature of startup life?
……………
Lots of new questions there but I want to come back to the topic and the one that ‘predates’ them all: why am I doing this — am I in it to make the world a better place or to make money $$$?
It would make me beyond excited if this little text motivates you to question the same and venture down this exploration.
What I can share is that by looking across the fence into other founders' backyards I found a lot of questionable integrity*. Funny enough, the same happened when I stuck my nose in the business of the ladies and gents with the money — the investors. Lots of questionable integrity there too…
*definition of integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness
**added definition: Integrity is not a value, or a principle, itself. One has integrity because one lives hers/his values. Organizations act with integrity when they live up to their values, especially in painfully tough times or situations.
But, how come questionable integrity?
Well because we, both the founders and investors, often say that it is about “making a difference, fulfilling the vision and mission” while in fact, it is only about making money $$$.
(e.g Are all of those hundreds and hundreds of YC-backed SaaS companies in for making a positive difference in the world or are they in it just for the $$?)
Beyond the obvious, I dare to even go a step further and claim that 99% of all the startups and VC funds are in it only for the money.
I won’t go into the details of this here. Leaving it for the following post. For now, as an explanation, I feel it is sufficient to stick to the high-level question of what is the number #1 goal of every (for-profit) business?
The answer: companies solely exist to maximize the shareholder value.
Simple as that.
With some rare outliers and exceptions, for almost all of the companies the default is ‘maximizing’ the value.
Given this (maybe hard to swallow) fact, what do we do now?
Well, when one is riding a unicorn wave or simply business is going great — then there are usually excess funds that business might throw towards some non-growth-oriented activities that are of benefit to things such as nature and other beings (humans included). It is a rare but wonderful and inspiring scenario in which a company is giving back and actually caring about the environment, planet Earth and life in general.
In all other instances, and especially if a business is having hick-ups, then suddenly it all comes back to profitability.
If a business is not kicking ass then there is no space for “social responsibility” or almost any moral actions. Failing to hit profitability and growth targets will have a broader impact and no matter what you are set to do and which purposeful mission you might be pursuing, whatever your WHY is — it won’t matter in case the growth and profitability metrics aren’t met.
The investors, the board, and the shareholders will say f*** the mission, we gotta make the money first. F*** the vision, f*** the dream…where is the money?
Unfortunately, founders are often caught up in this vicious game. Not being able to do much about it.
The harsh fact is that probably there isn’t a different way to build something of scale. If that is the case and the WHY does not really have any value then an honorable solution could be to have those founders, and investors, dedicate a part of their wealth, know-how, influence, and network to invest in a better tomorrow, like Sam Bankman-Fried is doing through effective altruism*
*Effective altruism is a philosophy and community focused on maximising the good you can do through your career, projects, and donations.
Yet, giving away 99% of one’s own money is not necessary but at least promotes more early-stage corporate philanthropy or any stage corporate philanthropy. Pledging is an easy way to leverage a portion of your future success to support causes that will create a positive impact and make the world a better place, such as: eradicating hunger (but not through GMO grown food), replacing fossil fuel with biofuels, reducing violence and wars, putting an end to deforestation, poaching, animal cruelty, creating transparent supply chain systems, etc. So many things desperately need our attention.
Because who else is going to do it if not the rebellious, madly hard-working dreamers, passionate inventors, driven creators — the entrepreneurs?
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I hope that this post will inspire some of you to start asking questions, meeting and feeling yourself, and maybe decide to pledge a percentage of your net worth, accumulated knowledge, and network for bettering and sustaining life on our beautiful blue planet.
With love,
Janko
