Things I wish I’d known before becoming a founder

Enjoy it, be kind to yourself, and preserve your energy. Because you're about to do a bloody long sprint.

I often get connected to early stage founders - more often than not, first time founders. It is a really lovely thing - meeting people when the ideas are fresh, and both enthusiasm and optimism. I love it. The energy is infectious. It puts me in a good mood - and those of you who know me know that not everything does this. Usually, depending on what they ask, I try to offer some useful and practical advice relating to getting started. Every now and again, someone will ask “what do you wish you’d known at the start” - which is a very big question. Here’s a few things which come to mind.

Make sure you really understand what it means to take VC money

Read the book Venture Deals. Everyone says it, but really actually read it. I'd have avoided anything which sounded that dry, but I was lucky my co-founder forced me to read it. Time well spent. Also - talk to VC backed founders. Understand whether the market you’re in is big enough for VC - know if your company is at the right stage to take this money. Understand that VC capital starts a clock for traction and growth. Think about whether now is the time to start that clock. You have to come to your own answer on this, for your idea. But the worst thing is to go into this blind and or naive to what this particular decision means. Some things I would reflect though:

• Most second time founders try to bootstrap, or raise more from angels at the start.

• In the majority of pitches I see, I don’t see the case for VC money made clearly (but these are often VC pitches).

• It’s hard to come off the VC path if you get onto it - someone I respect told me as we closed our £1m preseed “you know you can never get off the treadmill now, right?”

It’s not a “bad” or “small” idea if it’s not a VC case

Most of the bootstrapped founders I meet are happier, and often richer. Just saying. Your passion and idea does not need to be validated by VCs. It needs to be validated by paying customers.

Fundraising will be very hard - it just is hard

Very few people like it, because it takes you away from the thing you're trying to build. But it is a process. You do learn from ‘nos’ and you also do meet some (not all) amazing people. If you listen to the feedback from the amazing people, it will often change the way you think for the better. But… it’s a super super exhausting process that so few people like. If you're a minority founder, it will be (at least) 10x harder. Don't measure yourself against the majority - you'll just feel shit. Be realistic about the impact fundraising will have on you, and on the business, and be kind to yourself as you learn how to do it.

If you can’t get your idea into a 10-12 slide deck you’re probably not ready to pitch

Yep, there’s a method to this short slide deck madness. It forces prioritisation of the problems, and for you to put a clear and concise narrative over what you’re doing. Don't waste time trying to change the world with a new structure, or a longer pitch, or a new approach. Give them what they want - the 10 slide deck. Spend time making it a real banger.

Be in love with the problem, not your solution

For most people, there are a lot of pivots, for many many years. Don’t be ashamed of it. I’d suggest approaching changes or pivots with curiosity - what are we going to learn next… It sounds a bit wanky, but it’s true. Takes the stress out of it. You can’t know everything at the start, so you have to be flexible. Be bullish about the impact you want to have in the world, not the precise ‘how’ you do it.

Relaxing will never feel the same again

I don’t think founders really ever switch off. This doesn’t mean you can’t set boundaries (it’s very hard, but it’s possible). It doesn’t mean you have to work all the time. Being a founder does not mean you can’t have hobbies, or other goals. But everything just feels a bit different, because there’s something in the back of your mind. A niggling sense that you should be somewhere else. A guilt for not working. The happiest founders will have found some way to accept that feeling, and found ways to manage it.

“It’s a marathon not a sprint” - but everyone expects you to sprint the marathon

I got the “marathon not a sprint advice” advice a few times. And it’s good advice - it is. "People overestimate what they’ll do in one year, but underestimate what they could do in ten (etc etc)". But the problem I have with this advice is that there's so much noise to the contrary. Whether it's investors, revenue growth graphs, the news, competition, “ai” taking over .... everything seems to be telling founders that they have to rush, rush, rush. Nothing is really telling you to ‘find your pace and stick to it’. So it’s hard to believe that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. I think, as I saw on someone else’s Linkedin the other day, you have to sprint a marathon. And that’s f**king exhausting.

If you’re going to sprint a marathon, you might want to consider getting a trainer

Coaches are a great support to founders and founding teams. They be expensive, often prohibitively so, if you’re bootstrapping. However, for people with the budget a good coach can create the space for you to develop your “sprinting” skills. They can also provide you with a much needed sounding board if you don’t have it in your team already. Being a founder or CEO can be incredibly lonely and isolating - you carry the weight of the whole organisation on your shoulders. Coaches can help you to find strategies to manage, or spread that load.

If you can’t afford a coach, I strongly recommend finding a few people who you might have worked with in the past that you’ve learned from and ask them for 1 hour chats every quarter. I’ve seen some people calling this a ‘personal advisory board’. Whatever floats your boat really, but just don’t expect to do this journey alone. It’s a lot easier when you have people around you, who can be impartial to issues (ie outside of the team) but will listen to you and help you to figure stuff out.

You’re going to need to create urgency…

… not panic. As a founder, it’s your job to ensure your team solves your problem as quickly as possible. Creating a sense of urgency and momentum takes energy. It’s also different from creating a sense of panic or fear. Think about the times where you’ve felt very motivated before, and what was good about that. Try to apply those things to creating urgency in your organisation. Create excitement, communicate goals clearly, reward progress and reward trying.

So plan proper rest time into your life.

For the first few years, it’s likely you’ll be pretty operational as a business owner. Pretty in the weeds, sorting out issues. Very busy. As the team grows, more people will want your time and/or attention. The demands on you can, if you’re not careful, just grow and grow and grow (I don’t think the saying “it gets easier” always holds true here). And you’re going to need to rest and recover from your busy working lives. I underestimated how important this would be.

Things I wish I’d done, but did not:

• 1 day per week completely without work (2 days would not have been possible for me, but 1 would have been).

• Book holidays every quarter - even if just for a few days. Don’t forget the holidays.

• Always take a holiday before a fundraise - selling yourself that intensely energy takes rest.

• Plan personal strategy days for you, and your co-founding team - it takes time to get out of the weeds and make the bigger, harder decisions. It takes energy and thought to think strategically. Don't underestimate this. Or you might miss opportunities which are staring at you.

Don’t spend time beating yourself up

You’re about to get A LOT of things wrong. That’s fine. You'll learn from it. Listen to people. Move on. Do not waste time castrating yourself for mistakes - it’s a waste of energy. Spend that energy elsewhere.

And finally, if it all goes wrong then… you’ll be fine

Few people talk about what life is like after you found a business. Whether you’ve been very successful, or very unsuccessful - you will be fine! You’re business is not your whole life, don’t lose sight of that. And after your first time founding you may... be a millionaire; get a normal job; found again; work in the company which acquired your business; take a holiday… the list goes on. In all these scenarios you will be fine. Better than that, you might even be happier and have a lot more perspective on life.

I hope this is more complete than what I’d manage to say to most first founders on an intro call. This is only personal reflections of mine, in a hope that it will help other people. Would love any comments, feedback or questions.