15 things that first-time founders are too lenient on
And why they shouldn't be
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Here are 15 things that first-time founders are too lenient on, but shouldn't be:
1. Boldly stating that you're obsessed with detail: Founders are worried that their teammates will think they are tough bosses, so they let things slide. Even when they lose sleep over all the things that are a bit sloppy.
2. Boldly stating that you're obsessed with speed: The timelines are unreasonable and there aren't enough resources to get stuff done. You still do it anyway. And that's the high bar you want to have.
3. Hiring someone when it's anything less than 100% culture fit: Founders are so worried that people won't join them in the early days that they compromise heavily on this front. Culture has a way of multiplying. Let's say you hire people with 80% culture fit. After 5 hires, you'll only have 33% of the culture you want in the company.
4. Not stating clearly that you want everyone to in the office 5 days a week: The result is a cesspool of in-person, hybrid, and remote culture within the company.
5. Hiring to increase headcount: It's a combo of status symbol + thinking they need just bodies to get work done. The wrong big team will slow you down more than a great small team.
6. Not delivering a stinging rebuke of mediocrity: Founders should do it the moment they see it in their startup. If something is clearly terrible/wrong, it's easy to point out and talk about it. But they don't want to call out mediocrity because they are worried that they might offend someone.
7. Making a clear decision when conflict happens: They are so worried about taking sides that they end up in a neutral zone. This results in bad culture permeating throughout the company.
8. Clearly stating how money gets spent: They shy away from holding people accountable when money gets spent. Especially when it gets spent with no specific goal/outcome in mind.
9. Trying to appease teammates by pretending every single day of their work is going to be exciting/interesting: Building a startup has both interesting and boring parts. You don't need to hide this simple fact from your teammates.
10. Shielding your teammates from customers and investors: Founders think the teammates might not be able to handle the tough feedback, so they shield them from it. Why? Because they're worried people might leave if they learnt about reality.
11. Pretending for teammates' benefit that work-life balance exists: It doesn't exist in early stage startups. And you shouldn't have to pretend otherwise.
12. Firing too late: After they've made the decision in their heads, they don't pull the trigger for months. It's a combo of not wanting to have the tough convo + hoping they'll improve by themselves + maintaining the team morale. Never works out.
13 Being too democratic in product building: You need to impose a singular vision and ship it out.
14. Planning too much as opposed just shipping: Startups are defined by their momentum. To build momentum, you need to keep shipping and iteratively learn what works.
15. Top-of-the-funnel activity: This is usually when founders are stalled in their sales. Founders try to solve it by hiring a pedigreed VP Sales. It never solves the problem. In the early days, sales problem is usually a top-of-the-funnel problem. Solve that first.
If you're a founder or an investor who has been thinking about this, I'd love to hear from you. I’m at prateek at moxxie dot vc.
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