What qualities do you think a founder should have?
There are founders you’d love to NOT work for. And then there are founders whose company you wouldn’t want to leave, no matter what.
A big part of that comes down to people, their values, and their character.
And often, that starts with the founder.
So what makes a great founder?
For me:
– Being ambitious and thinking big
– Being disciplined and leading by example
– Staying curious and always moving with the times – or even staying ahead of them
– Being able to inspire people around them
– Having natural authority and being more of a leader than a manager
– Making tough decisions, even under pressure
– Surrounding themselves with people who are better than them in certain areas
– Being transparent, even when things don’t go according to plan
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ZeroHuman.
Oh, I think a lot of things are needed. But above all, consistency.
Consistently giving your best. Consistently looking for solutions to the problems you face, because as a founder, there are tens of thousands of them.
And learning. Being willing to learn every minute how to become a better leader, how to use a specific technology, and what kind of decision to make.
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@byalexai Learning is alpha and omega. Because whenever we stop learning, we become old :)
I completely agree with your points regarding what makes a great company founder. However, I’d also like to add that a founder must know how to listen to their team and employees. They need to be attuned to the team’s dynamics and morale, and actively try to support a team member if their morale or situation drops. On top of that, a founder shouldn't be a snob or think that just because they hold a higher title, they can do whatever they want or that they are the smartest person in the room.
I recently interviewed at an IT company for a Junior Product Manager position, and the interview was conducted by the co-founder himself. Here is how it went:
He reached out to me out of nowhere, long after I had already forgotten about his company while applying to over 200 other places.
He demanded an immediate online interview right at the moment he texted me, leaving zero time to prepare, research the company, or find out who these people were.
The condition to pass to the second stage of the interview was to bring them 100 new user registrations—paid out of my own pocket. If I succeeded, I would move to the next round or get an internship; if not, I'd be rejected.
And these people raised $400,000 from investors, yet they have a maximum of 50 installs combined on the Google Chrome Store and Firefox Store. The most important thing is to never become that kind of founder.
@eduard477 Sounds like a horrible experience. I would avoid at all costs!
@blakeatvassant Unfortunately, we have a lot of such startups. For some reason, our investors give money to them, but if you offer real solutions to human pain, they refuse.
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@eduard477 The point 3 is exactly the situation where I would ghost him :D
@busmark_w_nika My mom was sitting in the room at that very moment, too, while that man was interviewing me. Even she was shocked when he said I had to bring in 100 people at my own expense. I, not even knowing what to say, simply nodded my head and after the interview, blacklisted him.
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@eduard477 I also bumped into one guy like that, you can be sure that I didn't reply to him back :D
@busmark_w_nika And for some reason these people somehow get venture capital investments, right?)
mailX by mailwarm
@daniel_nwankwo This man is from Kazakhstan, from the startup PanDev
ZeroTrusted.ai
@eduard477 As horrible as it is, it's unfortunately very common these days. Having worked in SaaS marketing, I've come across these tactics more times than I'd like. Companies asking you to bring in paying users as a condition to land the job, with zero compensation for the effort. It's essentially free acquisition work disguised as an interview. A founder who opens with that tells you everything about how they value people inside the company too.
honestly the one nobody says enough, being okay with being wrong fast. not defensive, not stubborn, just genuinely updating your thinking when the evidence changes. I'd also add staying close to the actual user problem even after the product exists, a lot of founders drift the moment they ship and start solving the wrong things without realizing it.
@qasimkhan Humility is an extremely important character trait but difficult for leaders to embody (mostly because of ego!)
@blakeatvassant 100% ego makes people protect old decisions instead of protecting the actual mission. i think the strongest founders can detach their identity from being “right” and focus more on getting closer to truth fast.
@qasimkhan Well said my friend!
@blakeatvassant appreciate it 🤝
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@qasimkhan + they start adding "one more" feature (and they will add many that are not needed hahaha) :D
@busmark_w_nika yeah 😭 feature creep is literally founder brain trying to self-entertain after the original problem gets less emotionally painful.
Comfort with uncertainty. As a solo founder everything is ambiguous the roadmap, the marketing, the revenue. The founders who struggle most are the ones who need clarity before they can move. The ones who thrive just pick a direction and adjust as they go.
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@imad_elkhafi So they should have a goal in mind, right?
@busmark_w_nika A goal helps, but I'd say more a strong "why" than a specific outcome. Goals shift constantly as a founder - the why is what keeps you going when the original plan falls apart.
mailX by mailwarm
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@daniel_nwankwo Such kind of founders shouldn't be in the company anymore. "No care" is no no.
Love this! The items you mentioned are so important. I have two things to add to the list. -You mentioned curious. He should be willing to learn from his team. The second thing I would add to the list is values -especially if it's a small team. -if our core values are different, we are going in different directions. For example, if he is into "save the planet" and I believe that the plant has lots of filters, and we should manage the planet and not strive to bankrupt ourselves for a spotted fish or an amoeba that may disappear from our lake. -What kind of jokes does he tell? There are so many other questions to ask that touch this topic, but I think you get the point.
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@dstr88 Values are the core; if there is misalignment between his values and the employees' values, the company will suffer (as well as the progress).
Seeing the big picture, holding the vision in their mind always. always staying on the highway
@abbas_alabura I like this!
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@abbas_alabura Do we have any name of the founder who embodies this concept?
I think the most underrated quality is the balance between confidence and self-awareness. You have to genuinely believe your product is a new take on a problem that hasn't been solved before, and there's usually a clear reason it hasn't been solved. But you also need the honesty to recognize when the problem you're solving is just not worth solving.
It's not about being stubborn or being a perfectionist.
It's knowing when to push through and when to scrap it and start over. The founders who fail the hardest are the ones who can't tell the difference.
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@matthew_goley The crucial part is to stand up back form the knees to their feet :)
as someone who co-founds with another founder, i'd flip the framing: the qualities that look good from the outside aren't the ones that matter when things go wrong.
ambition, vision, charisma - those are filters at the start. the real qualities, the ones that decide whether i'd build another company with the same person:
calibration. they know what they're bad at and don't pretend.
how they handle being wrong in front of you. founders who can't be wrong in front of their cofounder break partnerships in year 2.
their relationship with bad news. do they shoot the messenger, or do they go cold and operational?
who they hire when desperate. desperate hires reveal real standards.
the standard list is true but mostly observable from the outside. these are the ones you only see from the inside.
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@artem_fedorovich Actually you could create a good topic itself – how to approach hiring good people into your team :)
@busmark_w_nika Thanks, I'll have to look into this :)
Scade.pro
Founders should be :
motivated
passionate and positive
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@maria_anosova I sometimes lack all of 3 :D