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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For me, the best founders combine resilience with self-awareness. They can handle uncertainty, keep the team motivated during hard times, and still stay open to learning and changing their mind.
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@darla_henryy Some are a bit of opposites but "flexibility" is te word that reflects that :)
I think one underrated quality is emotional stability. Startups are chaotic, and founders who can stay calm, honest, and focused during tough moments usually build the strogest teams.
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@devi__donald Okay, this one trait I do not have at all :D
A great founder is basically someone who can hold two opposites at the same time: big vision and daily discipline.
They think in decades, act in days and when things get messy, they don’t hide it, they simplify it and keep people moving forward.
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@harry__burns both are valid, but discipline is gold!
A founder shouldn’t be a jack of all trades or being an expert in something. Should be one with the vision and tenacity to drive the team forward.
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@je_yue_yip1 But most founders I know had to dip into many areas.
@busmark_w_nika dip into, yes. not as an expert, but gotta know the ropes to direct properly. Maybe i worded it a little wrongly.
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@je_yue_yip1 yeah, even ChatGPT can be such diverse, but human being not so much :D
that's such a thoughtful question. honestly for me, some qualities would be
being passionate about what you're building (not just wanting to earn money from it)
always able to realize that learning is important at every stage of a profession
being kind and respectful to those that work for you + giving constructive criticism without insulting
helping your team expand their skills beyond the job
knowing where to draw the line between laziness and toughness
balancing mental, financial and physical health
knowing how to command a room + network with other people
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@yashika_vahi we are pretty aligned in this, not gonna lie :)
If we're talking purely from a founder's perspective,I think there are there major dimensions involved:businees,management,personal character.
On the business side,a founder needs sharp instincts-the ability to spot opportunities in the market as well as potential risks.Having strong product sense and a real understanding of users is essential.
From a management perspective,a founder has to be capable of making the final call on major decisions. To some extent,they even need the courage to be a little decisive or stubborn. At the same time,they also need to know how to bring out creativity in their team,and how to identify the truly important signals from the huge amount of information.
On a personal level,i think determination,conviction,and resilience are critical. Building a company is a high-risk game,the person leading the way can't literally be a sheep.
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@siqi_huang1 I think that being "human" when you are a founder is very difficult to me. I usually see things through the prism of work and sometimes lack emotional aspect of that.
What I'd add to this list is a founder who stays grounded in how they treat the people around them. No matter how much success they accumulate, leading with respect and kindness, and seeing employees not just as a resume but as people with potential to grow alongside the company, is what sets great leaders apart. They're willing to hear out anyone's perspective, even an intern's, and they listen to understand rather than just to reply.
Just as important is a leader you can genuinely laugh with and talk to about life outside of work. We spend most of our waking hours with colleagues, often more than with our own families, so building a place people actually want to return to on Monday isn't a soft perk; it's what makes the work sustainable.
In my still-short career, I've been lucky to experience this kind of leadership twice: first as an intern at Bynder in Amsterdam, and now at Chariot Labs. Going to work is genuinely exciting, and I enjoy the company of the people I work with. Having also experienced the opposite, I can honestly say my health has improved here, not because I have less work, but because the anxiety around my manager is gone. The atmosphere is supportive in a real way, where everyone is open to collaboration, and people look out for each other whenever they can.
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@tuma_tolegen so making a feel supportive space is also something that founder should create :)
@busmark_w_nika In my opinion, yes, and I'd say it goes beyond just nice-to-have. By supportive, I don't mean comfortable; everyone still needs to be challenged and held to high standards to grow. But there's a real difference between discomfort that comes from the work itself and discomfort that comes from how people are treated, especially during challenging times. When the second kind shows up, people burn out, get sick from the stress, and their best energy goes into surviving instead of growing. Some people do achieve success in those environments, and a few genuinely thrive under that kind of pressure, but most do not. A supportive environment is what lets people actually do their best work, not just hold on to it.
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@tuma_tolegen that's true. For me, it is enough to have remote work to feel safe, so my results go with that.
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A great founder to me is someone who makes people genuinely want to build with them, not because they’re forced to, but because they trust their vision, communication, and how they treat people when things get difficult.
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@karimbenkeroum I see these true leaders like that :)
For me, the most important quality is judgment.
A founder has to make decisions with incomplete information all the time: what to build, who to hire, when to move fast, when to slow down, what to ignore, and what is actually worth betting on.
Ambition and discipline matter a lot, but without good judgment, they can easily push the company in the wrong direction.
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@qiwap This way it seems they need to predict a bit :D :)
I generally agree with you! I also think of a very important point, which is firm and stability.
I fully understand that the development of AI is currently moving at an extremely rapid pace. Many founders are greatly affected by the rapid technological changes and tend to become very anxious and indecisive.
I have worked with a founder before. Due to a major change in the AI industry (btw it's OpenClaw), he suddenly decided to abandon a promising and profitable product that he had been working on for a long time and had already gained user base. He focused too much on many illusory and flashy things, forgetting that our original intention was to serve the users who trust us.
Later, I resigned decisively before his new idea had been turned into a product, because I felt that although his decision demonstrated his boldness, it also showed some lack of stability in his response to changes.
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@crystalmei what happened with the company? Was it closed?
@busmark_w_nika As far as I know, they haven't closed yet. Because at the very beginning, they did receive a lot of investment, which was sufficient to sustain them for a long time. However, it seems that the newly launched products haven't made much of an impact and haven't started generating profits yet. So, I'm really not sure how they will fare in the future.