How to Fix your Founder Myopia, easy 6 steps you can start today
If you are a founder with 8 minutes available, continue reading the whole piece: the context of how I defined the myopia and the story of the founder that triggered this piece. If you are a founder with only 3 minutes, go directly to the last paragraph “How to fix Myopia” and start directly from more direct hands-on advice, although it will feel a bit generic without the context. Whichever you choose, thank you for your time.
Context
Recently I was invited to be a power mentor to a university incubator, that I gladly accepted because it was in my hometown. I must say, I felt super happy and energized after all the sessions, but one thing bugged me that triggered this whole thread. I was talking to an industrial hardware inventor/founder, that claimed; his team, with many years of experience, have developed a 10x solution for a particular sector. They claimed their new solution would increase capacity, decrease energy costs, allow for better estimation and forecasting, at 1/4 the cost of the current alternative. He was very happy because he would still be making 40–50% gross margin. That was when I wanted to jump off my chair and scream. I partially jumped off my chair but instead of screaming I started asking questions to the founder.
1) Can you provide evidence to your claims of savings? The answer was yes
2) Can you quantify the impact of the added capacity increase in revenue? The answer was yes
3) Can you build & sell this at scale? The answer was yes.
Then I asked why is not selling this 2 times more than the current price but 4 times less? Which he was puzzled with. My calculation and reasoning were simple, he was giving a 2–3x increase in revenue to his client, with 50% less unit cost. The significance of this invention was not served well with the pricing & delivery model of the product, and there were a handful of reasons. So what were my observations and gaps about this founder?
1) The founder had no idea about value-based pricing but always focused on making modest profits based on a margin he calculated over costs. (Teachings of a classical Engineering Mindset)
2) He had no idea about positioning and how price would be an indicator of quality and perception. (Teaching of a Product Fetish where they are not taught Marketing Makes Kings)
3) He had never thought of other business models because all he was focused on was to build and sell a product. (Product of a non-competitive Business Ecosystem in Turkey)
4) He had never searched for emerging business models and how large co’s like Hilti had transformed their business by focusing on their strengths and competed against price driven competition from no-name producers although they had a strong brand. (Product of the many cookie cutter pre-accelerators and so-called mentors that ‘teach’ the Business Model Canvas wrongly as a tool for execution not as a tool for discovery and testing)
Maybe there are other reasons, but these were the common ones I had seen in many other startups especially from emerging countries. I think they are completely curable yet so much embedded in the mindset of founders that I see. However all these, I believe are the result of a broader problem which I call as Founder Myopia.
What is the Founder Myopia
Let me give you myself as an example to define the founder myopia. I am a good networker; I am a good mentor with 110% dedication and passion to make the founders better. I am a global instructor for Stanford’s I2M Program, I teach & coach in UC Berkeley Innovation Accelerator Group’s programs, I built programs for MIT Enterprise Forum in Middle East. I am terrible at being politically correct and sometimes I let the heat of things sabotage the best in me.
This long example of credentials is not designed to brag about myself, I am not great at marketing myself and I am not politically correct to give a fu%k about it (case in point). I am giving myself as an example because I spent the time, to know what I am good at and I also learn what I am not good at. I try to avoid myopia as a result of my (assumed) success. I am constantly trying to learn and fix weaknesses but build on strengths. That’s why I have partners and I cherish their comments and directions. That’s why I listen to credible critics and try to close my gaps.
I am a true believer of building on top of existing strengths and I try to be excellent in things I already do pretty good. I am not wasting time to become average on things I suck at, because I know I won’t make the incremental change to the programs I design or to startup founders I coach, in making them think bigger. That’s how I defined the Myopia. If founders are too much embedded into their own worlds and only hear their own voice, they lose sight and fall. I hate to see founders not pursuing what makes them great, invincible and global and I want to push them to become believers in themselves and their ability to build great companies.
I want to show founders that they need to understand they are not good at everything and they need to listen more and find more opinionated mentors. That they need to focus and learn their strengths and weaknesses to avoid being myopic about their environment & conditions.
How to Fix the Myopia.
SO WHAT? I would be completely writing on water if I fail to offer at least my take on how to cure the Myopia for the founders. I wanted to simplify the lists to max 3 tangible examples, knowing there are millions and founders will get a FOMO very easily.
- Read.
If this was not so important as a starting point, it wouldn’t have been the first commandment in a religion right? Please spend time in reading proportionate to time you are spending as an engineer. There are so many that are published that give critical information and guidance to new founders. Here is a starting list: Crossing the Chasm & Founders at Work.
2) Watch.
Spend time with relevant things when binge watching. If you think engineering is the most important aspect, just take the example of many great entrepreneurs, where the product was amazing but the failure or success depended so much on other factors, like timing, persuasion and networks. Here is a starting list: General Magic, Joy, Crocodile in the Yangtze, Pirates of Silicon Valley, Silicon Cowboys, Seed, The Founder, Who Killed the Electric Car?, Startup.com.
3) Listen.
Recently I received a feedback form, from founders that I coached and presented in Stanford’s I2M Program. It literally made my eyes wet, because I could see how much my reading & listening real cases paid off and gave value to the students that took the most prestigious university’s program. Here is one starting point: Business Wars.
4) Follow.
There are really greatly experienced people that for many reasons that include personal branding, giving back, thought leadership, share immense value with real use cases, examples and methods. My advice is to limit your social media consumption to these people by putting them in a list on twitter and read their content (not just bookmark or retweet) My starting list of people: @bfeld, @benedictevans, @hunterwalk
5) Reflect. Write. Meditate.
I can’t tell you enough of the importance of this last action set. Every time you are engaged in a topic that puzzles you, or that you are trying to learn about; writing is your best reflection tool. When you go through the process of imagination, contemplation and description, you are doing most of the cerebral work without noticing. So write your thoughts, write your problems and your thinking, believe me it will clarify things much quicker because it will surface where you have gaps. Failure without reflection is futile. Also, spend time listening to yourself, you don’t need to go to India to learn how to meditate and fill your cup. My go to resources: Lamy and a StarWars Moleskine together with Headspace App.
6) Walk.
Murakami, a favorite writer of mine has clearly put this into the context much better than I can in his book “What I Talk about When I Talk about Running”. It’s not also a hidden secret that many executives prefer long walks when strategically thinking about issues that are priority to them and their companies including Steve Jobs. Running may be a sport to you but taking walking and treating it as a creative venue is a benefit you should not miss. Walk alone, walk in nature and be amazed on how the puzzle pieces will connect.
Bonus) Give back.
Last advice will give you results in a longer time frame but it’s worth it regardless. Try and help others, students that you meet, friends that are building startup or other projects, colleagues that have side gigs. In trying to genuinely help them, you will also have better vision on your own flaws.
In summary: As a founder, you think you need to focus on building things and building things alone. To me that’s the starting point where you start being myopic. Building a startup is not just about building things, it’s as much about building yourself too. If you want to truly be a successful founder, you need to understand your own strengths and weaknesses and start building yourself up too. And you should remember to relax and enjoy the ride in the meantime.
To friends Ayse Inal, Tarkan Anlar and Bill Kenney, thanks for your valuable advice and showing me areas that needed a better flow. I am better with you around me.
