Why do you want to be a startup founder?

I’ve been attracted to starting businesses my entire life. Beginning with a lemonade stand in first grade, to selling candy bars in middle school, to making t-shirts in high school, and onto tech startups as an adult. As a kid starting a business was a fun way of making some money (and money bought Magic Cards). A startup to an adult in the “working world” has a much more complex meaning. It represents what it is, but also what it isn’t (a job). It provides a way to spend your time that is an untraditional alternative to the way most people spend their time.

I’ve asked many young ambitious people in San Francisco “where do you want to be in 5 years?” Many reply “I want start my own thing”. When I dig into the “why” behind this desire, it isn’t often clearly articulated.

6 months ago, I was in a job and it didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel like I was being challenged in the right way. I was attracted to leaving and trying out a startup again, but I couldn’t clearly articulate why. Taking a big leap without a good articulation of “why” felt scary. So, 6 months later and many conversations with founders and aspiring founders later, here is my list of “Why someone would want to be a startup founder”:

1. Challenge

Startups are challenging and ambitious people are attracted to challenge. Jobs can feel too easy. I don’t just want challenge. I want the right kind of challenge. I want to do my craft well (be it coding or selling) and I don’t want red tape in the way of that. You next startup is your chance to take on a challenge you haven’t gotten before and you aren’t getting in your job. What does that challenge look like?

2. Risk+Reward

I want to wake up every morning knowing I’m responsible for the being I’m creating. There is something inherently satisfying about this. I want to live with the upside and the downside. If I suck, I want to get zero reward. If I do well, I know there is a potential for amazing result. Victor Frankl calls this ‘responsibleness’ in Man’s Search For Meaning and claims it is the major source of satisfaction and meaning in people’s lives. Being responsible means there is large upside and large downside. A salaried job is nearly the opposite of this. I’ve always found salaries to be the inverse of how I’d like to get paid.

3. Control over destiny

Most entrepreneurs I talk to like autonomy. I actually think everyone likes autonomy, people just have different levels of tolerance for a lack of it. I don’t want to be in a situation where I feel out of control. I don’t want to work with people who don’t listen to me or who I don’t trust. I hear this really often from entrepreneurs who work in larger companies. I don’t think large organizations intend to constrain the autonomy of ambitious people, but organizations have their own goals, and must constantly say ‘no’ to things in order to achieve those goals.

4. Solving a problem

I feel satisfied when I solve a problem that I think is important to people. The key words here are “I think is important”. People have very different definitions of what is important, which leads us to all work on very different things and feel satisfied. Luckily it works out that way. What is important to you?

5. Image

Being a startup founder is aspirational (at least in the US). Ignoring what its actually like to found a startup, people still want to do it. This is likely in part because of stories of huge financial rewards and the cool title, CEO or co-founder both sound high up the social ladder. This motivation isn’t a great reason to do a startup, but it would be a lie to say it doesn’t exist.