Not Going Solo

Creating your village as an entrepreneur

Many have spoken about the lonely journey of a founder. Building a startup, no matter what kind, is a long an arduous journey with often unrecognized wins and many bumps along the way for several years. Luckily, today there has been more dialog on this truth, the harm that it can cause and the need to build in self-care. As I often find my self saying “startups are a marathon and not a sprint and it’s important to pace yourself.” You will likely continue to go at an incredible pace, but you don’t have to go it alone. Here are a few key things I recommend to build your village and set yourself up for the long-haul.

Get yourself a co-founder

Almost every person that has a startup idea on their own begs this question: “do I really need a co-founder?” My answer is absolutely yes for several reasons:

Your co-founder will:

1. help you make your solution better: co-founders can complement your skillsets and make up for some of your weaknesses. If chosen well, they can also challenge you, be a sounding board, and help you evolve the idea, product and way that you do things.
2. share some of the work burden: it’s a lot to carry everything on your shoulders and being able to delegate and divide this work between you and your co-founder will not only make you more efficient, but likely more sane as well.
3. commiserate with you in the emotional burden: you can share the emotional weight of that startups bring as well. This is even better when one lifts up the other when the other is down. Many say that their life partners serve this role as well, and I see this as an ‘and,’ not an ‘either-or.’ Your co-founder will be able to relate to the stress and overwhelming feelings and can offer great perspective, encouragement and help.

Share your story

I often tell new founders to share their journey as they go through it. Social media offers a great outlet and cataloguing your story may not only be therapeutic, but also allows you to share your voice and connect to an audience that will likely build you up and help you along the way.

I was definitely a person who would not have taken my own advice several years ago. I would often suffer in silence and keep controversial observations to myself. The fact is that it helps no one to bottle these stories up. By sharing little things, like times that I see or feel discrimination, I’ve found people in my life and even strangers rallying around and urging me to keep going. And it’s not just about strife, sharing your wins, allows this same group to cheer you on and recognize the power of what you do. You’ll be surprised who ends up standing up behind you: your customers, competitors (it’s rare but it happens) and certainly family and friends. Stand up and be heard.

Along with this, be ready for naysayers and be ready to continue to stand up and block those voices out.

Join affinity groups and trade organizations

Not only do I recommend this to expand your circle and keep getting your word out, but also recommend to keep building that village. The more people that you share your story with, the more likely that you’ll get connected to someone that will help you along the way: partners, investors, customers and more of your rallying village.

Meeting many new people when you are starting or getting your product out gives you more opportunities to talk about what you are doing and thus refine your pitch. You’ll need that regardless of whether you go for investment or not; it’s the way you will recruit and inspire those that have come along for the journey.

I highly recommend startup groups are also a great way to connect with other founders facing similar challenges.

One word of caution here is to protect your time and not get roped into responsibilities that go beyond what you can handle. Remember to keep your priorities and time commitments squarely focused on building your business because it requires more than the majority of your time. It’s perfectly fine to say no, thanks, I am already overcommitted with my responsibilities to my startup. And don’t say no to every event either… remember this about about proper pacing.

Take the time to meet up with friends and family

They will be the village that never abandons you so do try not to neglect them. They may get tired of hearing your struggles, but they usually don’t let on. If you’re doing some of the above in connecting to more people, you’ll also be expanding the circles of support so it doesn’t fall on just one group. Times will get busy, but your friends and family will usually always be there for you.

Of course, if you have naysayers and critics in these close circles that are encouraging you to give up, it may be good to have the conversation that you’ve heard their concerns and would prefer they not bring it up every time. You may need to curtail how much time you spend talking to them about your business and use that as full down-time instead.

I admit that I’ve oversimplified a lot here and it gets challenging to balance it all. Additionally, there are of course many other ways than the ones I’ve mentioned above. The key thing is to acknowledge the need to not go it alone, and find the groups that help to build you up rather than tear you down.

Feel free to share other ways you’ve been able to cope as a founder in the comments below.