Reinforcement learning
This is the fifth part in a 10-part series celebrating EF’s 10th London cohort, which starts in April 2018. Freddie Fforde — cohort member on the 9th cohort— shares how to think about risk when it comes to founding. If you think EF would be a good fit for you, apply by 31st December at joinef.com/apply
Avoiding your comfort zone
I’m a founder on the Entrepreneur First programme and have tried to think about what I’m learning. This is my first attempt to capture some of it. The phrase ‘learning by doing’ doesn’t apply in all situations but it probably does apply to anyone who wants to build an organisation.
There are many ways to build a start up. But being on the EF cohort is probably the most intense. No hand holding, no incentive to keep your idea alive. Just hard reality, and accelerated learning. Constant push, no peace. (‘Start up’ is now so widely interpreted, in most conversations it just means ‘a new company’ — I mean the high growth tech kind).
EF is a programme which brings together high potential entrepreneurs, puts them in a room and then intellectually assaults them over a 6 month period to discover the teams that just might change the world. (You can read about the latest output here and the EF company building model here.)
The EF team is here to magnify your output, not create it or save it. Your idea. Your potential. Your hard work. Your decision on who to work with. The potential for what you can build is completely unlimited, bounded only by your imagination. This forces you to think deeply about your own skills and motivations, as my fellow EF cohort member Angus Bayley has written here.
I guarantee you there is nothing comfortable about this.
You have to care
The failure rate in startups is so high you that need a bias for action. In order to succeed, your product has to be at the extreme end of success. Moderate success or moderate levels of adoption just won’t succeed the competition at a rate which will excite the capital you will need to grow fast enough.
If you can’t see progress very early on, your chances are better to keep looking in new places instead of raking over the same ground. And that’s before you start to think about the incredibly low probability of your company making any returns. Founders don’t do this to grow their magic money trees.
This is something I’ve learned. If you’re going to pour your energy and soul in to something, you had better pick something you really care about. Founders start businesses because they are passionate about solving a problem and that usually comes from somewhere fundamental to their personality. This can make it personally very tough.
Good friends don’t say nice things
The startup narrative for founding companies is nearly always positive. We often hear about the successful genius who generates huge success, for themselves, their employees and their investors.
At the other end of the scale, a friend tells you about an idea, and it immediately sounds exciting. You want to encourage them and share the news. This kind of encouragement is free but it doesn’t mean you should give it. Be a good friend. Be direct. Don’t lie. Question the thesis.
Alternatively, watch them learn the hard lessons slowly and painfully. In this sense, EF can be your best, and most brutal, friend. Being told about you’re weaknesses is exhausting but success isn’t free.
The reality is that most people will go on to fail, often at some personal cost to themselves and those around them. Don’t take that risk unless you really do care, otherwise you’ll (understandably) give up when it gets hard, which it will.
Get on with it
Making fast progress in a productive way has been another of the big lessons. Today, I broke up with my cofounder of 15 days.* Honestly, it feels like a life time and I’m deeply regretful we couldn’t find the right fit quickly.
I’m sure we could have built something over time. But we might not have. And now we’re both back in the founder pool, to learn something new all over again with another cofounder.
I’m no mathematician but I bet my odds of a successful match increase with the new opportunities presented by other potential founders, including reforming the same team again.
You have to make a call with 10% of the data. No matter how valuable fully informed decision are, they’re not as valuable as time. You can’t hold out for a better answer if there’s a high risk that there will soon be no answers at all. And then the lights go out.
Instead, you have to decide with speed and conviction. This is not easy and it takes courage. I’m learning this very quickly, it reinforces every day.
That’s how I think about my cofounder break up. It’s counter intuitive, and anathema to the analytical training of my office job. Why drop something that’s developing so well, especially when you have barely begun to explore the options?
Grit.
This is probably the shortest but most important lesson. Read the book.
As you go on the journey, the funnel gets very tight at every stage. From cofounder to idea, from product to market, from raising investment to generating revenue and so on. It’s like the garbage compressor scene from Star Wars on repeat.
You just have to react to any warning signals you get on the way, and you’ll never know the alternative path. Keep moving.
So here I am now, 9 weeks in to my experience of starting a tech company with a cofounder I have only recently met. Not as crazy as you think.
A great time to keep learning and keep moving. The resilience is building and the lessons are repeating. All I know for certain is that nearly everything will change. I feel prepared for that now.
- At the time of writing. I’m now happily formed again, and stronger for the experience.
Freddie Fforde is on the 9th London Cohort of Entrepreneur First (EF.) EF runs full-time programmes that fund the most talented scientists, engineers, developers and industry experts to find a co-founder, then helps those teams grow their businesses and raise funding. We’ve built >100 companies worth >$1B so far.
We currently run programmes in Berlin, Singapore and London, you can apply here or sign up below to get advice from the EF team on your startup journey.
