What I learned in the Creative Founder Class this Fall

What I thought before?

I thought that conflict is something that would be avoided in highly successful teams.

I thought that running a startup takes a lot of energy, sleepless nights and busy weekends.

I thought that for someone who is not qualified in marketing, finances, and business, performing many startup-related activities would be hard. And that the majority of my time I would spend on learning how to perform these activities and that each person would be responsible for different kinds of learnings.

What I did?

It turned out that the whole team was responsible for everything. We had different titles, but we all had the same goals and the same kinds of learnings through reading books, articles, and watching videos. I always got familiar with the material assigned before jumping into the teamwork. This allowed me to be a one step ahead while performing tasks efficiently.

One of the challenges was managing whether we should focus more on conducting the research on what my team found would be valuable, or on doing the homework on a new topic. We always ended up with focusing on what was asked from us. Thanks to this approach, we never fell behind with what needed to be done. On the downside of that, we never had a time to do more valuable research and lack of that was revealed during the final pitch.

What I learned?

I learned that conflict is very valuable in the teamwork. Without it both the team and people in it cannot grow. Good conflict disturbs the status quo, makes others argue, and finally convinces all team members that one decision is better that another.

I learned that it is possible to run a startup without loosing my mind. Thanks to setting limits, I was able to do my work on time, while not working on the evenings and Sundays. Actually, the time when I was resting let me re-charge my batteries to be more effective when it was needed. I also got more inspiration from my life so I could bring fresh ideas to the table every single week.

I learned a lot about business, marketing, and finances. I also learned that I don’t need much understanding before jumping into different fields. Articles, books, and videos available online are the only resources that are needed to start. The rest depends on me: whether I decide that I know enough to create something with this limited knowledge, or whether I get scared that I still don’t know enough. I think this class convinced me to always take the first approach. Learn, Build, Test. Small steps at the time.

When i go out into the world, I’d do these:

After taking this class I’m feeling much more passionate about working with Startups. Unlike established companies, startups have fast pace and it’s more likely I would be involved in decision-taking. So I would like to give it a try.

I will do my best to work small steps at the time, to learn, build, and test as often as I can. This approach applies not only to design, but also to my life. Why committing to something I’m not sure I will enjoy, when I can create an MVP and see how I feel about it?

While working in a team next time, I won’t be avoiding conflict anymore. The lesson I got in this class changed my mind completely on this topic.

I genuinely wish this class was two-semesters long. This way I would have more time to focus on research I wanted to conduct and the startup would progress many steps forward. If I would spend more time with Algowork, I could actually have more confidence to make this startup a reality.