Startup Founder? Surround Yourself By Those On The Same Mission

In Reid Hoffman’s book “The Startup Of You,” he argues that the worth of a founder is raised exponentially by the worth of his or her network. He calls it “I to the we”. As in the base number is the value of entrepreneur and the exponent is the value of the network. It’s a clever analogy in that he’s not undermining the entrepreneur’s importance - for if the entrepreneur is piss/poor it doesn’t matter how powerful their network is because piss/poor raised to the millionth power is still piss/poor. But the inverse is also true; a stellar entrepreneur with a piss/poor network is overall just average. The underlying message is to constantly be improving yourself, but also your network.

It’s All About Relationships 

When I look back at some of my biggest ‘wins’ throughout my entrepreneurial career it’s obvious what was at the heart of just about all of them. I’m referring to things like big press, large angel investors, and high paying gigs. All of them happened because of high quality relationships. I’m not saying that I didn’t have to follow through and work hard to make these things happen - but hard work and intelligence on its own wouldn’t have been enough. No matter how successful our company’s get, their growth will plateau if they don’t keep investing in the relationships that help us score new milestones.

Surrounding Yourself By Like-Minded Founders Will Be Therapeutic

I love my friends and I wouldn’t trade them for any amount of money in the world. But most of them don’t understand the path that I’ve taken. Because of that I find myself shying away from using them as sounding boards and professional shoulders to cry on. I’ve got a secondary network of friends that are founders. These are the people that understand what’s it like to be in my shoes and can provide the best advice and support in my trying times. We get regular coffee or beers and sit across the table from one another and just remind the other that their job is hard and it’s okay to feel this way. Hearing that every once in awhile buys me month’s worth of motivation. It makes me feel less crazy and adds swagger to my step.

Other Founders Will Have The Most Relevant Networks

By surrounding yourself with people on the same mission as you there’s a higher likelihood that they’ll have more relevant people to put you in contact with. They’re already working the early-stage press, networking, and investment scene and thus know people that you should know too. Relevance is the key variable here. Someone might be extremely connected, but if it’s to the wrong industry or stage of business there’s not a whole lot of value that can be added.

A Network Of Non-Competitive Other Founders Is Like An Additional Co-Founder

Other founders are reading the books and blogs you should be, they’re showing up to the events that you can’t, and they’re keeping up with industry trends that are important. It’s the network’s job to take the abundance of information that is out there and distill it to what’s important. There’s no way that a single entrepreneur can take it all in, but as a group we can.