This is a series of articles on the process and experience of building products and, ultimately, daughter companies from within a parent company. Our experiences building Kin (and DoneDone.com) from within our parent company, We Are Mammoth, have unfolded over the course of eight years. We’re self-funded, and we build companies out of the products when the time is right. Our way isn’t the highway – we definitely slow roll because, in life as in business, it’s about the journey not the destination. The first article in the series was about money and knowledge equity. This one’s about the critical role of the founders.
Founders find the unfound.
I come from an agency background and Kin’s parent company, We Are Mammoth, designs and builds software for other companies. So, after 12 years of being in the client services industry, it’s been really fulfilling to spend almost three years building, launching, and growing Kin.
My greatest sense of professional fulfillment is seeing an organization, that I helped build, find an identity and carve out its place in the world. It’s been a privilege to experience this not once, not twice, but three times. I love being a founder.
I think founders find peace in a space most people don’t feel comfortable – between unrecognized problems and undiscovered solutions. This space is everywhere – in our workplace, in our markets, and in the place where family, life, friends, and passions blur together. We see opportunity everywhere; it’s our canvas, and it’s key to understanding why we’re integral to innovation.
We get the thrill in seeking the next challenge – not just in products and companies, but inside ourselves, our teams, our cultures. Yet it’s a double-edged sword. It carries massive amounts of responsibility – to customers, employees, and family. I’m eight years deep, and I’ve seen my ups and downs as a leader.
After this many years, I’d have expected to have figured out a strategy to success purely by virtue of having failed so many times to do the best thing. But I haven’t. I have, however, found a few simple protocols that help keep me grounded as a founder through the valleys and peaks of life, work, and creating.
Founders need to make a choice.
A great place for companies to fail in building a solid team and product is at the founder’s doorstep – the dreaded pet project syndrome. What’s hot one week may be cold and stale the next. Chances are likely that founders are highly in demand at the parent company – from leadership, to clients, to projects. Starting a new product and company takes an enormous amount of discipline, commitment, and resources though, and the precedent in character and dedication which the founder starts with is a critical ingredient in the company’s performance.
Founders need to un-hire themselves from the breadwinner, roll up their sleeves, and dive in at the street-level of their new product. There’s no way to do an excellent job at both companies – a choice must be made.
Founders need vision.
Founders need to be visionaries because vision is all there is in the beginning. The founder’s first job is to get the ship out of port by evangelizing, demonstrating, and leading the way to a product, team, and culture. Founders are the flashlight for the team; without them there is no direction home, only darkness, howling wolves (aka, client projects!), and rain.
This job does not stop with the product shipping. Just like the digital products we build, vision is not static. It evolves with the company as it learns and grows. Founders need to carry the torch for the life of the company. If you wanna see what I really mean about carrying a company’s torch, check out Burt’s Buzz – the story of the guy who started Burt’s Bees.
Founders chop wood, carry water. Earn that title.
In the beginning, there is an idea, a market, and a team. In the words of Derek Sivers though “The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.” So, what the team needs is someone to lay out the first several months of the roadmap – something tangible, doable, and something by which success can be measured. Then they need to roll up their sleeves and set an example as a work horse.
The founder’s work ethic sets a precedent for the team and proves that this thing is real and happening. Startups are ALL HANDS ON DECK and THE BOAT IS ON FIRE and THIS REALLY FEELS LIKE HELL. Founders need to bail water, chart the course, and row the boat, all at the same time.
Founders must practice humility.
Founders mess up a lot, and must learn the practice of icky, stinky humility. There are countless corrections needed along the way, from cutting the time given to well-paying consulting clients, to cutting features, to groveling to early customers who only paid you $9 but are yelling at you on Twitter. Humility is what brings a leader back to the team for solutions and support. It’s a fundamental ingredient in the making of team culture.
Founders walk the line.
Being a founder is an awesome opportunity. How many chances in life do we get to start from scratch and see where something goes? But with great opportunity comes great responsibility. While founders aren’t the only indicator of success at a new business, they are the most critical element in a company’s success DNA.
We have a dirty, taxing job which I’ve found many people admire, yet few actually want, and for good reason. Yet here we are, seeking, starting, failing, succeeding, and hopefully creating some really excellent companies along the way.