Do You Have What It Takes To Launch A Successful Company?

Dr. Jan Brinckmann is the Director of the Master of Science in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the MBA Entrepreneurship Lab, and eWorks at Esade

There is an old saying in venture financing which declares that “it’s better to invest in a grade-A man with a grade-B idea than in a grade-B man with a grade-A idea.” This seems logical, as a grade-A man (or woman!) can realize that their initial idea is grade-B and hopefully come up with a better idea. However, what exactly is a grade-A founder?

Hero stories

When participants in entrepreneurship courses are asked to think of grade-A entrepreneurs, they commonly mention the same names: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. Other names come up much less frequently, revealing a dominant blueprint in our minds of what successful entrepreneurs are like.

If we then reflect on what all these successful entrepreneurs have in common, we primarily point to entrepreneurship traits like innovativeness, risk-taking, and persistence, in addition to being outstanding leaders. Research on personal characteristics suggests that, indeed, the need for achievement, generalized self-efficacy, innovativeness, stress tolerance, the need for autonomy, and a proactive personality can improve firm creation and performance.

Furthermore, the frequently mentioned characteristics align quite well to what entrepreneurship researchers conceive as an entrepreneurial orientation at the firm level, encompassing five dimensions: innovativeness, autonomy, risk-taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness. However, when focusing on how these characteristics affect firm performance, the findings indicate that they are not universally salient and that the market environment might actually drive them. Still, even after decades of intense academic study, consensus within the academic community is far from guaranteed.

Strikingly, all the above grade-A entrepreneurs share two other common traits: They are all male and white. In addition, they have all had grade-A PR teams to help them craft an image in our minds of what they are like. Using the power of stories, the PR-directed campaigns typically deploy hero scripts. These instill the image of “hero entrepreneurs” who are a special breed. Though we can aspire or dream to be like them, we likely realize that we are not like them. Consequently, we might not be grade-A founders and, hence, maybe we shouldn’t be founders at all. Or should we?

Embracing the diversity of entrepreneurship

The more certain characteristics are highlighted, the more dominant they become in our brains. To counteract such a dominant PR bias towards the white, male “hero-founder,” we would need frequent, profound exposure to alternative entrepreneurial role-models: successful female entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs of color, and successful entrepreneurs in diverse settings around the globe launching diverse ventures. Arguably, a lot of work is still needed, and not only in the media. Universities and business schools are also working to raise awareness and counter our own biases about successful founders.

Moreover, the PR spotlight focusing on one core founder leaves out other important people who were likely crucial in building these successful companies. Who were the first ten key people at Microsoft or Apple? Who was the original CTO at Amazon or Facebook? Who led their talent recruitment and sales teams? Who was on the board of these companies? Who was supporting them at work and at home? Generally, we only learn about the select few in the spotlight, the founder-CEOs. We do not usually hear about the rest of the team that built these companies. Understanding who these people are and what other roles and people are needed to build successful businesses can help us find our own roles in a more diverse entrepreneurial world.

While some might aspire and prepare to become founder-CEOs, others might prefer to be co-founders, such as programmers, or lead technology teams, focus on sourcing products, operations, sales, and HR, or help with financing the ventures. Also, we do not even need to be co-founders; we can help create impactful ventures by directly working for them or supporting them externally. Most large concerts or successful movies have an entire cast of people. Similarly, we need to become aware of and learn about the full entrepreneurship cast. This will create more space to find our own personal place and help us devise a more encompassing entrepreneurial world with much broader professional opportunities.

Behind every “hero” there is an A team

For those wanting to engage in high-growth and high-impact entrepreneurship and aspire to achieve grade-A performance, a broader team-based perspective can also be helpful. Rather than determining the personal traits and characteristics of “hero-founders,” we can focus on specific tasks and job roles that need to be fulfilled. We can identify the required core roles and then choose ours and look for co-founders to complement us. A successful venture team generally needs to focus on two main tasks: building an amazing product and then selling that amazing product in an amazing way. Additionally, there are other important support roles, such as recruiting and managing talent and managing finances and operations that empower the above. The good news is that all these roles are crafts that can be learned over time.

We do not need to know everything at the start, and we have years to develop our knowledge and skills. Rather than reflecting on if we are grade-A men or women at the start of a company, we could adopt a more dynamic perspective. We could strive to become grade-A at our role and, at the same time, develop a grade-A team over time. And, imagine if this grade-A team is also open enough to further develop their initial idea. It might just be the start of something truly impactful.