I enjoy talking to founders about how they see the future because they see it differently than everyone else does. To them, it’s not predetermined. Or even filled with limiting factors. It’s white space. Meaning that whatever they can dream up, they feel they can turn it into reality. They end up working hard to create the future they envision. It’s a different mindset that has an impact because it drives innovation and change in society.  

Founders, what future do you want to build?

I listened to an investor share the best pieces of advice he’s been given. The one he discussed the most was about choosing whom to work with. His mentor told him life’s too short to work with people you don’t love working with. The investor went on to describe how that piece of advice shaped his selection process across the board (LPs, founders, team members, etc.).

I agree with this investor’s mentor. Life is short. You want to spend time working with people you enjoy working with. One thing that the mentor left out, though, is that working relationships are bidirectional. As much as you may want to work with someone, they must want to work with you, too. The feeling may not be mutual—at first, at least. If you’re in this situation (and lots of people are), work to position yourself in such a way that others will want to work with you. And understand that can take time. Sometimes an interim step is working with people who aren’t your first choice so you can gain credibility to set yourself up to work with your first choice. The important thing is to have a target—to know whom you want to work with—and understand what you need to do for them to want to work with you!

I’ve been doing all kinds of entrepreneurial things since I was a kid. Some of them were crazy. As long as they weren’t too far out there or unsafe, my dad supported my pursuing my ideas, even though he wasn’t an entrepreneur. He did whatever he could and even got his hands dirty to help me get some of them off the ground. His encouragement was pivotal and led to my embracing entrepreneurship. I’m thankful and appreciative that he’s always been so supportive.

Happy Father’s Day, Pops! I appreciate the love and support. Couldn’t have done it without you.

Having strong opinions can be a positive trait for successful people. The tricky part is that no one is right 100% of the time. No matter how strong your opinion is about something, you could still be wrong. Actually, depending on your line of work, you can be wrong a lot and still be successful. For example, if you’re an investor and wrong 50% of the time, you’ll be considered a great investor with a strong track record because you can make many times more than you invested on winners, while losses on losers are capped at the amount you invested.

If you have strong opinions, try to have the humility to recognize when you’re wrong. It’s easier said than done. One way to do it is to stay curious and keep learning about the topic you’re so confident about. Talk to people (ideally people whose perspectives differ) about it. Read about it. All while keeping an open mind. As you learn, your conviction will increase or decrease. If it decreases substantially, you should consider the possibility that you’re wrong.

There’s nothing wrong with having strong opinions about something and being wrong. It happens to everyone. Recognizing that your strong opinion is incorrect and course correcting quickly is what sets you apart and earns you respect.

I chatted with a founder who’s built an early product but hasn’t yet found product–market fit. He has some paying users but still hasn’t come up with that one thing that customers immediately see value in. His product does several things that people collectively like, but not one thing that people love.

As we chatted, he mentioned that he decided not to fundraise right now (he had an investor lined up already). His reasoning was straightforward. Because he doesn’t have product–market fit, he doesn’t know what he would spend the money on. Sure, he could grow the team, but he doesn’t feel that would solve the current challenge. He hasn’t yet identified the thing that customers really want him to build, so he doesn’t have a clear direction for the company or product. He has a small amount of recurring revenue and cash on hand, so meeting operating expenses isn’t a concern.

I like how honest and candid this founder was about the current state of things. He’s very aware of the stage his company is in and what it needs. Job number one is to figure out what customers want, and the team he has, though small, can do that.

I think this founder is headed in the right direction. He has some revenue coming in and is keeping burn low by keeping his team small. Once he finds product–market fit, I’m sure he’ll be off to the races!

A founder friend of mine recently hired a coach. The coach had him do an interesting exercise: go around to people in his life and ask for feedback. I and others were asked to grade him in certain areas and provide written feedback on strengths, weaknesses, etc.

One of the most important things founders can do is develop self-awareness. Easy to say, but hard to do. People don’t want to hurt your feelings, so they avoid giving pointed feedback. When you’re the leader, it’s even worse because most people are uncomfortable critiquing their boss. And frankly, some founders don’t want to listen to what can feel like criticism.

I think this founder and his coach soliciting feedback is a great exercise. He’ll receive the feedback digitally, so he’ll be able to revisit it in the future. Going through this process with the guidance of a coach will help him reflect on the feedback, make connections, and develop actionable steps going forward. The coach can hold him accountable to the process and the changes he commits to.

Self-awareness is an attribute of many successful entrepreneurs. I’m excited to see what my friend learns about himself and how he uses it to improve as a person and entrepreneur.  

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I’ve begun reading Who Is Michael Ovitz? It’s a memoir about Michael Ovitz and his journey, including how he founded and built Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the powerhouse talent agency. He’s known for having an outsize influence in Hollywood and being a shrewd negotiator. CAA’s four commandments stood out to me:

1. Never lie to your clients or colleagues
2. Return every call by end of day
3. Follow up and don’t leave people guessing
4. Never bad-mouth the competition

I noticed that numbers 2 and 3 are related—they both deal with how to communicate. The fact that communication makes this short list twice speaks to its importance in Ovitz’s industry. And it’s true of every industry: how we communicate (especially with customers and partners) can have a material impact on outcomes. I like that Michael makes effective communication a priority, and I’m sure it was a big contributor to CAA’s success given the centrality of relationships in the industry.

I listened to a founder speak today. He said something that stuck with me:

“Mind share precedes market share.”

It’s simple but powerful.

Lots of people build great solutions that don’t get used. It’s the if you build it, they will come mentality. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. People must know your solution exists before they can use it.

So how do you get mind share? Many approaches involve marketing skills. I have zero marketing skills, so I won’t speak to any of them. One approach that doesn’t require marketing know-how is doing customer discovery before you build your solution.

Take time to understand the problem by finding and listening to people who are experiencing the problem. People love to talk about their problems. If you listen, you’ll hopefully build rapport with them, and they’ll remember you in connection with this problem. Once you solve the problem, you can go back to these same people. You’ll likely be considered a trusted person, and they’ll give your solution a shot. If it works well and they’re happy, you can ask them to introduce you to other people experiencing the same problem. It’s a slower way to build mind share, but it’s effective.

If you’re a founder, consider periodically thinking about how you’ll build mind share before you can build market share.

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I had the chance to meet with and listen to a few seasoned Atlanta founders recently. They’ve built businesses worth billions, and some have exited their companies. When these guys and gals talk about business, they know what they’re talking about, so you want to listen. As they answered questions and gave their thoughts on what to do in difficult situations, I noticed that they didn’t hesitate. They knew exactly what to do and how to do it. It was as if it was automatic.

They also shared specific experiences. They described hesitating in making certain decisions early in their journey, only to regret not making them sooner. They learned painful lessons that stuck with them. When they face similar challenging situations now, they act quickly and confidently.

My big takeaway is that experience makes what you do in difficult situations automatic. Living through something difficult (or watching others live it) is the ultimate learning. It helps you recognize what you’re dealing with and act decisively. It’s automatic—meaning you don’t have to ponder and wonder and worry; you know what to do and act quickly.

Experience is immensely valuable to entrepreneurs. If you want to be able to act automatically in difficult situations, make it a priority to get that experience or become connected with people who have it.

This past week, I had the chance to listen to one of the founders of an Atlanta unicorn share his experience of choosing his co-founder. A few takeaways:

• Finding a partner who has skills complementary to yours is important. You can’t be good at everything, so you need a partner who’s strong where you’re weak.
• You must trust your cofounder to own functional areas. That doesn’t mean you should expect them to not make mistakes. But you should be able to trust them to own their mistakes and discuss them with others. Their mistakes are learning moments.
• One of the key things that attracted him to his cofounder was their mutual demonstrated habit of learning and improving themselves. Both had coaches, read tons of books, and committed to a path of self-improvement through their actions (not their talk). They’d also both had start-ups fail, and they’d spent time reflecting on their failures.
• Great people want to be held accountable, and good cofounders hold each other accountable (I agree).

All of these are great points, and I’m thankful he shared them. The point about learning and self-improvement really stuck with me. A few weeks back, I shared my thoughts on learning being a throttle on your success. I never thought about it in the context of finding a cofounder before, but it makes a lot of sense. A players want to work with other A players. It’s no different for cofounders. Learning and improving yourself consistently will definitely attract other like-minded A players (and likely lead to outsize success too).