Chemistry | 011 | Founder- God Of All Things
Founders need to have it all. Subject expert, businessman, salesman, finance guru, leader. It sounds exhausting. No wonder only a few make it to Product-Market Fit and beyond.
I think we can do better. I don’t buy that a founder NEEDS to be all these things. We WANT them to be because we perceive it makes things simple. If one person (or a couple of co-founders) can do everything kinda well, then a little nudge (of cash) and away we go.
The thing is, we forget the need for deep expertise. If we are to be innovative, we need people who know their subject, industry, customers, and influencers like no one else. This is not the profile of a jack of all trades but a true master of their specialism.
We have now an innovation sector driven by multi-talented founders. Great, excellent and genuinely talented people, but we are only skimming the surface of possibility. If we are going to push on to greater heights and tackle the significant issues, we need experts.
Specialists are all around us. They need not be locked up in some academic institution or beavering away in a lab. The expert I talk about is someone who has lived the problem they solve. They have first-hand experience. They have observed the challenges, made the connections and built a network. It is not theoretical to them but an innate understanding.
The right founders are a blend of things, but the breadth of business capability is not one.
It all comes from having the right Chemistry,
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