3 Founder-Specific Lessons Taken From the Founder Mindset Season 3 Launch 🔥💭
A recap of September 18th's Calgary Tech Thursday's session launching Season 3 of The Founder Mindset podcast
September 18th’s Tech Thursday session saw the launch of Season 3 of the ‘Founder Mindset’. We brought together Remi Schmaltz (Brilliant Harvest), Sabina Bruehlmann (Nimble Science), and Benjamin Kemp (Ambyint) to chat about what it’s REALLY like to build a company, all moderated by veteran broadcaster Leah Sarich (Thin Air Labs).
This is our recap of the top ideas from the Founder Mindset launch.
“If we aren’t making mistakes, we’re not trying hard enough.”
Remi Schmaltz, CEO and Founder at Brilliant Harvest
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TL;DR
New Mistakes Are A Sign of Effort; Repeat Mistakes Create Issues: Fostering a positive culture is key in growing companies, and by not punishing, and even encouraging mistakes while searching for solutions, members of the organization will feel more empowered to find answers.
REAL Change is Rarely Easy: Measured change is vital to long-term viability of companies, but stacking significant changes in short order can fracture the foundation of an organization.
Belief is One of the Most Vital Aspects of Leadership: Utmost, bordering on irrational belief can help build trust with and inspire an organization to strive for the company’s mission.
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3 Founder-Specific Lessons Taken From the Founder Mindset Season 3 Launch:
1. New Mistakes Are A Sign of Effort; Repeat Mistakes Create Issues
In any startup/new business environment, learning curves can be steep, especially when promoting innovation. As the panel alluded to, a lack of mistakes can signal a lack of effort/innovation, however, making the same mistakes repeatedly are where companies begin to run into problems.
Why this is important:
Fostering a positive culture is key in growing companies, and by not punishing, and even encouraging mistakes while searching for solutions, members of the organization will feel more empowered to find answers. That being said, it is key to discourage repeat mistakes to avoid wasting time and/or money.
Key Takeaway: Innovation occurs when the status quo is pushed; while this can lead to mistakes, if they are made in the name of answers, they should be viewed as a sign of effort, not frowned upon.
2. REAL Change is Rarely Easy
Driving significant change as a founder, while necessary and generally positive, can be a painful process. This emphasizes the importance of making intentional changes with thought out outcomes, as opposed to stacking multiple changes at once.
Why this is important:
Intentionality when making changes in an organization is crucial given the toll that significant change can have on both a company overall, as well as the individuals that make up the organization. Focusing on one major shift at a time helps provide clarity to the change, shows intentionality and thought behind it, and allows for additional clarity and stability than would be the case if changes were to be stacked in quick succession.
Key Takeaway: Measured change is vital to long-term viability of companies, but stacking significant changes in short order can fracture the foundation of an organization. Intentionality is key.
3. Belief is One of the Most Vital Aspects of Leadership
Leading by belief is incredibly important in any leadership environment, but especially when building a business. If there are any seeds of doubt from a leader, the rest of the organization will almost certainly pick up on those feelings, and the doubt will spread throughout the organization. Utmost, bordering on irrational belief can help build trust with and inspire an organization to strive for the company’s mission.
Why this is important:
As mentioned on the panel, being a founder means “walking an impossible line between humility and dramatic confidence.” Early-stage companies are so often built on vision, and with the uncertainty of building any company, this level of belief is required to keep teams motivated and investors engaged.
Key Takeaway: This level of almost irrational belief is crucial to keeping teams motivated and focused in times of uncertainty (which can be frequent in startup environments).
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