The Founder's Paradox: Walking Fast, Earning Less, Dreaming of Founderland

Founders are aliens. Here is a guide to recognizing these crazy weirdos.

Sep 20, 2023

Founders are, to put it mildly, a quirky bunch. While many might label them as certifiably insane, unhirable, or even the world's worst employee of the month, these very folks often end up changing the world. Think of them as the sitcom character who no one ever truly understands, but the show wouldn't be the same without them.

Founders are aliens. Here is a guide to recognizing these crazy weirdos.

Ever wondered what sets a successful founder apart? It's not their IQ, their alma mater, or even their zodiac sign. It's... drum roll... the number of steps they take per minute! That's right, founders walk INSANELY fast. They're probably just trying to outrun their many responsibilities. Or maybe they've had one too many espressos (pretty much all founders are abusing caffeine in some way).

the number one predictor of a founder's success: the number of steps they take per minute. founders walk INSANELY fast.

"Creating a company is so hard that if failure is an option for you, it will be too tempting to take it." - David Sacks on World of DaaS pod

It's like choosing between a comfy couch and a prickly cactus.

The best founders are both Smart AND Positive.

Sounds easy, right? Wrong!!! The paradox is most smart folks tend to be negative. Might be all that extra brainpower tuned into the world's issues. Or maybe they just watch too much TV news.

After making 140+ angel investments, the only criteria that seems to be correlated with success is the founders’ cash compensation: the lower the cash comp , the higher the likelihood of success.

I’m not sure why.

Oh, and just a little sidenote: When we say "low cash comp", we're talking about venture-backed founder CEOs earning less than $110k. While that might sound "low" for the San Francisco high life, most of the world sees that as a jackpot.

The true MVPs? Founders earning less than their office interns.

and ambitions keep getting bigger and bigger

Every successful founder wants to run a start-up studio.

And 100% of founders fantasize about starting a country.

Maybe "Founderland" will be a country soon.

It is not in the founder handbook, but one of the main jobs of being a founder is just being a good SDR.

Most people think entrepreneurs are risk takers. that's wrong.

but entrepreneurs are more likely to thrive in chaos and disorder. Kind of like a cat in a room full of dangling strings.

Ever been captivated by a magnetic entrepreneur, yet find their business as decipherable as ancient hieroglyphs? Pro tip: Hold onto your wallet. Because every time I've been in that spot and invested, my money's disappeared faster than ice cream on a sunny day.

If you cannot understand the founder, it does not mean it is because the founder is smarter than you. It means the founder cannot sell.

There were 5 actual cofounders of LiveRamp but 12 people claim to be cofounders.

that's a feature, not a bug.

The reason we were successful is that people felt so much like a cofounder that they actually believed it.

What kind of companies generate great founder mafias?

1. Had a successful outcome but not CRAZY successful

2. Company almost went out of business multiple times

3. Company endures decades after the exit

Why start-ups have a chance of winning

Number of employees of a well-run 100-person start-up that care about the long-term company: 60

Number employees of a 10,000-person company that care about the long-term company: 6

Now you see why David beats Goliath?

"In order to get into the best college, you have to look smart along the way. In order to build a massive company, you have to look dumb along the way. It really is a totally different skill set.”

- Erik Torenberg on World of DaaS pod

So, here's to the unending, exhilarating, maddening journey of founders!