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StartUp Founders: Conative Sabotage
Published about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hey Reader,
Everyone talks about IQ & EQ, but what about how you instinctively take action and solve problems? Who you are at your core is not really trainable or changeable, but it’s often the hidden reason startups struggle to make progress in the early days. (𝕏)
It’s the Conative Index and you care because founders often fight their natural tendencies, believing they need to act a certain “founder” way (move fast & break things). And when that isn't who you really are, you end up battling with yourself.
This isn't about skills or experience. It's about your instinctive approach to getting shit done – the underlying "you" that drives your actions and on which you build your knowledge and expertise.
TL;DR Founders who understand their natural tendencies and stop fighting against themselves are the ones who win. It’s not about being right or wrong. It’s not a competition. It’s about understanding your strengths and building around them.
Unlock Your Founder DNA: The Conative Index.
Discover your innate startup superpowers and blind spots in just 9 questions. Build smarter, lead better.
Two things before you read this and smile or cry. First, it’s an index, not a binary label. You might have elements of some or all of these modes. It’s about how you lean. Second, this isn’t about how well you actually execute. This is the how, not the how well.
It’s Not a Competition (it is)
Founders think they need to be great at everything, and you kinda do, kinda. The real win isn’t in being everything; it’s in having everything. And you get that by not trying to be all of them, embracing what you are, partnering with those who complement what you’re not.
The easiest way to explain it... Going to London next Wednesday. How do you pack?
Days in advance, researching weather and making lists? (Fact Finder)
Last minute, tossing it all together? (Quick Start)
Overpacking to be prepared for anything? (Implementor)
Organizing into neat categories? (Follow Thru)
It's how you naturally approach tasks. In all 4 scenarios, your experience will actually dictate whether you pack right. None of these is better or worse. The idiot thinks it’s a competition, the intellect knows it’s not.
Which One Are You?
Implementor Founders:
The one who makes it happen. Give you an idea, and you’ll have a prototype built in your head before lunch and deployed by dinner. This is an insane strength and makes you the most sought-after co-founder. You learn through building, seeing, touching, and can do it with a speed that others dream of. You love to build. But, even the most brilliant execution needs a strategic direction. Are you building something people actually want?
When you partner with a visionary, it’s game over. They’ll provide the strategic roadmap, and you’ll bring it to life.
Quick Start Founders:
The visionary is always thinking, always exploring – it’s all about momentum and energy and moving forward. Speed, ideation, clarity and doing whatever it takes to get the win. But, do like to chase shiny objects, do like to run, execute, move on and at times struggles to isolate focus on the right goal? Often hard to translate into leadership and even harder to maintain the momentum.
When you partner with an Implementor who gets you, and a Follow Thru to ensure it’s executed with detail, the results are extraordinary.
Fact Finder Founders:
You’re data-driven, knowledge-driven and thrives on information. You like to understand the destination before jumping in, the process, the learnings, the why. It takes you a moment, but when you get there, it’s magical. You find insights no one else sees and you can make strategic choices with the ideal combo of data and gut. But, speed is critical. Analysis paralysis and letting ‘perfect’ be the enemy of ‘good’ are always the demons you battle.
When you partner with domain experts (or if you are the SME) and an action-taker, your knowledge of the market changes the odds dramatically in your favor as you just have a closer pulse of "right".
Follow Thru Founders:
You like to know or do know, how it plays out. The systems, processes, and flows. You bring order to chaos, you create structure, predictability, and enable accountability. You build process so the founding team is not 24/7 putting out fires and can focus on what matters. It’s a magical skill. But, flexibility is key. Sometimes the inability to work outside the “book” or the “process,” or being stubborn about a way or a purist about a method, shackles innovation, creativity, and the capability to execute.
Put you in any company, and if you can adapt, innovate, and leverage systems as guidelines, everyone has less anxiety, is hyper focused on the objectives, and a clearer path to executing on the strategy. Customers often see the biggest impact.
Misalignment: Reading this and believing you are one or the other, or that one beats the other, is a waste of time. It never works, you can only fake it for so long.... because it's not instinctive.
What to do: Take the Conative Index. Be clear on who you are, get off autopilot and embrace your natural tendencies, your strengths.
Blind Spots:(Your Individual Limitations) Without knowing your mode, you miss massive blind spots in your own capability to execute. You need the others in some capacity.
What to do: Ensure there are people around you filling those gaps. Could just be a project manager or product analyst for a few hours a week to ensure your vision is grounded in truth and executed how you want. Build a framework that supports your strengths. Quick Starts need checkpoints. Fact Finders need deadlines.
The Mismatch:(Core Team Composition) Founders often hire people just like them. Two Fact Finders will make excellent research partners but struggle to execute. Two Quick Starts may launch fast but burn through resources without results.
What to do: Hire for your gaps (co-founders, early employees), actively fight to find those with different modes.
Know who you are, move faster, make better decisions, higher more impactful people and burn out less. Lean into your strengths, cover your weaknesses, and watch.
As always, if I can be of service, feel free to grab time.
Join 140k+ StartUp Founders reading my weekly newsletter offering tactical insights to start, scale, and fund their startup. Real advice from a 3x exited founder.
Where 140k+ founders read my weekly newsletter offering tactical insights to start, scale, and fund their startup. Real advice from a 3x exited founder.
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