Recently, I was a panel member at a mentorship event. One of the presenters was the founder of a company whose business card simply read “Chief Architect”. On being asked who the CEO of this company was, he surprised all by saying, “I’m looking out for a CEO. I realise that I don’t have the ability to be the CEO and that I’m the bottleneck in the company.” Needless to say, this remarkable self-realisation and public articulation astounded all the panel members. It is a tired cliche that the most important thing in a startup is the team. But, it has yet to be internalized by many founding teams (and in several cases by VCs!). So, what is the problem? Is it that the people don't "get it" or is it that they believe that they are indeed the best team? The team lives in a self-delusionary world, in a state of denial. This is very dangerous. There's also a third angle to this. Many times the founding team realises that the existing team has gaping holes and there's a cr...
Startup Journey is a forum for entrepreneurs catalyzed by Arun Natarajan, Founder of Venture Intelligence