Wasteland of Founder Energy

Entertainment Business Startup Founders

The startup community has become an entertainment business, with founders turning into the product, becoming dopamine junkies in the process. And yes, I know how FOMO makes it hard to say ‘no’ to all the tempting options to shine.

Building a successful business requires immense clarity and rigorous focus. You don't achieve this by exhausting yourself on LinkedIn over the latest AI trends or your "learning" about the newest startup event.

Build, ship, sell, repeat. Everything else is a waste of your time.

Build, ship, sell, repeat. Everything else is a waste of your time. Or worse, it exhausts your mental battery. Here are a few things to consider to improve your ROI on your time and mental energy:

Pitch events without investors. The goal of a pitch is to secure funding for your startup. If no investor is in the room, you waste your time. There is nothing wrong with some public dry runs to keep the jitters at bay. But does that require committing a full day of prep, travel, and lousy finger food?

Accelerators without experienced founders or domain experts. An accelerator is about upgrading your chances through education, practice, and networking. Make sure the people you work with have real-life startup experience as a founder. If not, they're likely reading the same blogs and books you're reading.

Startup Events without real value. The community among founders is of great value. Should you visit the Slush, Bits & Brezel, SXSW, or OMR? If you have set appointments with your target investors or scheduled meetings with fellow founders, go for it. Otherwise, check if the entertainment value justifies the investment and lost productivity.

‘So what’ awards. Being the startup of the year can be a morale booster for you and the team. Yet, dopamine has a nasty tendency not to last very long. And the startup path is paved with dopamine junkies (LINK). What is the goal of the award you're applying to, and which customers or investors care? And no, €500 or €5,000 price money is not worth the effort.

By now, you sense that I am not a big fan of the show business elements in our community. We often debate among the team how much is needed to raise attention to our cause and what is too much. What do you think?

Entertainment Business Startup Founders

The Startup Path is Paved with Dopamine Junkies

How many impressions do you need to close your funding?

How many likes are required to reach your revenue goal?

The answer is very likely: none!

Yet, week after week, we post our stories on social media and share our fails, wins, and experiences of what it takes to be a founder.

That by itself is not a bad thing. I would have loved to learn from other stories before drowning in my own founder issues. And I know many of you gain courage and inspiration from sharing your experience with others, too.

Any moment you invest in writing, posting, or show-pitching takes precious time away from your core business. And your core business is to deliver paid value to your customers.

What concerns me is the mental load this is causing for many of you. Instead of building “just” a business, you compete for public attention as a person. By connecting your startup activities with your person, you 10x the pressure and make every move a personal win or fail.

A battle for attention you can’t win!

Does the world benefit from hearing your story? Maybe. Does this support your startup? Likely not. Any moment you invest in writing, posting, or show-pitching takes precious time away from your core business. And your core business is to deliver paid value to your customers.

Putting aside the question if you need (personal) attention to build your business: This is an uphill battle you can’t win. Not because of you but because it is not a fair fight in the first place. Let’s take a look at the “competition” for attention:

Creators like Diana zur Löwen are playing the startup entertainment card well. She is no startup founder. She doesn’t need to manage a scaling team, build a product or get funding. As a creator, her core business generates attention and entertains 50k followers.

Serial Founders like Miriam Wohlfarth became well known through leveraging their initial startup success as founder and CEO. The order is essential. Now she is a book author, on the board of several companies, coaches startup founders, and supports great causes, like Startup Teens.

Ecosystem Players like Moinland, Reboot, or German Accelerator leverage their reach to generate leads. We have worked with over 250 founders, which provides a wealth of stories to build on. The startup ecosystem is our core business.

Investors like Matthias Helfrich have a significant advantage in providing a resource all founders want: Cash. That generates leverage in the attention game. In addition, some investors like Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, or Tomasz Tunguz provide valuable content based on the hundreds of companies in their portfolios. Similar to ecosystem players, founders are their core business.

Bottom line: These people have significant advantages when building a social media following compared to you as a startup founder.

The startup path is paved with wrecked dopamine junkies. The mental load of maintaining a public persona while building a company has been a constant theme in our coaching, especially when you compare yourself with the above list of competitors for attention.

The above is not to discourage you from an active social media life. Providing your customers with great content, connecting with people you care about, or having community among founders can be very powerful.

We just encourage you to be intentional about it.

Founders Songs: A Million Dreams from the „The Greatest Showman“

This time the Founder Song comes from Anika Jessen, the founder of achtmeter. She shares what motivates her as a startup founder:

“First and foremost, the movie tells the story of P.T. Barnum, the founder of Barnum & Bailey Circus. His founding journey is a true inspiration as it shows that no one can built „The Greatest Show on Earth“ without making painful mistakes.

🎵 They can say, they can say I've lost my mind 🎵 I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy 🎵 We can live in a world that we design

Founding a company starts with an idea. We dream of a world where something exists that does not yet. Holding on to that dream is so very important for me as a founder. It gives me the energy to push through the hard times.

So there is the movie and the lyrics but there is also the melody: so powerful, multi-facetted and so thrilling. Words I would use to describe my journey as a founder as well.”

Thanks Anika, for bringing this to our attention and to share with our coaching clients in the startup community. We couldn’t agree more with Anika. The song is like a startup pitch deck in music. My favorite lines are:

🎵 'Cause every night I lie in bed 🎵 The brightest colours fill my head 🎵 A million dreams are keeping me awake 🎵 I think of what the world could be 🎵 A vision of the one I see

How would you describe your journey of bringing an idea to life?