The Founders Dilemmas Notes

Chapter 2 –

Family/ cultural impression impacts Founders view –

• Anti-entrepreneurship culture – 
  • may mean the founder is at a disadvantage from a skills perspective
  • May mean the founder has an advantage from a motivation/passion prespective
• Generational entrepreneurship
  • May mean the founder has an advantage from a skills perspective
  • May mean the founder has a disadvantage from a motivation/passion prespective

Age –

• Younger founders –
  • Advantages – may mean better at starting or discovering new ideas
    • Energy
    • Idealism
    • Passion
    • Risk appetite
  • Disadvantages – may mean follow-through, execution, focus and business survival is challenged
    • Experience
    • Skill/ knowhow
    • Focus + high risk decision making
    • Human capitol
• Older Founders –
  • Advantages – may mean better follow-through, execution, focus and business survival is challenged
    • Experience
    • Skill/ knowhow
    • Focus + high risk decision making
    • Human capitol
  • Disadvantages – may mean starting or discovering new ideas is challenged
    • Energy
    • Idealism
    • Passion
    • Risk appetite

Education and career pre-founder –

• Managerial experience –
  • Organisation size – having managed people with organisations of specified size
    • Large Corporate organisations (>150)
    • SME (>30, <150)
    • Micro (<30) 
  • Book/ street smart – aquired management experience academically vs working up the ladder
    • MBA/ Academic management expertise
    • Climbed the career ladder
• Academic/ expertise focused – Skills 
  • Technical/ research/ Engineering
  • Sales/ Promotional
  • Manageral / decision making/ analysis

• Managerial Expertise 
• Functional Expertise
• Industry/ Domain Expertise
  • Lack of industry experience may bring fresh ideas, but omits nuance and detail resulting in higher risks of failure

Effectual vs causal reasoning –

• Effectual reasoning – common in entrepreneurship – using the means at your disposal to come up with solution
• Causal reasoning – come up with the solution and find the means