At this stage in my career, I’ve met thousands of entrepreneurs, worked with hundreds of companies, and diagnosed business problems in countless forms. Of all the afflictions impeding growth in nascent enterprise, one has proven most difficult to cure: Entrepreneur’s Disease (a.k.a. Founder’s Syndrome or Founderitis). While the preceding condition symptomatically presents in complex variations, acute cases are easily identified by experienced venture practitioners and most often result in a commercially terminal prognosis. So, what do we look for in the course of an examination?
Common Symptoms
Known Treatments
Common Symptoms
- An unwavering long-term commitment to strategic hypotheses that are not working, and have never worked
- An insistence on upholding irrational assertions about key business variables, counter to readily available evidence
- A tendency to blame a lack of revenue on one’s prospective customers
- A tendency to blame a lack of capital on one’s prospective investors
- A tendency to blame critical feedback on the subject-matter expert providing it, followed by cursory rejection of such feedback and prompt termination of the discussion
- High levels of confidence combined with low levels of competence; particularly as manifested in confusion regarding one’s area(s) of functional expertise
- Lack of understanding regarding the nature and benefits of delegation
- Squirrel!!!
- A strong belief that pre-money valuations are best calculated based on the founder’s past effort and personal enthusiasm
- An inherent preference for controlling all of nothing, versus owning some portion of something valuable
- Any delusional consideration of an exit strategy that involves Facebook or the word “billion”
- A recurrently empty bank account
- Eagerness to cite the mere absence of abject failure, to date, as irrefutable proof of imminent success on a global scale
- Hostile denial, despite one’s documented status as the poster child for Entrepreneur’s Disease
Known Treatments
- Introspective acceptance and meaningful corrective action, but only where initiated by the recovering founder
- Invasive removal of the infected founder by other stakeholders (who inevitably grow impatient with unrelenting displays of asshattery)
- Self-destruction of the host business – because that pretty much cures it, too…
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