Corporate to Startup: a leap too far?

This week I hosted the Demo Day for Shell StartUp Engine UK, the accelerator programme I run.  It was the final act of the programme and huge recognition of the effort and impact of eight incredible startups over the past five months.  I bought a new suit and waltzed about on stage with my startup mates. You can watch us here.

Building a startup is something many people in corporate jobs dream about.  It’s almost the opposite of a corporate job – you get autonomy, purpose and passion and you get to work fast, unencumbered by bureaucratic processes and annoying politics.

But you also get no pay, little help (or worse lots of unhelpful help), daily rejection and zero sympathy if you don’t immediately bounce back.  Few people can relate to you, not even your family.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that founders are made not built; most people can learn most things.  But it is a special kind of person that becomes a founder.

They are the bravest people I know.  Swimming against the tide.  Living with uncertainty and risk.  It’s a lonely life.

Yesterday was a day of Glory.  But each week I’ve been on calls with them as they share the Shit – the S:G ratio is more often geared towards the S.

Three of the eight startups have got funding during the programme (not really because of it), two have commercial opportunities, and two have strong pilot opportunities with Shell.

These are good proof points that the programme creates value.  But I’m under no illusion, this is 90% down to these tenacious, creative, inspiring founders.

I’m glad there is a cult of the founder, the entrepreneur.  Because it’s because of these people that new stuff happens, problems get solved, life gets better.

We need more people to become those brave warriors, like Beena, Paul, Parag, Simon, Matthew, Fidan, Athan, Tom, Llyr, Haroon and Ed.

I left bp with the dream of joining their ranks.  Founder of Familiarize, I was going to build my own blitzscaled startup and help millions more with my customer discovery product.

It didn’t happen.  Maybe I gave up too early, maybe it was a bad idea, maybe I just (ironically) did a bad job of finding my customer.

But what it did was expand my network and help me become clearer around my strengths, my offer and the value I can create for others.

It wasn’t as a founder of a tech startup, it was more about being a good coach, a sparring partner, a connector, a cheerleader.  And I can do all those things whether I’m working with startups or people looking to leave their corporate jobs to build one.

I don’t want to put anyone off leaving their corporate job to pursue their dream of building a startup.  Many people say even if their startup fails that it taught them more in a year about business and about themselves than they learned in the ten before.  And some things I know you need to get out of your system, I did.

But one of the things I coach people leaving corporate jobs to do is to think in spectrums, not boxes.  There is a box called Startup.  Like Coach or Consultant or Shopkeeper.  But the reality is these options are not boxes, they’re long spectrums of options and somewhere on that spectrum might be just the right place for you.  Where you can thrive, where you play to all your strengths, where you add most value.

For example, on the startup spectrum, you could join a programme like Entrepreneur First or Carbon 13, where you get matched with a co-founder to develop an idea together, with the support of a skills-building programme and mentorship.  You could join an existing startup or even better a scale-up, where your corporate skills might be particularly useful.  You could work with startups like I do on an accelerator programme, or with an incubator or a venture-builder.  You could also do things before you leave your job, removing any risk, e.g. a build a side-hustle to test demand or mentor in your free time.

A single leap from corporate job to startup founder is not impossible, but it is a big jump, one with a lot of risk.  You might be up for that risk.  But if you’re not – or if you’re really jumping into the unknown or in reaction to something you don’t like about your current situation, pause then prepare.

If I can help, I’m happy to have a quick call, even if it’s just to test your thinking and give your plans a bit of healthy challenge.