Experience vs. Expertise
I recently caught up with a pair of founders who, in the past year, had successfully sold their company. Their exit wasn’t one that made headlines. By venture standards it would be considered an “early exit”. A lost opportunity.
But the acquisition was the right decision by almost any measure. It made all of the company’s investors a significant (albeit not fund-returning) return on their investment. It provided the founders the opportunity to continue their life’s work within an enthusiastic and strategically-aligned acquirer. Oh…and it netted each of them a nearly 8-figure sum.
As we discussed the founders’ post-acquisition experiences, the conversation turned to the topic of how they could give back to the entrepreneurial ecosystem that had supported them for so many years. Should they angel invest? Should they become LPs in funds?
I suggested that a great place to start was to look for opportunities to share their experiences with other founders, such as through mentorship, office hours or speaking engagements. Their response caught me off guard:
“Who am I to tell any founder what they should do?” said the former CEO. “We didn’t even make it that far.”
I turned to see his cofounder nodding in agreement, “I don’t feel like we’ve earned the right to give anyone advice.”
I paused to consider their response to my seemingly innocuous suggestion. How on earth could two founders who had built and successfully sold a company to each become multi-millionaires feel as though they weren’t “good enough” to mentor other founders?
I’m sure that for many of you reading this, the above anecdote must sound preposterous. These days, it feels like startup ecosystems are filled with people who’ve achieved minimal amounts of success (or none at all) loudly proclaiming their expertise for all to hear.
Despite the considerable experience these founders had amassed during their entrepreneurial journeys, neither one considered themselves to be an expert.
ex·pert
noun
a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.
It’s interesting to consider the above definition of an expert within the context of startups. While it is certainly possible for someone to amass comprehensive knowledge about building startups or an individual skill needed within startups (e.g. content marketing) it is, by definition, impossible to become an expert founder.
Because you can only be a founder at most a handful of times in your life.
Many founders misguidedly believe that experts can provide them with the “correct” answers to their founder questions. We’re so used to having access to expert knowledge from parents, teachers and others in our lives that we expect to be able to do so in our founder journeys. But the reality is that there are very few experts when it comes to the challenges of being a startup founder. Which is what makes founder experience so valuable.
The problem is, it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Startup ecosystems around the world are filled with people who confidently share their opinions on all manner of topics. Many are well-intentioned. Many have actual experience in the topics that they talk about. But too few include the appropriate caveats when giving advice.
Too much “you should do this” and “you should do that” and not enough “in my experience,…” or “here’s what worked for me…”
Which is exactly why the lived experiences of two recently-exited founders is so incredibly valuable to their startup ecosystem. They’ve done things that few people have ever done:
Created a compelling product that solves a genuine need
Sold that product to eager customers
Raised multiple rounds of VC funding
Successfully sold their company and, in doing so, generated meaningful returns for their investors, employees and themselves
In a world filled with self-proclaimed experts, experience matters.