Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.

By Nathan Parcells

Paul Graham said in a TechCrunch interview a few months back that his number one factor for evaluating a successful startup team is the founder glue – what holds these people together through the inevitable maelstrom(s) of an early stage company.

What keeps the founders chugging through fundraising efforts, through pivots that turn months of work into funny memories, through credit card debt, through girlfriend/boyfriend breakups, through flops and failures, through new hires, through VC negotiations and so much more.

It is interesting that such a leader in the entrepreneurial space would take the time to recognize perseverance as a higher order skill-set than brains, networking, creativity or the many other critical skills for startup success.

It’s true, there are a lot of smart people out there, however there are very few people anywhere willing to put a mortgage on a house in order to extend runway and make a crucial pivot that they believe in. This risk taking behavior goes against our biological desires for self-preservation and is much harder to learn then biz dev, hiring, or a new coding language.

How to Fight the Fear:

Staying cool through trying situations is really hard to learn. InternMatch is on the tail end of a fundraising process that forced me to reflect on a lot of the areas.

  1. Personal Commitment – when salaries get lowered to extend runway during a tough fundraising process (and almost always fundraising will be tough) tensions get high. It is important to step back and “Ask yourself if you 100% believe a new strategy can and will succeed?” Once the commitment is made, going full steam ahead is the most rational thing you can do – compartmentalize fear and know that it doesn’t bring any benefit to the equation.
  2. Founder Glue – putting fear, ego, and doubt aside in a box is easier said than done. Like donning metal armor, it occasionally gets chipped away at, with various setbacks. It reminds me of the world class rock climber Alex Honnel who likes to climb 1,100 foot cliffs without any ropes. He has mastered the process of shutting out fear except for a year ago when he got 9/10’s of the way up Yosemite’s half dome (without a rope) before having a panic attack. If you have a moment like this big or small having co-founders who can lift you up is absolutely critical. 

Needless to say it is really important to trust your co-founders, almost like you would a spouse. Knowing that they are fully dedicated, not wobbling, not going to walk out – gives reassurance and strength on the day to day for the whole team to push forward. I went to elementary school with my co-founder – the idea of walking away never really entered the equation and likewise I knew the same was true for him.

  1.    Early Investor Glue –   A final support mechanism I wanted to point to is early investors. If you raise money from seed investors, while the company has little to no traction and is still in the idea stage, it is really critical to find people who are aligned with your company’s mission and ethos. Our company pivoted a number of times, went through a rollercoaster of ups and downs, but when we turned to a couple of early investors, they doubled-down to lead our new round with few questions asked. This confidence in us, that despite how different the company looked from their initial investment, was not only critical in leading the new round, but validating that we were doing the right thing and the company was progressing the right way.

Ultimately there is a wealth of stories of companies who take over a year of perseverance and hard-work before ultimately closing a round, and often at a great valuation. It is easy to say that comparing oneself to an early-stage Google is unrealistic, but in reality staying excited, sharp, and totally committed for over a years at a time IS where the winners and losers are separated. Staying cool and collected may be the hardest and most critical startup skill to hone.

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