4 ms·

> Pair them with mentors that are top founders and VCs Super difficult to get right. From my very limited experience in New Zealand: 1: Good founders need to

> Pair them with mentors that are top founders and VCs Super difficult to get right. From my very limited experience in New Zealand: 1: Good founders need to be self-starters and discover their own solutions in many areas where they are ignorant. Leaning on experts can be counter-productive for unobvious reasons. Having self-doubt and thinking experts know what they are doing is subtly wrong thinking. Founders need to havea lot of belief in themselves. I'm not sure you can encourage self-belief but I am sure many people kick it out of founders (I've been on the receiving end of some destructive people - I think they were well meaning but they didn't know how to empower). Listening to advice is often good, but ignoring advice is often critical. 2: many advisors don't know how to support founders. Advisors often want to pretend they know the answers and sometimes they play status games and knock down founders. I remember one arsehole bankrupt guy trying to be a mentor. Too many advisors have the wrong motivations. 3: VCs want to go big. I saw investors push founders in particular ways that were regularly unhelpful. I'd love to see you succeed - there's a heap of talent that is out there.

TheAlchemist 2y ago
How did you get the experience in NZ ? Curious since I'm currently also in NZ and would like to learn a bit more about startups here.
- robocat 2y ago
  We had an office at an incubator when we started our business. Facilities management saves a lot of headaches. We just paid rent, not equity. I learnt a lot by watching the other companies make mistakes. Most valuably, we didn't chase investors. Saved our time and effort, focused on profitability, retained 100% ownership, and avoided any misaligned influence from investors. A shared space or coworking with other startups is likely to be helpful I think. I like learning from peers. I'd now consider moving to SV if I wanted to try founding again. Wellington if in NZ. Even though I suspect a good idea can work anywhere.
- robocat 2y ago
  Happy to yack if you are in Christchurch. I'm pretty unfamiliar with other cities.
solettyy 2y ago
I pretty much agree with each point. That said, I think when you work in the bay - by simply being around other successful founders and investors etc you get motivated and you learn from their mindset and approaches. At least this was quite helpful to me personally. As you say it's obviously pretty bad if its a situation where a founder simply like relies on an advisor and mentor. However, having mentors/friends that you can talk to, that can motivate you, and you can go for advice can be quite powerful especially if you aren't in the bay where there is already such a community. All this of course depends on the quality of the mentors you can find, and the quality of the fellows - if the fellows are bad the mentors just won't give a shit. And also, this is definitely not a replacement for the personal discovery a founder needs to do

TheAlchemist 2y ago

How did you get the experience in NZ ? Curious since I'm currently also in NZ and would like to learn a bit more about startups here.

robocat 2y ago
We had an office at an incubator when we started our business. Facilities management saves a lot of headaches. We just paid rent, not equity. I learnt a lot by watching the other companies make mistakes. Most valuably, we didn't chase investors. Saved our time and effort, focused on profitability, retained 100% ownership, and avoided any misaligned influence from investors. A shared space or coworking with other startups is likely to be helpful I think. I like learning from peers. I'd now consider moving to SV if I wanted to try founding again. Wellington if in NZ. Even though I suspect a good idea can work anywhere.
robocat 2y ago
Happy to yack if you are in Christchurch. I'm pretty unfamiliar with other cities.

solettyy 2y ago

I pretty much agree with each point. That said, I think when you work in the bay - by simply being around other successful founders and investors etc you get motivated and you learn from their mindset and approaches. At least this was quite helpful to me personally. As you say it's obviously pretty bad if its a situation where a founder simply like relies on an advisor and mentor. However, having mentors/friends that you can talk to, that can motivate you, and you can go for advice can be quite powerful especially if you aren't in the bay where there is already such a community. All this of course depends on the quality of the mentors you can find, and the quality of the fellows - if the fellows are bad the mentors just won't give a shit. And also, this is definitely not a replacement for the personal discovery a founder needs to do