Entrepreneurship is often glamorized in books, TV and movies that shine a spotlight on the billion-dollar exits. The reality is, being a founder is no joke. It’s not for the faint of heart or anyone just dipping a toe in the water.
I completely understand why Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia, now worth $1 trillion, wouldn’t do it all over again because it turned out to be “a million times harder” than he expected. Personally, I think the incredible highs and gut-wrenching lows are all worth it.
As Akava turns five years old, I’m reflecting on my own founder journey to date and the lessons that will last a lifetime. While the lessons have been bountiful and more are sure to come, here are my top five (in no particular order).
Human Capital is the #1 Asset
As an entrepreneur, especially as a bootstrapped founder, wearing multiple hats is a necessity. Accounting? Law? Marketing? Product? Engineering? Even if you’ve never had direct exposure to these functions, you ferociously learn as much as you can, as quickly as you can, so your business can operate at peak performance. Being forced to learn new skills and functions is just part of being a founder.
That said, wearing multiple hats can only take your business so far. To drastically raise your company’s ceiling, you have to put the right team in place.
You have to hire great teammates who are experts in their respective subject matter, entrusting them and empowering them to deliver results.
Hiring is difficult. But when you do find those ‘home-run’ hires, who are total rockstars within their respective domains and are aligned to your vision, it is a complete game changer for your business and can even enhance the company culture.
Having high-performing teammates who can be trusted to produce valuable outcomes completely changes the trajectory of your company. For founders and leaders, delegation and trust are paramount. This allows you to shift from working “in” your business to working “on” your business
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." -Phil Jackson
Master the Art of Equilibrium
Entrepreneurship is emotional. The highs are high and the lows are low. Finding balance as an individual is a prerequisite to business success. Talk to most founders and they’ll readily admit they do not have this mastered, and neither do I. But when I zoom out to assess the 5-year macro period of entrepreneurship, I’ve made improvements in managing the peaks and valleys.
There are countless techniques and practices out there to help you as a founder create balance; from meditation and yoga to reading and spending time with family. Personally, I find reprieve in walks, long runs, and time at the gym with my favorite podcasts and audiobooks. It's easy to get stuck on the hamster wheel so finding activities that break up your grind can unlock creativity while breaking down mental barriers.
In fact, at Akava, we encourage everyone to get outside and walk when they’re on calls if they are not presenting. We hold monthly step challenges across the company; last year we averaged ~8,600 steps per day as a company! The friendly competition has enhanced our culture while helping us find balance throughout our days.
The intensity of entrepreneurship can put a strain on personal relationships if you’re not mindful. For the first 18 months of my own founder journey, I was running on overdrive with blinders on— 14+ hours a day, sometimes 7 days a week – and it really bled into my long-standing relationship.
My then-girlfriend was incredibly supportive mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, knowing that I bootstrapped the company with my life savings. But I was letting the stress of entrepreneurship take its toll.
My co-founder wisely told me, “don’t lose sight of those who are in the foxhole with you. You want them to be around to celebrate the victory." This shook my soul.
I’m happy to say that I took the time to find balance, and she is now my fiancée!
Mastering the art of equilibrium is equally important in your career as it is in your personal life. Setting expectations, having boundaries, making time, and being present are all paramount to finding and maintaining balance.
“We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.” - Michelle Obama
Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
Money: easily one of life’s biggest stressors. In founding Akava, I was not interested in accepting outside capital and was fully committed to bootstrapping with my personal funds.
In the early days, we had 3 full time salaried employees and 4 full time consultants, all of which were over six figures in compensation; I'm watching all of my savings disappear uncertain when I’d see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
Still, I was maniacal about managing the bottom line while committing to building up our operating capital for the future. For the first 16 months, I didn't take a single penny out of the company nor did I pay myself. We had to pay our employees, partners, vendors and SaaS subscriptions first. Stressful? Beyond. It triggers PTSD just thinking about it.
As author Simon Sinek puts it,’ leaders eat last’.
I sure am glad those days are behind us, but the lessons last forever.
And they would come in handy.
First, there was COVID and the shift to remote work. Thankfully we were ahead of the remote work curve given that we've run a globally distributed team since inception.
Then, after a major tech boom through much of 2021 and 2022, warning signs began flashing in Q3 2022. Most of our enterprise clients were going on hiring freezes. Then layoffs came. Naturally, organizations started playing defense. They leaned into a scarcity mindset as opposed to the innovation abundance of the years prior.
By 2023, almost ~80% of our project pipeline had evaporated. As Mike Tyson famously said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” We had our gloves down and got clobbered with a haymaker.
Our saving grace? The operating capital reserves that we judiciously built up over years of diligent saving. As a result, we were able to navigate the turbulence and avoid internal layoffs. Since that time, I’m beyond proud of the work the team did to reclaim most of our lost pipeline.
“The unexpected is usually what brings the unbelievable.” - Simone Biles
Problem Solving is a Forever Game
If you find excitement in solving problems all day, every day, then entrepreneurship is for you. Waking up every morning knowing that each day will be different than the last is energizing. While my calendar has recurring meetings, I have to be prepared to handle at least one curveball every day; contract redlines, shifting deadlines, the unpredictable fire to fight and/or a meeting to join on the fly -- just to name a few.
Clients, employees, partners, and vendors all present a unique set of problems that need to be addressed, and and oftentimes concurrently. In the consulting world, we are problem solvers by nature. Inherently our clients partner with us so we can help deliver some high-value product, solution or outcome.
2023 was a year full of trials and tribulations for most companies. In my conversations with various esteemed founders and CEOs, one common theme emerged: we were all passionately navigating a maze of small and large problem sets. Our goal was not just to survive but to disrupt our own companies, paving the road for future success.
At Akava, we strategically used this period to enhance our operational workflows, develop scalable systems, generate comprehensive documentation, and implement innovative tools. Further, a significant part of the year was dedicated to an extensive R&D initiative that has paved the way for the launch of our new practice (stay tuned for the exciting announcement!).
“The problems of today can only be solved at a higher level of thinking than that which created them.” - Albert Einstein
Celebrate the Wins, Learn From the Losses
Success in entrepreneurship is not linear and the climb to the top is a marathon, not a sprint. The amount you learn as a founder or being part of a founding team on a daily basis especially in the early days is dizzying. Building on these learnings create the foundation for growth.
These wins and/or losses come in many form factors and more often than not, they can occur daily. I often preach to my team how it’s ok to have negative days, so long as you have positive weeks. It’s okay to have negative weeks so long as you have positive months. Stacking your wins ensures we all have net positive months, then years.
As a consultancy, our wins and losses primarily derive from our client engagements. Winning the contract, gaining buy-in on a proposed solution, having a technological breakthrough on complex problems, shipping what we promised then being retained by the client for the next project. While this doesn’t happen every time, as a collective team we’re beyond thrilled to share in these wins throughout such a client delivery journey arc.
Continuous learning and improvement are core tenets at Akava. If you lose the deal, couldn’t agree on an end-state solution, didn’t solve a technical challenge the way you originally intended, or missed the delivery deadline, you spend time figuring out why. And you fix the issue. Conducting internal retrospectives rapidly to glean insights is imperative. Having open and honest conversations with clients is a must. We always take these learnings from the losses and implement sweeping changes so we can improve as firm.
Although 2023 was a tough year for the industry, we saw some of our biggest wins including making key hires across our business and engineering teams, opening a new market (Chicago), improving internal processes for a scalable future, and executing on our core marketing initiatives.
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
To my fellow founders out there, keep grinding - it’s worth it. When you’re operating at your maximum velocity for long periods of time, it can be easy to forget how far you’ve come. Take time to cherish the achievements, then let them fuel you for your next voyage. Vision without execution is merely delusion. From one founder to another, here’s to realizing your vision and all the wealth, health, and happiness that comes with it!
"Make it hard to spot the general, by working like a soldier." - Drake
