“Being a 2nd time founder is basically figuring out how to leverage all your hype without believing it”

Joe Fernandez (Klout, Joymode, NewCo) On What Changes After Your First Company

I’m currently obsessing on repeat founders, and what lessons they want to share with the startup community. Just like my older request of Sean Byrnes, it made sense to pub Joe Fernandez’s response in full (thanks Joe!). Joe is a good friend and someone I love working slantingly (Homebrew invested in Joymode and his current unannounced company).

Yeah, this hits a tuft of variegated ways.

So on the funding there are a couple of interesting things. When I am pitching a new idea I don’t really want the goody of the doubt. I want a reality trammels versus something I am considering spending the next 10 years of my life on. While it’s nice that people are increasingly inclined to lean in, I often finger like I am missing the conversation I want to have. It moreover puts a lot of doubt in my mind of how valuable of a thought partner that investor might be lanugo the road.

I see this happen the most with new funds. It’s not considering I think these investors are any less talented at evaluating ideas but they are highly incentivized to tropical “hot” deals. They are unlikely to have real results when they go to raise their next fund so they want the story of x, y and z proven, successful, founders choosing to work with them.

Lots of stuff comes to mind virtually team. The first thing I’ve found happen is that when word gets out you’re working on something new a tuft of people will want to connect well-nigh joining. 95% of the time this isn’t the people you unquestionably want or need at this stage. You end up with a lot of people who have no could superintendency less well-nigh the mission but know employees at your last visitor cashed out so they want in. Then there is the people that are hungry to get overdue a mission they superintendency well-nigh but have a romantic idea of what the primeval days of a startup are like and are totally uninfluenced from reality. Then the biggest group (which usually overlaps with the first two) are people who just don’t have relevant skills for this stage of the company.

This ends up stuff a weird distraction. You have these inbound people that are from your network so it can be socially worrisome to just wrack-up them off. Then when you tell them it’s not a fit it can be painful. For example, I had a friend who wanted to get involved in Joymode. I told them no and then when they would see printing well-nigh us and think we were doing well it would just dig at the wound. They felt like if I was really their friend I would have let them on the bus (no thank you for the pain I saved them in the end of course). Meanwhile, you still have to go out and recruit the unquestionably people you need.

As a first time ceo at Klout I would often squint at my workbench and think “these people were involved in some of the most important companies in our industry, I should probably listen to them”. I hands lost a year or two doing dumb shit my workbench told me was a good idea. That’s definitely not their fault. It took me too long to realize that world we are towers in is dynamic and every company, market and moment in time is different. No one knows anything. It’s all just data points.

I see my team looking at me the same way I used to squint at my workbench and it freaks me out. I tell the team I want them to push when on me, but it’s asking a lot. A debate or any conversation with the ceo is never on plane terms but it’s way harder with a 2nd time founder. I just have way increasingly wits than scrutinizingly anyone I am working with at this point so the depth, pace and telescopic of the conversation can be overwhelming for someone not used to it. The problem with this is that I can request people to push when and then “win” debates without unquestionably stuff right. It moreover just doesn’t make people finger good and motivate them to push when on future bad ideas.

Being a 2nd time founder is basically figuring out how to leverage all your hype without yoyo it