I was having coffee the other day with an entrepreneur I admire who has recently come to the realization that, as he put it, he’s “a 0 to 1 guy not a 1 to 10 guy.”
I, too, use this expression a lot to describe people. It has even become a bit of a cliché in some circles since the release of Peter Thiel’s book of the same title, but there’s an important point in this anecdote. This entrepreneur had already built up his company from creation to product, to product-market-fit, and now into a steadily growing base of recurring revenue in the millions. I had invested at this startup’s Seed stage, and the company subsequently raised a Series A financing round. Now with the scaling levers clear, this founder faced an opportunity to raise a substantial Series B round to fuel further growth, and was already receiving unsolicited inbound interest from new VCs.
But something was holding him back. He admitted to me that after almost a year of painful soul-searching, he finally realized that his true passion lie more in creating companies, generating something from nothing, rather than scaling businesses with a proven model. To spell it out: he preferred taking a project from “0” (the idea stage) to “1” (the manifestation of the idea with product and market validation). The 0 to 1 phase involves inventing something new, testing hypotheses, taking contrarian bets, soliciting market feedback, and developing products which address a validated market need.
The subsequent phase of a business, i.e. going from 1 to 10, requires attention to a different set of tasks. Its success relies more heavily on activities such as client management, business development, recruiting, implementation of processes and controls, automation, distribution, partnerships, and m&a. It requires a different set of skills, but more importantly, a different set of interests.
This entrepreneur confessed that once he gained the self-awareness from acknowledging to himself which phase of the business he preferred, he felt liberated. Everything else clicked into place.
I’ve come across my share of entrepreneurs who struggle to make such an acknowledgment; I’ve even been in this situation myself. The challenge is that entrepreneurs pride themselves in being able to do everything. Acknowledging that you excel at creating companies but are less capable of scaling them feels like admitting a weakness.
The reality, however, is that acknowledging one’s limitations is not a sign of weakness. I would submit that most entrepreneurs, who by nature possess a high degree of determination, could become adept at scaling companies too if they enjoy doing that. Sheer dedication and repetition alone could be enough, provided that the entrepreneur actually takes an interest in it.
By re-framing the question from, ‘Is there anything I cannot do?’ to ‘I could do anything but what would I like to do most?’, the choice becomes far less daunting.
Reaching such self-awareness not only unlocks the potential of your startup but will also liberate your soul.
