How to Be a Founder

August 1, 2022
“Tech entrepreneurship will become the dominant global ambition in the twenty-first century,” posit Bentinck and Clifford, cofounders of the tech investment company Entrepreneur First, in their debut, a zippy guide to start-up success. The current cultural image of a founder, they write, stops many from seeing themselves as one. But it’s “the ultimate career path for the world’s most ambitious people,” and the authors suggest that anyone “who has the right characteristics” and is ready for the “high-demand” position can do it. Readers are urged to understand their “edge”—their “specific, personal, competitive advantage”—which consists of one’s experience, skills, and behavior, and can be identified with a series of self-reflection questions including “Where have you worked? What did you learn about that industry that would have surprised an outsider?” As well, the authors offer an entrepreneurship 101, covering how to avoid start-up failure (running out of money “isn’t necessarily a death sentence”), how to manage a cofounder relationship (a legal agreement, like a marriage prenup, is key), and how to fund-raise (using stories and anecdotes to explain one’s company to investors works well). Punchy and encouraging, this is a dog-eared–worthy manual for taking the first steps out of the W2 world.