What I enjoy most about speaking with founders of early stage companies is the palpable enthusiasm they have for their vision and mission.
Sometimes it takes a little digging to uncover their passion when it has been buried by stress from the travails of running their business. As I ask probing questions to nudge them back to their root motivations, I can always tell the moment when they’ve rediscovered the spark; their whole energy shifts immediately as they begin sharing their founding story.
There was a time when I envied these founders and their brilliant ideas. Part of me always held out some hope that one day I would have a flash of inspiration for some game changing technology that would lead to me founding a startup. I read and researched, interviewing all the founders I encountered in my personal and professional life, to learn how founders came up with ideas. My goal was to crack some code that would allow me to have a stroke of genius.
Since then, I have extensively explored not just how an idea for a company is conceived, but also how it is developed and built upon with strategic analysis, born into the world with a go-to-market plan, and then nurtured and grown into a flourishing business.
From these experiences I have since come to learn that there is a particular type of person with a certain quality of energy that is more likely to innovate new ideas. While it is possible to train oneself to tap more into this energy over time, some people are just naturally inclined to come up with things that are new. I have also discovered that the ability to create new ideas is not necessarily correlated with effectively elaborating on the implications of those ideas, nor is it at all synonymous with a propensity for executing on them.
The biggest lesson for me in all of this is the realization that my own strengths are better utilized in supporting founders than in being a founder. While I have not come up with an idea for a startup, I bring complementary skills to help founders translate their ideas into go-to-market strategies and action plans to bring their vision to life.
The other key learning from this has been the implications for how a founder can best identify the right partners to join them during different stages of their growth journey. The longer, shorter way to internalize these learnings begins with founders spending time assessing their own innate strengths. From that self-knowledge, they can then identify which areas they need support in to bring their vision into reality and when and how to partner with others to get that support.
Understanding the process of innovation, from idea to solution
Whenever we have a new idea, there is a distinctive flash of insight - an “ah-ha” moment - that precedes our full understanding of the innovation. Before we think through it further, we can see the idea in its entirety in our mind’s eye, seeing that it is a novel concept without yet knowing what it is or how it may even be relevant or practical.
The totality of whatever ends up resulting from the idea can be traced back to that original, seminal point. It is the beginning of something and all of its potential, even if it is not yet clear what that will be. Once the idea has been given existence, it can now be questioned and analyzed, either by the innovator themself or in collaboration with others.
Fleshing out the original formless point of the idea requires that the openness of innovative energy give way to the focus of analytical energy. Doing this requires leveraging a different faculty of the mind, giving dimension to the idea by exploring the breadth of its ramifications and the depths of its implications. This is where the “yes, and” that is helpful for brainstorming needs to shift to the “no, but” of considering practical implications and when questions of “what if” should start to transition to “how will?”
While channeling innovation energy requires expansiveness and freedom to explore, analytical energy is accessed through pointed questions that compare, contrast, and define. These questions necessarily introduce tension between the idea as it exists in a vacuum and as it could exist in the context of the real world. Scrutinizing and probing chisel and chip away at the undifferentiated possibilities of the idea, sculpting it into something tangible. They take an awesome product concept and ground it into a business model.
We all have access to both of these faculties. In some cases, the originator of the idea is also able to flesh it out fully in their own mind. Some people are more adept at channeling either innovative or analytical energy, and in most cases these people can collaborate to create and expound on ideas together. Once one person creates the seed of an idea, it can then find fertile ground in a collaborative discussion that grows it into all the branches and the eventual fruit it will bear.
Then, once the idea has been discovered and fully analyzed, it needs to be actually applied. This too is a unique skill; certain individuals excel at practical implementation and channeling the energy of execution. Again, we all have some degree of capability in innovating, analyzing, and executing, and we all have a unique combination of these distinct talents.
Some people come up with great ideas and need help to think through them before they can run with them. Other people are experts at analysis and strategic thinking yet are at a loss when they are responsible for rolling up their sleeves and executing. All three skills are required to bring an idea into action, whether it is one, a few, or many people working together through this process.
Innovating together: the importance of translating ideas into strategies and strategies to plans
In addition to the different faculties of innovation, analysis, and execution, there is a unique energy of translation that facilitates the flow of an idea between these stages of development or between people innovating together.
This translational energy serves as a conduit between ideas and strategies or strategies and execution plans. As a connecting function, it must necessarily have some anchoring into each of the two levels that it is bridging.
Individuals who excel at being a sounding board or a thought partner have to be able to tap into their creativity and their analytical skills, even if neither alone is their particular forte. Similarly, people who have a knack for turning strategic direction into tactical action must relate to both the analytical thinking behind the strategy and the execution of that strategy.
When people are working together to develop and execute on an idea, success often depends on the presence of someone who is skilled in translating between them. In addition to resonating with each of the faculties they are connecting, those who are capable of making this translation must also form an organic connection between the people that are collaborating. This melding of minds is an intimate activity.
Facilitating the flow of different and even opposite energies between people works best when everyone involved feels engaged, safe, and heard. Effective wielders of translational energy tend to be strong communicators with a high degree of emotional intelligence. In this way they can modulate and mediate, preventing analytical minds from overwhelming creative minds with premature scrutiny that can snuff out the flame of an idea. They are adept at harmonizing between the different people themselves and their unique strengths, maintaining balance through careful facilitation and orchestration.
When building a team, it is essential to prioritize finding talent that can bring skills in translation to the group. Whether what is most needed is aptitude in connecting vision to strategy or analysis to planning, these people serve as the connective tissue that enables cohesion and synergy among a group. The effective use of translational energy is a key component of weaving a cohesive company narrative and sense of identity that unifies teams.
Whether you are a founder or not, I’d encourage spending some time reflecting on which of these capabilities you identify with most in your work. In particular, think about the translational points - if you are creative, are you also someone who can fully flesh out ideas on your own or do you do your best brainstorming with a thought partner? If you are adept at analysis and strategic thinking, are you also proficient at turning that strategy into action or do you work best when partnering with a project manager who can get more into the weeds?
Similarly, think about the situations when you are more or less able to tap into your unique skills and talents. Maybe you access innovative energy through quiet contemplation, or perhaps you have your best ideas as part of an animated discussion or debate.
Through an honest assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses, we can all learn how to build or join more optimal teams and to more effectively delineate responsibilities and collaborate together as part of those teams.
Finding partners to help translate a vision into a go to market strategy (Seed Stage)
Let’s assume that the founder or multiple co-founders are the people at the company with the greatest potential for coming up with new ideas and creating a vision for the company. As that core team looks to grow, it becomes critical to identify which areas they need support with and whether those needs are temporary or will be more pervasive.
One of the first areas founders might need help with is in the essential work of developing an initial go-to-market strategy. Often, founders may make the mistake of conflating their talent for innovation with skills in developing a strategy. Having a sense of a product or service and its features and benefits is not a strategy, and founders in this situation should be encouraged to delve into their ideal customer profile, competitive differentiation, messaging, packaging and pricing, building a sales process, etc.
Other founders may recognize that go-to-market strategy is not an innate strength of theirs and then assume that this means they need to make an early executive hire and delegate this work to them. This can potentially be a solution if the executive is particularly attuned to the founder and their vision and brings the necessary skills to draw out that vision and develop it into a strategic plan. What often ends up happening instead is that a founder hires a head of sales with experience selling a similar product or service, confusing a past track record of translating strategy to action with the needed skills of translating vision to strategy.
As I was speaking with founders and their investors in shaping my own business strategy, I kept hearing variations of the same story where a first sales hire did not work out well. The story usually went something like this: a founder would hire a CRO or VP of Sales before they had established product-market-sales fit, that person would hire a few salespeople under them, and then in twelve or eighteen months they’d fire the executive and their team, setting themselves back another six to twelve months while they scrambled to rebuild, doing serious damage to company culture in the process.
When debriefing on why this was such a common theme for early-stage companies, the core reason for all of them was making the senior hire too early. Typically, the reason the founder was initially impressed by the salesperson was because of their resume in a particular industry vertical or with a certain sales process, but the founder had not yet validated whether that was the right industry or sales process for their company. They were prioritizing people with skills executing on a defined strategy when what they needed were people with skills building, validating, and refining a strategy.
Other founders may be proficient in thinking about the strategic implications of their ideas and recognize the importance of not committing too early to internal hires with specific backgrounds. This type of founder may seek consultants to help them build their strategy or to gather inputs (e.g. conducting an opportunity assessment or competitive landscape analysis) to develop a strategy. They may also decide it makes sense to invest early in a strategy and analytics hire to bring in-house (who probably has a consulting background) given the anticipated ongoing need for this kind of support.
In either case, I would encourage founders to remember that it is their vision that needs to be developed into a strategy. Involving other people in this work, whether internal or external, requires the translational energy of connecting their idea to a go-to-market strategy. That energy can come from the founder - perhaps they have experience working with consultants or are naturally adept at briefing and onboarding others to work on their ideas. It can also come from the other party, though I tend to be skeptical of consultants who bake a “two-week immersion period” into their proposals, assuming that is sufficient to build the bridge needed between the founder’s ideas and the analytical thinking required to formulate a strategy.
The nature of translation energy, in that it builds connections, is personal. To form an effective partnership with someone else in translating vision to strategy, there needs to be an organic connection between the founder and the other party. Whether a consultant or coach has specific experience with a given industry does not necessarily indicate whether they will be successful in working with a particular founder.
A genuine relationship is critical so that the coach or consultant can get to know the founder and how they think, helping to pull that out of them to give it form and dimension. There must be chemistry between the founder and the other person to make this collaboration flow. To form a true partnership here, neither party would ideally have to sell the other on working together, it should feel right intuitively.
Finding partners to test, validate, and refine a go to market strategy (Seed to Series A)
The first iteration of a go-to-market strategy should not be confused with a growth strategy for scaling. The pivotal point between these is finding product-market-sales fit, and there will likely be some major refinements until that milestone is achieved.
If a founder delayed hiring their first sales or marketing executive until they made an initial go-to -market strategy, they may be tempted to do so once it is time to start testing that strategy in the market. Without the validation that they have identified the right market positioning and sales motion, in most cases this would still be premature.
Alternatively, a founder may keep some control of early sales and seek to outsource aspects of it by bringing in contractors to do lead generation or to actually speak with prospective clients. In my experience, having an external agency represent your brand in prospect conversations is not ideal. More importantly, having an outside person between the founder and the market prevents the founder from getting the critical feedback needed to iterate and refine their product and sales strategies. Ideally, the founder should be doing the go-to-market sales themselves.
When a founder has resistance to making founder-led sales their priority at this stage, there tends to be two reasons why.
Reason #1: The founder is uncomfortable selling.
The first is that the founder is uncomfortable with the idea of doing outreach, speaking to prospective clients, and negotiating deals. They may never have sold anything before, or they may harbor resistance to the idea of being “a salesperson,” given whatever connotation or preconceptions that mantle may evoke. In my experience, with personalized coaching most founders make great salespeople because of their passion for their offering and the fearlessness they have already exhibited by starting a company.
There are so many resources available to help with founder-led sales, and a founder who is open to coaching should take the time to find the right fit for them. Again, this is a relationship where a genuine connection is critical to the flow of information and insight needed for success. Instead of defaulting to someone affiliated with their investors or using a coach that some other founder they know used in the past, founders should invest in running a process to find a sales coach who is the best fit for them.
Reason #2: The founder does not have the bandwidth.
The other reason that a founder may not spend the required time to discover product-market-sales fit is because they have too many competing priorities. Whichever founder has the strongest propensity for running the commercial strategy and sales process should be spending the vast majority of their time doing this critical function. To free up their time, they should either (i) identify ways to bring in the right partners and delegate other work or (ii) make some tough trade-offs to prioritize sales.
(i) Often, founders who are too busy to devote themselves to selling are holding on to too many responsibilities. Investing in bringing on early partners that they can trust can return massive dividends if done correctly. Bringing on a Chief of Staff and/or an Executive Assistant can open up significant bandwidth, while also training and growing people to fill future leadership or management roles. Hiring a generalist to take over human resources, employee experience, recruiting, and office management is an incredibly effective delegation strategy. Partnering with a strong operator who can establish KPIs, build processes, and manage finances can make a lot of sense if it is the right person at the right level.
In general, a founder doing founder-led sales is usually best advised to complement their strengths with generalists that can adapt and pivot their role with an evolving strategy. When interviewing, expertise and experience is usually less important at this stage of growth than flexibility and a willingness to experiment and learn. Founders should consider their own working styles and strengths and identify the type of creative, analytical, or execution energy they need on their team and run interview processes geared towards finding the right fit.
(ii) If a founder does not have the resources to make any hires, they should still be prioritizing selling. As Elton John famously sang, “there’s more to do than can ever be done,” and finding product-market-sales fit is usually the most valuable activity that a founder can be doing with their time, even if it means saying “no” to other activities.
Finding partners to execute and scale a growth plan (Series A to Series B)
Once a founder has discovered a repeatable and scalable sales process, then it is time to start growing a team that can take over and refine it.
Before doing so, I have found it to be incredibly beneficial for the founder to document their learnings and build a playbook around their sales process before they start to hire. Not only does this accelerate onboarding for whoever is eventually hired, these documents can be incorporated into the interview process. By sharing the insights that led to the development of a particular sales function and identifying areas where additional clarity or work is still needed, founders can gather feedback from applicants tailored to these specifics. From a practical time saving standpoint, providing applicants this information also prevents the need for answering the same questions or providing the same summary with every candidate.
Whether to hire a sales executive or salespeople that report to the founder depends on the particulars of the sales cycle and the company’s growth goals [link.] Many founders at this point look to hire a “player / coach,” who can both sell and hire and grow a team eventually. Whether this is needed again depends on the specific situation, there is no one size fits all hiring and team building framework that always works for everyone.
If the goal is to build a team in the next year, it makes sense to hire someone who can hire and train salespeople while also serving the critical function of connecting them back to the vision of the company through their partnership with the founder. Whereas if the company is not yet ready for that kind of growth and one or two salespeople can drive the needed expansion, it may make more sense to hire people to exclusively focus on doing sales while the founder directly connects them to the company vision. Founders should take the time to assess what is needed, both of themselves and from any hires, and accordingly prioritize finding partners that bring the right combination of skills in connecting vision to strategy or strategy to action.
When hiring for marketing roles, it is paradoxically more important for early stage companies to prioritize translational energies over execution energy because this will allow them to better leverage contractors for expanded reach.
Depending on the founder and the other hires they may have made so far, they should assess whether they need help connecting the vision and mission to specific marketing strategies or whether they need skills in connecting strategies to tactical action plans. Perhaps the founder, with help from a Chief of Staff or coaches or consultants they work with, can build a companion “marketing playbook” to their sales process documentation in which they detail positioning, segmentation, messaging, etc. If not, then it makes sense to hire a more senior level marketing executive to do this foundational work.
In both cases, what’s really needed at this stage of growth is someone to take the marketing strategy and facilitate its being brought down to the level of action. The right hiring profile for this role is someone who has experience with marketing execution and who also excels at understanding, internalizing, and communicating how a strategy should shape action plans. Early stage companies can get far more leverage and mitigate risk by leveraging contractors and agencies to be the “hands” of their marketing efforts - managing SEO, digital ad campaigns, web design, etc. In order to do this effectively, the “brain” needs to be in-house so that they can connect the work of these agencies and contractors back to the company’s overall vision, identity, and goals.
Skill in channeling this translational energy can be directly evaluated in an interview process. The way to find a product marketer or growth marketer (or a rockstar who can do both) who excels at translating marketing strategy into directives for contractors is to ask them to write a creative brief. Aside from asking questions about past experiences working with agencies and contractors, an assignment asking them to write a brief for a campaign or project can demonstrate whether they can drive impact through managing a stable of external partners.
The importance of translational energy at every stage of growth
As companies grow, they tend to realize the need for people in roles that facilitate translation and connection between teams. Even before making full-time hires in these roles, carving out time from one or multiple people’s responsibilities to care for translational energy can benefit a company at any stage of growth.
The work of these translational energies can be seen in knowledge management and training programs, in internal communications, and in cross-functional process building. We all value the internal subject matter expert with a deep understanding of the mission of a company or the ins and outs of how it works, yet we often deprioritize the need to transition that insight out of someone’s head and into a communally accessible format.
Bringing the tacit knowledge of the few to the explicit knowledge of the rest of the company builds a shared vocabulary and understanding of a company’s current situation, how they got there, and a roadmap of where they’re trying to go next.
Pitch decks and board meeting slides that get repurposed for all-hands presentations do not sufficiently bring the vision of an innovative company from the abstract into the practical for the majority of employees. Usually, after being made quickly in response to a request or investor need, these decks are left on a virtual shelf where they quickly become outdated or are never even seen.
Allocating some time to turning these dry analyses into living brand artifacts (e.g. personas, posters, videos, and knowledge sharing sessions, etc.) that facilitate the translation of analysis and strategy into storytelling can tie each person’s day to day work back to the company vision. Whether it is the founder themself, another team member, or an external partner, the connections created from these activities are well worth the time investment required.
The Tiferet Approach
In the Jewish mystical tradition, the energy that connects and integrates is called tiferet.
I decided to name my coaching and consulting practice Tiferet not only because of how this influences my approach, but also in recognition of my greatest strengths. I do my best work when I partner with founders to help them develop their ideas into a go-to-market strategy and then translate that strategy into action.
This is also why the growth partnerships I have with clients include both coaching and consulting - both are necessary elements to driving successful outcomes. At some points in our relationship, it is my job to challenge and push the founder to recognize their unique gifts and how to use them most effectively. In those moments, what is needed most from me is to help the founder reconnect to their vision and to anchor into that context as the framing through which to make decisions.
At other times, a founder may need me to be a sounding board to help pressure test ideas or to brainstorm approaches. They may want my input on a presentation they are creating or for me to review a detailed analysis. Sometimes what’s most helpful is for me to synthesize multiple viewpoints to facilitate the flow of ideas from the founder to their team.
Tiferet is able to connect distinct and even conflicting energies by contextualizing them in light of something greater. In my work, I help founders uncover that context for themselves and then I serve as a bridge where needed to connect different parts of the company back to it.