10 Things Disruptive Founders do Better Than Anyone Else

1
10 Things Disruptive Founders do Better Than
Anyone Else
2

• In case you hadnt noticed, 7.6 billion people,
  and counting are going to need more disruptive
  businesses and there is no shortage of problems
  for founders to find, address and produce.
• What does it take?
• Imagination, persistence and integrity are vital,
  but the best founders I know possess a unique
  DNA. Looking back to my first meeting with each
  of them, they were clearly different. Ive tried
  to unpack the 10 defining elements. The je ne
  sais quoi of disruptive founders should not stay
  a mystery.

3

• Perhaps this article should serve as a
  self-awareness checklist for a first-time
  founder. It may motivate you to get past what is
  blocking you or encourage you to join a team. If
  your passion is there and you werent born to be
  a Founder, you may find you can nail it one day.
• Im often asked by people, what do think about
  this company, should I invest?Now thats a
  sucker bet, as if Im wrong, and say go for it
  and it crashes Im bound to be called an idiot.
  If it dominates and I say, perhaps not this
  one, and it wins big, well thats even worse. So
  why do I help people? More on that later.

4

• Unfortunately, there is no Entrepreneur by
  numbers book, magic bullet or even a course you
  can take that will make you a disruptive founder.
• What is true disruption? The impact must be felt
  by millions of people.
• Disruption might be best described as either
  creating a brand-new market, or a vastly more
  efficient process, distribution or logistics
  methodology to reach millions. But a better
  product alone is not disruptive, it must change
  the way the industry works, in fact it is a bit
  of a win lose situation.

5

• Is Tesla disrupting the car industry, or fossil
  fuels?
• Is Google disrupting advertising, distribution of
  information or libraries?
• Is Amazon disrupting books, the post man, retail
  or the entire workforce?
• Perhaps it is more about the way business is
  done, than the product. The word itself infers it
  changes behaviour of consumers. However, it is
  more than that, it changes the financial model
  for the participants in the industry.

6

• Radically impacting utility or enjoyment is not
  the threshold for being disruptive. It is not
  enough to be better, cheaper or faster it must be
  fundamental shift in behaviour and market
  position. Its the habits of the successful
  entrepreneurs that differentiates them from the
  rest.
• Here are the 10 attributes I have found in
  successful founders.

7

• 1. Competitive Mongrel.(as in fiercely
  competitive)
• Winning is addictive my Mum told me when I was
  10. The relentless comparisons between sport and
  business is a convenient way to remind us that if
  you want to be the best, be prepared to put in a
  herculean effort. Only then, can you create a
  market leading position. Its not where you have
  come from, but what you are willing to do to get
  there.Every successful founder I have worked
  with since 1999, has a unique blend of
  competitive mongrel, mixed with lashings of the
  other qualities, but for me, it starts with
  mongrel.

8

• Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer Limited, states
  the fact that an A Grade Team with a B grade
  idea will always beat a B grade team with an A
  Grade idea. Emphasis on the word beat.
• The first time I met Matt, in 2009, I was
  quizzing him on his game plan and he reminded me
  of a well drilled coach, who had prepared the
  game plan, and I knew he was going to win. Just
  quietly, he knew he would too.
• If you want to change the world, you are going to
  get some knockers. Australia is famous for its
  Tall Poppy syndrome. When Matt won Entrepreneur
  of the Year, the very next day he came to see me,
  with a copy of the BRW magazine which had
  emblazoned his picture.

9

• He wrote on it to me I couldnt have done it
  without you (yet). Nothing short of relentless
  effort will do. As competition heats up, the best
  double their efforts. Watch this space.
• Being competitive does not need to be a selfish
  trait. Helping the community and giving back is a
  common trait Matt and all disruptive Founders
  share, but this characteristic is not unique to
  disruptive founders.

10

• 2. They are obsessed with knowledge
• Perhaps obsession is not a strong enough word for
  disruptive founders in this category. Mitch
  Harper deeply understands the problem. Mitch has
  lived it, dreamt about it, and is obsessed with
  it. However, knowledge is not gained for
  consulting purposes but to execute his game plan.
• With this supreme knowledge, that only a few have
  obsessed over, a disruptive founder will
  enlighten their team, attain viral growth and
  sustain that velocity.

11

• They rarefy the group with their knowledge,
  whether on the art of hiring, managing cash like
  a well-oiled treasury and allocating resources to
  provide infinite optionality. Will they need to
  raise capital? No, they will be hunted down by
  VCs.
• Mitch Harper, Co-Founder of BigCommerce, one of
  Australias world class tech companies, exhibits
  this quality. I am lucky enough to see Mitch in
  action, and this guy knows his stuff.
• Mitch has gone on to launch a new company that
  implements the competitive advantage his
  obsession with knowledge has provided. In
  building yet another successful business, he has
  found a major problem and is now obsessed with
  this problem too.

12

• This desire to attack problems and obsession with
  detail, or as Mitch calls it, differentiation by
  design is straight out of the Harper playbook.
  Watch this space for yet another world class
  company.

13

• 3. Ruthless honesty
• Whilst I believe ethics are the new black, nice
  girls dont have to finish last.Founders who are
  caught making false promises, treating staff as
  expendable, or relying on gouging suppliers are
  destined to fail.
• It is the perception of value, rather than the
  scientific cost benefit analysis, that engages
  customers exponentially.
• Naomi Simson, founder of RedBalloon demonstrated
  ruthless honesty. The problem with offering
  experiences in a marketplace is the perception
  that customers must to be paying more if they buy
  via a middle man.

14

• Naomis clever solution was a fully transparent
  promise that vendors of experiences will not
  supply an experience to anybody cheaper than on
  the RedBalloonwebsite. Naomi told me she turned
  small businesses into bigger businesses allowing
  people to focus on their passions, and leave the
  marketing, back end etc to us. Pretty cool.
• The simplicity of treating customers as
  intelligent consumers worked wonders. I later
  celebrated with Naomi and some friends over a
  well-earned single malt, when she went on to
  share her knowledge on Shark Tank.

15

• 4. Curiositybetter again, they just work it out.
• The most common question I am by first time
  founders as a mentor is what should I focus on?
• Should I read blogs, books, go do a course, hang
  out at meet ups? My answer is you have to work
  it out! Whats the one thing that would make
  the biggest difference to your business or
  knowledge, in 90 days and just obsess about that
  and get it done.

16

• Most disruptive founders, know this already. He
  or she has already worked this out. If you dont
  already know this you are probably feeling the
  anxiety of the process. Go with what you feel.
  Go! Be Nike just do it
• Katherine Pace and Aimee Atkins from ELANATION
  ask questions of smarter people, and listen
  intently. The ladies spent months walking around
  talking to kids asking them impressions of their
  prototype. Kids are super honest. The feedback
  and research they obtained was worthy of a thesis
  on child psychology and behavioral sciences.

17

• If a kid stopped playing the game or approached
  it a different way, they learned to iterate by
  seeing it through their eyes. They worked it from
  every aspect of the industry including
  psychology, the best operators, parent forums,
  school interactions and policies with gaming.
• But they didnt stop there. They scrutinized
  global trends, pricing, and the type of investor
  who might like what their team was doing. Nothing
  was left to chance. I was lucky enough to mentor
  them and see them become amazing (by any
  standard) at pitching, launch their product and
  now scale Their products are now sold in 101
  stores across Australia and growing.

18

• Matt Dickinson, is a king of arbitrage. He
  recognises patterns, and has a black belt in
  research. He is expert at overlaying systems and
  data, has courage to burn and executes with
  precision.
• Matt is widely regarded as an amazing Growth
  Hacker. Matt has always been considered one of
  the best mentors in Startmate, and in fact helped
  get me started with my obsession with scaling
  companies upon joining Startmate too.

19

• 5. They back themselves
• Hardly surprisingly, when hiring, bootstrapping,
  raising or scaling, disruptive founders have an
  innate belief that they can nail the job at hand.
  A backward step is not an option, at least in any
  exchange.
• This should not be confused for arrogance, but in
  any situation, from asking someone on a date, to
  merging in peak hour traffic or anything tough,
  if you believe, people will fall in. Im not
  describing a pathological optimist here because
  the founder will also possess many or even all of
  the 10 characteristics to back up the confidence.

20

• In one meeting I organised for a new founder,
  Manuri Gunawardena of HealthMatch exhibited true
  grit. On that day, seven highly credentialed
  industry experts, including Private Equity
  Investors heard her pitch.
• Unfortunately, one of the attendees proceeded to
  tell the founder her silly little start-up had no
  chance, nor did she. He spent the next ten
  minutes cutting her down, explaining how she
  didnt understand the industry, the process, the
  costs involved and how she was simply wasting her
  time and everyone in the rooms too.

21

• Just as I said thats quite enough mate, he
  told me he was finished anyway. Having glanced at
  the founder to see if she was ok, she gave me a
  slight nod and added. I accept your points, but
  dont agree it cant be done.
• Then, in the same order of the 10 criticisms, she
  articulately recounted how she would deal with
  each of his insurmountable hurdles. In my view,
  she sat him on his backside.Needless to say, if
  I wasnt already an investor, that sealed the
  deal. Sure, this wasnt going to be easy, but a
  disruptive CEO won over some experts in the
  health sector that day.

22

• 6. They have gravitas and build culture
• Culture is often defined as what the business
  does, but its hard to create and maintain a
  great culture and many people simply give it lip
  service.Create a movement, not a job says Dean
  McEvoy, Founder of Spreets and now CEO of Tech
  Sydney. The culture he established in Spreets
  created a buzz in the office.Camaraderie and
  equity allocation was spot on. Next stop,
  hyper-growth and the rest was history. Doing
  something that will be change the world, disrupt
  an industry and create excitement in the business
  is a super power of disruptive founders.

23

• Overnight success is a myth. It is by
  establishing routines, recognising patterns (in
  multiple contexts), perpetual iteration and
  audacious tenacity that disruptive founders rise
  to the top.
• Not surprisingly, the members of the team Dean
  assembled have gone on to so many other
  successful companies. Deans next challenge
  reinvent how buildings are valued, produce a
  guaranteed income for a new restaurant.

24

• Enter Icon Park, the highest grossing crowd
  sourced restaurant and building in a new type of
  partnership. Enthusiasm is infectious and so is
  Dean. The challenge of the unknown, pushing
  yourself and having fun while you are doing it is
  winning formula.I love the mantra Ray Dalio
  mentions in his book Principles, Im motivated
  by doing meaningful work and creating meaningful
  relationships. Perhaps this best encapsulates
  the concept of culture, or at the least is a
  great blueprint for you to build your own.

25

• 7. They imagine a better world aka Vision
• The great John Lennon and Dr. Martin Luther King
  imagined or dreamt the world into a frenzy. Matt
  Barrie of Freelancer also nailed this
  category!Why should a person in San Francisco
  or Bucharest, Romania with identical skills, have
  a 10x difference in living standards? Matt asked
  me. why are they not able to feed their family,
  or commence a start up without a prohibitive
  financial hurdle, breach geographical access to
  markets? Matt demanded.

26

• In disruptive style, Freelancer listed on the
  Australian Stock Exchange, not NASDAQ.
  Reinvigorating Australia as a tech hub,
  attracting talent and slowing the exodus across
  the Pacific was also extremely out
  there.Freelancer Limited continues to empower a
  world without borders and safely settles
  transactions, managing cyber security risks with
  their business Escrow Inc.

27

• 8. They recognize their blind spots
• Access to information, fast, has never been
  better. Whether for the sake of excellence or a
  better use of the Founders time, this element is
  a must. Not believing your own B.S. is critical.
• Self-awareness of your blind spots takes courage
  and builds trust with your team. Its ok to not
  know everything. A mentor can often help here,
  but it starts with the truth. Obviously,
  recognizing the blind spots is the first step to
  a cure.

28

• I wont point to a founder here, but frankly no
  one is perfect. This category overlaps many of
  the others mentioned and is compensated
  abundantly by the ability to execute.I will
  mention myself in this category, and what I do.
  Its about strategy, or as I call it CEO as a
  Service or CaaS. I am typically talking to six
  founders a day and you get good at asking
  questions that unlock value.
• These blind spots can then be fixed. Common
  discussions include problems with a raise, the
  sizzle in a pitch deck, staff concerns (hiring,
  firing) or pricing.

29

• Other things that need to be addressed are the
  business model, signing up corporate partners,
  negotiation with VC and almost always plugging in
  my network. Its simply what I love to do. Living
  it, learning and sharing in equal doses with
  fellow mentors yep, Im obsessed.

30

• 9. They are a bit crazy, yep they are whacko.
• Ive heard Niki Scevak, Co -Founder of BlackBird
  Ventures, and co-Founder of Startmate, say dozens
  of times, I look for a founder thats a bit out
  there or crazy.No rational person wants
  attention for so many dysfunctional reasons. The
  suffering a founder endures is huge.

31

• Whilst in my experience, its almost become
  cool to be a Founder and a Start-up is the old
  I have a shell in public company parlance, its
  not for everyone. If you really want to change
  the world, take on the big corporates, expose
  your weaknesses, do more with less, surrender
  yourself to relentless days, weeks, months, hell
  years of torture and suffering you just might
  have what it takes.

32

• 10. They are system and process thinking devotees
  but they just get it too.
• Dr Matthew Cullen, Founding CEO of Tonic Health
  Media is a system or process thinker. The right
  task, done at the right time by the right person
  sounds simple in theory. At the outset of a new
  business, I have to do everything myself, says
  Cullen.Only once a task is done, the process can
  be mapped. If it critical to be part of the
  machine going forward, it can then be delegated.

33

• In the early phase of a business I hire assuming
  the person has the right skills and is a culture
  fit for an 18-month stint, if they can evolve,
  and they stay longer, thats a bonus. A common
  problem in early phase businesses is that
  founders fall in love with their product, they
  dont recognize that their role and indeed that
  of the CEO requires a different approach,
  personnel, mindset at a 1, 10, 100 and 1000
  employee companies.

34

• Cullen says its the same innovative and
  disruptive thinking but wrapped into a clear
  process and approach to implement the right
  activities and strategies at various stages or
  life cycle of the business. The way I work in the
  early days is very different as the business
  progresses from early to mid and late phase. A
  key dimension in all of this is working out where
  you add the most value and delegate progressively
  those areas where you add the least value.

35

• Dr Cullen was also Founder and CEO of McKesson
  Asia Pacific which was sold to Medibank Private
  in 2010 for 140 million. He built the company to
  a turnover of 75 million with 700 staff across
  Australia and New Zealand. It is often said that
  some people can start a company, but different
  skills are required to scale one.Process
  thinking with 18 month sprints. Quite simply,
  its something disruptive founders do better than
  anyone else. Meanwhile, I have observed Dr.
  Cullen treating his team with respect and all
  stakeholders with humility he executes double
  digit growth Year on year at Tonic Health Media.

36

• The Big Picture
• Whilst I dont know if entrepreneurs have
  different neural pathways, they dont always come
  from adversity. It isnt obvious, or easy to spot
  one at first. Perhaps the above 10 elements can
  be used as a ready reckoner/checklist or at least
  a starting point to seeing yourself as a
  disruptive founder.
• Is this you? Well get on with it.
• So, who am I?

37

• Create the future, is not coincidentally the
  name of my new blog. It is what excites me. My
  own disruptive journey of starting in an age-old
  business, accounting, was by accident, when I
  couldnt decide what to do after school. My
  stepfather (at the time) said, Chartered
  accountants will inherit the earth.
• I had no idea what this meant at 18, but know as
  a coach to entrepreneurs, I have found my
  calling. On day one, or perhaps a week into my
  career, I had decided pure accounting was not for
  me. I couldnt see myself adding up numbers and
  focusing on the minutia.

38

• Perhaps otherwise I would have never discovered
  the world of growing companies, CEOs, negotiating
  partnerships, developing talent and doing deals.
  Working with some of the smartest people who have
  inspired, taught and befriended me has been a
  blessing.If I havent mentioned you
  specifically, trust me, I have appreciated what
  you have taught me.
• So, whether you are a new founder, scaling or
  about to IPO, your growth as a person is the
  vanguard of the prosperity of your company and
  everyone in your life. The freedom this brings
  will fulfil you, give you more time for the
  things you love. You too can build a disruptive
  business.

39

• The world you envisage wont just happen, you
  have to create the future.
• If you would like some help, check out setup a
  time and we can have a chat. Ask us how our
  Virtual CFO services have helped many
  entrepreneurs learn how to set up a business goal
  and maximise growth.