Designed jeopardy in startup programs.

"In fact, the most interesting aspect of evolution is that it only works because of its antifragility; it is in love with stressors, randomness, uncertainty, and disorder." Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The universe doesn't want a new startup to exist and will work against it at every turn. There is no place for it and the world hasn't made room for it in the minds of customers and the supply chains that will feed it.

This is why building startup is one of the riskiest endeavours a person might attempt and an 'unreasonable belief' in its need to exist is the first currency which needs to begin accumulation in the resource treasury of any new company.

This is also why the last thing a startup creation program should do is design for comfort - it must design for jeopardy. Something real has to be on the line.

I've talked before about "The Eye of the Tiger" that founders acquire when they work through catastrophe to become the more resilient version of their former selves. This applies to teams as well. When teams work through a real challenge to land on the other side, they feel inspired, proud of their collective ability to achieve something difficult.

These aren't nice-to-have attributes in a team. They are necessary.

In risk work like ours, we must face risks head on, but do so in a controlled environment. We can't avoid them, and the last thing we should do is delay insights by avoiding the moments where we might fail a test. In that failure is a transformation and a readiness for what comes next.

Here's what deferring risk sounds like:

🗣️ "I need to do another 2 years in the lab before speaking to customers."

🗣️ "I need to operate in stealth mode otherwise someone will steal my IP"

🗣️ "I need to work on this in my spare time because I'm not sure that it is safe to leave my day job yet."

A startup program should design in:

🔅 Career Risk: have at least one person that is all-in. No hedging.

🔅 Time Risk: create burning platforms with portals to 'safety' on the other side

🔅 Utility Risk: expose the idea to people who will explain what doesn't work for them

Increase capital as the risk of complete failure is decreased and as capacity to take on risk and to manage it increases.

Build the resilience muscle in the people and company, before the risk is turned up to full volume.

It is tempting to give a company 'everything they need' at the start to build strength. Tragically, this normally does the opposite.

p.s. experienced founders do this to themselves.

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I'm a Partner at Main Sequence, a VC purpose-built to create global companies from scientific ideas with the inventors who imagine them. I build-out-loud here: https://philmorle.substack.com