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Conversations with founders, engineers, investors building great products and companies. Hosted by @arish
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 4:55
How Startups Miss Out on the Unique Power of Introverts
They've never fully felt right because they've always been stretching themselves. This stretching is a strain on our mental health and can Warp our sense of self. But being at home in our own space is a reprieve for a lot of us. Quarantine means that many of us, especially those who have not worked from home before, are unable to separate public work life from our private home, which is a challenge on its own
Wonderful sharing this. It's funny because everybody thinks I'm an extrovert, but I have a whole nother side of me that's introverted that nobody gets to see. Actually, everybody assumes. So I feel and understand that. And I asked an educator as a facilitator, as somebody who loves to build containers
In a startup, every person has to kind of not just carry their own kind of load but share the load of so many other people. So people who can get stuff done and I can deliver and really execute and are good at what they do tend to shine and grow fast in a startup rather than people who are all kind of bluster and talk and can't back it up with the goods if you will. Right. So I think my experience has been slightly different from that
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:53
When you're getting to that next level and you're first starting to try to fundraise for your own startup or idea, do you feel as though you need to go in that space with a certain kind of extroverted, big sort of confidence, or is it still possible in these initial negotiations and when you're trying to secure VC to come at it in a different way, that is still confident. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Yeah
Hey, Bobby, to answer your question, I'll put on my other hat as an angel investor when I'm sitting on the other side of the table, and when founders come and talk to me and are pitching their stories and what they are trying to do, the thing that I look for is passion and passion doesn't require you to be an extrovert or an introvert
When I have met majority of VCs, their intentions are good, but they put their money in bad ideas, and we have some really smart, talented people. There are some incredibly brilliant people who are doing great work on the grounds, grassroots, but they never get money. I've been involved in projects. I've been involved in projects that couldn't get funding for the life of it that were actually super working, doing great stuff. It was awesome. But VCs just got in the way
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:26
Your comment was also a reminder to me of when we're looking for partners and all things in life, it's really important to have similar values that go beyond introversion or extraversion and more. Finding partners that value the same kind of work ethic see the same potential in certain ideas and also are willing to take risks and learn from failures and successes along the way. And that goes well beyond disposition or personality type in finding those partners. So thank you for this response
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:51
For me, it would be very important in knowing that they have a holistic sense of how their idea or their business or what it is they're passionate about may impact others for better or for worse and what they're going to do to mitigate any negative impacts not only on other human beings but also the environment, various ecosystems, et cetera. And knowing that about myself and listening to your response gave me even more insight into I was just responding to ours talking about values