What Type Of Person Thrives In Early-Stage Startups, Says Mesh's Chief Of Staff
Caldwell, Mesh's Chief of Staff, highlights three key traits for success in early-stage startups: optimism in the face of "high risk, high reward" and constant challenges, a willingness to embrace uncertainty and make decisions with incomplete information ("I think this is right. I don't really know but we're gonna...do the best possible job"), and a proactive, "do the whole thing" mentality, accepting responsibility for all aspects of a project.
Optimism, Uncertainty Tolerance, Resilience, Self-Motivation, Resourcefulness
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Caldwell Clarke
Chief of Staff
Mesh
University of Maryland
UCLA Anderson School of Management - MBA
Engineering - Mechanical
Gaming, Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Optimism and resilience are crucial for navigating the challenges and uncertainties inherent in early-stage startups.
2. A willingness to embrace ambiguity and make decisions with incomplete information is vital.
3. The ability to handle a wide range of tasks and responsibilities independently is essential, as there may not be many others to share the workload with.
Transcript
Q8: Who thrives in industry?
How would you describe people who typically thrive in this industry? I think the folks that do really well in early-stage startups have a couple of things.
First, you have to be a bit of an optimist. You're taking on a high-risk, high-reward thing with tons of challenges. You're always under-resourced and will have to take on roles and tasks you never expected, maybe even things that aren't super interesting.
For example, I helped set up a bunch of legal contracts, and I have no legal background. You have to be optimistic about where the company is going and what you're doing to help grind through a lot of the tougher stuff.
The second piece is you really have to be someone who's willing to deal with uncertainty. This isn't a role where someone will just tell you the right answer and have you execute it.
You'll have to say, "I think this is right. I don't really know, but I'm going to do the best job I can of what I think is the right thing to do."
The third thing, which is kind of related, is that there's no one else really who can pick up your slack. So, you have to be willing to just do the whole thing.
If there's a piece of work I don't want to do, no one else will do it. If I want the project to move forward, I have to do the whole thing.
Yeah, I think those are probably the three biggest things.
Advizer Personal Links