FROM Elon Musk’s supreme confidence to Jeff Bezos’ ability to make smart decisions under pressure, some of the most successful entrepreneurs are known for their distinctive personalities. But these traits aren’t just interesting side notes to these founders’ stories: confidence and calmness, along with other qualities such as a love of adventure, can have a big impact on startup success.
A startup is typically counted as a “success” if it’s acquired by another company or goes public (that is, its shares become available to trade on a stock exchange). And common investor wisdom attributes this to either supply side (novel products) or demand side (market interest or “hot sectors”) factors.
Of course, many other elements are associated with startup success. There’s a “Goldilocks age” for startups, for example, with those younger than seven years old less likely to be successful because they haven’t had enough time to develop. Startups based in hot spots like San Francisco, Berlin or London are also more likely to succeed due to better access to finance and talent.
While our new research shows all these elements are important, it reveals that the personalities of founders are actually the most influential factor in startup success.
Our multidisciplinary team from the University of New South Wales, the University of Oxford, University of Technology Sydney and the University of Melbourne embarked on a two-year mission to unravel the mysteries behind startup success. We tapped into detailed data on more than 21,000 global startups to discern patterns that might predict a venture’s triumph or downfall.
Using AI algorithms, we applied the “five-factor” model – a psychology theory that divides personality into five main groups – to analyse startup founders worldwide. After comparing data on thousands of successful founders to information about employees, we discovered that entrepreneurs exhibit very different combinations of personality traits to everyone else.
Entrepreneurs tend to have a penchant for variety and novelty. They often have a desire to be the centre of attention and an inherent exuberance. While these traits might sound generic, in the business world they translate into risk-taking, networking and relentless energy – critical ingredients for startup success.
Based on our findings, we have identified six distinct founder personality types: leader, accomplisher, operator, developer, fighter and engineer. Each type has its own combination of subtle personality traits, for example, operators value orderliness and fighters are emotionally sensitive.
Founder personality traits
Many of these personality types are thriving in the real-life startup world. Take, for instance, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. He left Harvard to chase what was then a risky dream. This epitomises “openness to adventure”, which we found was a characteristic of the “leader” personality type.
This theme of defying the odds coupled with seemingly limitless energy resonates with many founder stories.
Melanie Perkins, a co-founder of $26 billion graphic design software company Canva, faced over 100 rejections from investors before securing the venture capital funding needed to build the platform. She has described herself as “determined, stubborn and adventurous” – also traits of the “leader” founder type.
Jeff Bezos is a well-known “acccomplisher”. He left his secure position at a New York hedge fund to found Amazon from Seattle. This wasn’t an impulsive move, it was a strategic choice. Bezos saw Seattle as the best place for a national distribution hub because it would benefit from Washington state’s specific tax laws. Such meticulous planning and long-term vision has characterised some of Amazon’s other achievements, including the development of Amazon Web Services, a global cloud computing leader.
And, of course, no discussion of start-up personalities would be complete without Tesla and Space-X founder Elon Musk. This “engineer’s” many business interests are driven by boundless imagination, as well as intellect. You can see this in SpaceX’s audacious goal to colonise Mars and Tesla’s futuristic Cybertruck design, as well as Musk’s underground transportation system Hyperloop.
Founders are wired differently
Our model also indicated that startups with a diverse blend of these founder personality types are 8 to 10 times more likely to be successful.
Canva’s three co-founders are a great example of this. Ex-Googler Cameron Adams’s technical intellect and imagination has combined with Cliff Obrecht’s assertive dealmaking and Perkins’ energy, trustworthiness and adventurousness to create a tech juggernaut.
Even if you’re not gearing up to launch or invest in the next big startup, personality offers a fascinating lens through which to view the start-up world and its most talked-about figures. And these findings are likely to hold in other settings too: team performance is shaped by the right combination of different personalities.
Behind every successful startup, there’s more than just a groundbreaking product or a burgeoning market, there’s a dynamic founder – or founders – with a personality that’s the secret to startup success.
This article by Fabian Braesemann, Departmental Research Lecturer in AI & Work at University of Oxford, Paul X. McCarthy, Adjunct Professor and Industry Fellow at UNSW Sydney and Peggy Kern Associate Professor, Centre for Positive Psychology at The University of Melbourne is republished from The Conversation via Reuters Connect.
Reuters
Fri Sep 22 2023
Successful start-up founders Elon Musk is known for his confidence. - INSTAGRAM
Faizal Azumu nafi kenyataan tular isu calon PM
Bersatu menafikan kenyataan yang tular berhubung isu melibatkan perbincangan calon Perdana Menteri pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-16 (PRU16).
RM7 juta diperuntukkan naik taraf 38 tamu desa di Sabah - Ewon
Sebanyak RM7 juta diperuntukkan bagi menaik taraf 38 tapak tamu desa yang telah dikenal pasti di seluruh Sabah
KKDW peruntuk RM290 juta setahun untuk luar bandar Sabah
Peruntukan RM290 juta KKDW untuk kemudahan luar bandar Sabah adalah peruntukan tahunan kementerian itu bagi membantu penduiduk negeri itu.
Saya kehilangan sahabat baik - TPM Fadillah
Menyifatkan mendiang sebagai sahabat baik sejak sekian lama, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof berkata Mutang adalah pemimpin Sarawak yang banyak memberi sumbangan sepanjang bergelar Ahli Parlimen Bukit Mas dari 1982 hingga 1990 dan banyak menyatukan Orang Ulu
Mutang akan terus diingati sebagai pemimpin hebat - Premier
Mutang akan terus diingati sebagai pemimpin hebat - Premier
Mutang miliki prinsip ke arah reformasi Parlimen - PM
Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim menyifatkan negara kehilangan individu yang sangat serius dalam usaha reformasi Parlimen dengan pemergian Yang Dipertua Dewan Negara mendiang Senator Datuk Mutang Tagal .
Gerawat Gala sebak kehilangan teman sejati
Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Premier Sarawak Datuk Gerawat Gala tmenyifatkan Datuk Mutang Tagal yang dikenalinya sejak zaman persekolahan lagi.
Majlis penghormatan terakhir untuk Mutang pada Ahad
Jasad Datuk Mutang Tagal dijangka tiba di Miri pada jam 10.30 pagi Ahad dan akan terus dibawa ke Gereja Bem Jalan Airport untuk upacara penghormatan terakhir.
Majlis Tilawah dan Hafazan Al-Quran manifestasi komitmen kerajaan martabat agama Islam
Penganjuran Majlis Tilawah dan Hafazan Al-Quran Peringkat Kebangsaan 1445 Hijrah/2024 Masihi lambang manifestasi komitmen kerajaan memastikan syiar Islam terus dipertahan.
Lima kenderaan rosak ditimpa pokok tumbang
Tiada kemalangan jiwa atau kecederaan, hanya lima kenderaan rosak akibat ditimpa pokok berkenaan selain pagar bangunan itu turut rosak.
Tesla mula jual robot Optimus menjelang akhir tahun depan - Elon Musk
Beberapa syarikat telah mempertaruhkan robot humanoid untuk penuhi potensi kekurangan tenaga kerja dan melaksanakan tugas berulang.
Elon Musk mungkin kenakan caj untuk pengguna X baharu, sebelum boleh lakukan perkongsian
Ia dikatakan mungkin adalah satu-satunya cara mengatasi masalah bot spam, apatah lagi dengan pelbagai kebolehan teknologi AI.
Lebih 10 peratus pekerja Tesla di seluruh dunia diberhentikan
Tesla memberhentikan lebih 10 peratus tenaga kerja globalnya akibat penurunan jualan dan perang harga yang meningkat untuk kenderaan elektrik (EV).
X akan buang ciri sorok calit biru
X mula beri notifikasi bahawa ciri menyorokkan calit ini akan dihentikan dalam masa terdekat. Ia muncul dalam tetapan pelanggan X Premium.
Elon Musk sasar pengenalan Tesla Robotaxi pada 8 Ogos
Musk berkongsi mengenainya selepas Reuters melaporkan Tesla membatalkan pembangunan kereta mampu milik mereka disebabkan persaingan bersama syarikat pengeluar lain.
Di tangga ketiga manusia paling kaya dunia, Zuckerberg kini atasi Musk
Mark Zuckerberg mempunyai nilai kekayaan mencapai $187 bilion, mengatasi Elon Musk dengan nilai kekayaan $181 bilion.
Berita antarabangsa pilihan sepanjang hari ini
Antara pelbagai berita luar negara yang disiarkan di Astro AWANI, berikut adalah yang paling menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari ini.
X akan tawar ciri premium percuma jika ada lebih 2,500 pengikut disahkan
ELON Musk memaklumkan perubahan pada penawaran ciri-ciri X kepada semua akaun.
Lelaki lumpuh guna implan otak kawal komputer dengan fikiran
Seorang lelaki yang keempat-empat anggota tubuhnya menjadi lumpuh mampu mengawal komputer hanya menggunakan fikirannya.
Musk pertahan diri ambil dadah
ELON Musk menganggap penggunaan dadah oleh dirinya sendiri memberi manfaat kepada pelabur Tesla dalam satu temu bual disiarkan pada Isnin.