Building the rocket

When you have a new idea as a founder which you think will work, especially as a first time founder, it’s very tempting to try and get as many good people involved in building the rocket. I have been guilty of this for SplitHire. It’s a risky business because you risk damaging friendships by getting them involved in a demanding way.

It is really difficult to be at the centre managing your relationships. I’m lucky - I have friends and family who will support me no matter what, they want to see me succeed in what I do. They haven’t invested any money, they don’t have any equity, they just think - Jason is a good guy and I want him to succeed. Many of which are contributing their time in ways they can manage for nothing in return. You then have your critics, many of which I enjoyed learning from at our launch, who say it won’t work. You also have your ex-colleagues, many of whom are incredible cheerleaders. I’ll call one out in particular, Jordan, who is SO incredibly wise that she teaches me something new pretty much every day at this point.

I wouldn’t be trying to start a ‘tech for good’ company from a laptop in our spare bedroom if I wasn’t aware of the risks. I’m well aware we might not even get this rocket off the ground, especially if we stick to not being funded via investment. If we get to a point that the offers of investment are going up and that I’m going to have to start making decisions about whether or not to accept it, it’s going to be really hard. I’m aware the rocket might blow up in my face before it even launches, if we’re lucky enough to launch it. For context - I still consider us pre-launch as we’re spending the first year understanding our customer’s needs as much as possible.

To even have the audacity of calling what we’re doing a rocket at this stage in the title is a stretch, I only did it so that you’d hear me out.

This is almost equal parts company and self-reflection, I’m asking myself:

1) Am I competent enough to be the founder of a company?

2) Does the market really want something like this, which benefits candidates further than giving them a job?

3) Are my values inline with those held by others?

And many more questions that you end up doing something this disruptive. Nothing I was doing on LinkedIn (which I really don’t like using anyway) was helping me move forward in my career. So I just started relentlessly being myself, ignoring the rules, and trying to be better in everything I do.

“Opinions subject to change through education” - Someone clever. If you know who said that let me know. I genuinely don’t know but it stuck with me.