my (ever) evolving thoughts on people and leading teams. shaped by my experiences as a 2x founder.

in may 2024, i will complete 8.5 years as a founder. add to that 5 years at zomato (i was the ~30th employee back in 2011 and then rejoined in 2018 to launch and lead zomato gold) → 13 years of being part of early stage teams and launching new products. over these years, my learnings, beliefs, and leadership styles have gone through a massive change. i recently moved to bombay where i don’t know too many people and hurt my back while working out, so i had lots of time to think deeply about my time as a founder and at startups. here are some thoughts on people and leading teams, shaped by my experiences, and in no particular order.

1. define your north star. being a founder is extremely tough, so why should you fight this battle? is it to change the world, is it to make money, is it to own your time? don’t let any tweet tell you what’s right and what’s wrong. it should work for you. ruthlessly prioritise yourself and don’t feel guilty about it. you know what’s tougher than being a founder? failing at it. so define your success and where you want to get.
2. defining success is super tough. we always want more. rajat gupta spoke about how he felt unsuccessful in a room full of billionaires (he was worth ~$100m). 15 years back if god had given me an option to take where i am today, i would have happily taken it. but today i want more. and talking about failing — in 2014 i was 27 years old and raised good $$ for my first startup from sequoia capital and other investors. i remember there were 3 companies that raised from sequoia around the same time . oyo, grofers (now blinkit) and us. i think about this a lot. oyo and blinkit are running a different race today and in all honesty on some days, my heart breaks to not be in that race. but then we are all running our own races and i am lucky to be where i am. and if i want to change orbits, only i can do that for myself. i am sure there will be many people who will be happy to run my race. that’s life.
3. the world sees outputs and judges you by that. no one cares about the input and frankly it doesn’t matter. when we talk about greats, we talk about their accomplishments and not how hard they worked. only you, your family, your coaches know the struggles. work hard on your inputs, keep sharpening it but don’t take too much pride in it. that will hold you back.
4. if anyone tells you that they don’t care about what the world thinks about them, they are probably lying. the world does not think of us, but we are always thinking about what the world thinks of us. another point that makes defining success + not changing goals posts super tough.
5. it’s ok to fall out of love of entrepreneurship / starting up. the startup keeda is overrated and it’s ok to take it easier and do whatever it is that you want to do. we don’t have to kill ourselves about it. i have so many founder friends who are just done and are a lot happier.
6. the best gift that you can give yourself — do not take yourself (and your ideas) too seriously. this will instantly make you more likeable plus life gets a lot easier.
7. the world is very random and there is no way we can really predict anything. 9/10 ideas won’t work and if there is one that does — chances are we would not have known that. don’t try to over engineer, or over protect the downsides. instead, focus on shipping fast, learning fast, spotting and optimising the upsides. upsides will make us win. covering risks or protecting the downsides will not move the needle.
8. as founders we suck at letting go / letting people be. we want to be involved in everything, want things our way. i understand we are obsessed, it’s part of our dna and we might think this helps the team learn and the org to grow but nothing slows down teams and orgs more. we have to focus on hiring the right people, training them on the macro goals + our learnings and then letting them be. we think we hire the best people, invest time in the interview process and then keep telling them what to do. delegation and hands off leadership style is one of the best skills we can learn. and we should not feel guilty about it. it’s a feature, not a bug :)
9. make smart folks and leaders captain of their teams / pods. it’s impossible for founders to be the captain of every team. there can never be 2 captains in the same room and the chances are if you as the founder choose to be in a meeting, then everyone is looking at you. understand the difference between a coach and a captain. the lesser meetings you attend, the better.
10. it is extremely rare for people to speak their mind openly in meetings / or with founders. doesn’t matter what you wrote in your culture blog — no one remembers it. humans are just wired that way. create an environment where the team is comfortable talking to their captains and the captains can have a no filter chat with you.
11. leading large teams / managing many people is not the best use of our time. create pods that work. i would rather invest time in myself, in creating captains and deep macro thinking. no one understands and thinks about the biz as much as founders do, so make sure you do a lot of it. keeping your calendar open is a super power. of-course this is easier said than done and the above 3 points are super critical.
12. the culture blog that you wrote is for you, the other founders + captains to follow. the teams will not remember it / do not care about it. the team will see you and learn from that. think of it as your own manual and the kind of ‘culture’ you want to create. re-read it every month and change it as the org grows.
13. in life (professional and personal), always always address the elephant in the room. and laugh about it. nothing is as serious as it seems. life goes on.

anand.