FOUNDER | Meaning Founder | Definition Founder

Welcome back to my new series, Speak Like Shaf. If you have ever wanted to get to the nitty gritty of business jargon, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll explain in an accessible and easily understandable way what it all means. Ever since I started as an entrepreneur, I’ve tried to help others who are also walking this path and if you’re just starting out it can all seem very daunting. So, let’s ditch the gobbledygook and start some plain speaking when it comes to business. Today, we’re looking at the word “founder”.

According to the Collins English Dictionary, the word founder is a noun and it means a person who establishes an institution, company, society etc. So it’s the entrepreneur (or entrepreneurs) who set up a business. There’s also another definition, which is someone who makes metal castings and iron. Similarly, the entrepreneur is making a whole new company.

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Let’s think of the world’s biggest companies. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergy Brin, Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, Apple by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Microsoft by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Some of these names you will recognise and some you won’t, but although they grew their businesses to massive levels, they all faced the same doubts and hurdles that every entrepreneur has to beat when they are just starting out. And spare a thought for the Founding Fathers of the USA. They weren’t just setting up a company, they were setting up a whole country!

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Of course, many entrepreneurs aren’t just founders of one company, they found several. I set up E-Net Computers which became the largest storage media distributor in Europe. Another company of mine, Datasafe Media, was valued at ￡30million by The Sunday Times Rich List. I recently provided ￡6000 in seed capital for a tech start-up and just two years later sold part of it for ￡900,000. And my company SRA Ventures deals with all aspects of commercial property investment, including asset management and investment trading. So, I know a thing or two about founding a business!

In previous Speak Like Shaf videos, we have met Rab The Rock Star. He was the first Stone Age entrepreneur and he founded his own business. Poor Rab wasn’t very good at hunting and catching his own food, which was obviously essential for survival back in the tough days of the Stone Age. He was clever though, and he did have a lightbulb moment when it came to catching the wild boar and the deer he longed to feast on. He made tools, like spears from sticks, bows and arrows and hammers from flint and started selling and leasing them to fitter, faster and more agile hunters. This vastly increased their catch thanks to Rab founding a brand new business that he called Goresticks.

As a side note Rab with his Goresticks brand became the first human to leverage his corporate branding but that’s for a future video.

Once you’ve come up with your idea and founded your business, the hard work really begins. Take a look at my #AskShaf and #7Hacks vlogs for advice on what to do next. You need to get a business plan, think about investment and your target market. My vlogs will help you every step along the way. so make sure you like, comment and share my videos.

Before you go, I do have one favour to ask of you. Please hit the subscribe button and the bell icon on my YouTube channel by clicking here so you can be informed whenever I upload a new video

If you enjoyed this week’s #speaklikeshaf, check the rest of them here