Startup Founders’ Mentality vs. Entrepreneur
Recently, I visited a trade expo in Jakarta organized by the local government to provide an opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the city to meet potential buyers or large-scale distributors. At one of the booths, I met a relatively young entrepreneur and was surprised to learn that he has several business lines that are all surprisingly profitable, running steadily, and growing healthily. He doesn’t have a formal office or a professional team behind him; it’s mostly just him, his wife, and a few employees.
After this meeting, I found myself reflecting a lot. In this article, I won’t share much detail about the conversation between me and the entrepreneur, but in short, he started his business in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in less than three years, he already has 50 locations. His management of HR, stocking, production, etc., is currently running smoothly. And that’s all coming from just one business!
My reflection? This may be subjective, but I still hold onto this view: mentality really makes a difference. This entrepreneur could be considered experienced in navigating the ups and downs of business, and every business he starts seems like a life-or-death matter for him and his family. He has to make sure his business runs and makes money because there’s no outside help—all the costs come out of his own pocket. He finds employees, trains them, handles permits, takes care of promotion and marketing, deals with customers, and more. I truly admire this! This is what I call the entrepreneur mentality. The mindset is simply to start first, make the business work no matter what. If something goes wrong, try again. If you fall, get back up. If you fail, start over. There are no complex formulas, theories, or calculations—sometimes, there’s no network to utilize, just determination and guts.
On the other hand, there is the mentality of some founders I’ve encountered recently—apologies, many apologies. They are eager to pitch for funding, asking for sky-high numbers without having a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or Product-Market Fit (PMF). They present valuation calculations without a clear metrics foundation.
"I’m asking for 1 million dollars for 10% equity"
—Wait, okay. So, what’s your current revenue?
"Rp 5 million a year, but with this funding, in three years, our revenue will hit Rp 500 billion a year."
—Oh wow, very... (fill in the blank yourself).
So, what’s the connection with mentality? And why do I seem to be venting and criticizing in this article? Because I’ve met many founders who sell all these dreams and high numbers without having a real product or service, without credible traction data. They give the impression that all concepts, ideas, dreams, and visions can only START if there’s money. Start, not scale. And this isn’t even a technology company. It’s not SaaS, which might still be justifiable. Not to mention, when you check the use of funds, quite often, founders focus more on their 'comfort' rather than real business development.
With these stories, I began to see that the mentality startup founders need to have is the entrepreneur mentality. What’s the difference? In my opinion:
1. Ownership: Having a high sense of ownership, as if their life depends on it. They have to fight and hustle to ensure their business continues to grow and provides solutions to people’s needs.
2. Let’s do it!: The mentality of just starting, without a lot of rhetorical concepts to look cool. R&D, test, roll out, feedback, iterate, and repeat. No need to wait for perfection, just keep moving forward.
3. Whatever the outcome, I’ll do what I can, and I’ll try my best. No Regret: The explanation is clear from the title above. I think a good mentality is always to do your best with the resources you have and hold the principle that whatever the final result, it doesn’t matter because outcomes can come in many forms.