Ted Zoller on Founders and Funders

In my more than three decades of working with founders, I have come to recognize that those who found new enterprises are both unique and rare.?We have come to recognize founders as pioneers, innovators, change-makers, builders. These are all accurate descriptions.?They have earned the status to be celebrated.

You might be surprised that I also celebrate founders for another reason.?They commit in the face of uncertainty.? They capture opportunity amidst asymmetry.? They find ways to accomplish their goals when no one encourages them.?They are accustomed to doubt, ambiguity and dare I say, pessimism.? Their touchstone is the word no.?This is how they learn.?They would admit that they can’t see the end – but they are motivated to get there and at least know the means to pull it off (perhaps).?This journey is what motivates them.?Founders assume risk.

You also might be surprised that founders aren’t always driven by profit motive or material reward.?While this is certainly a secondary or tertiary motivator, founders are driven primarily by the desire to create what does not exist (generally from nothing and while being admittedly naive) or to solve a problem, while not having all the answers.?They are motivated by curiosity and driven by pragmatism.?The best founders get s*** done.?They convert risk into reward.?You’ll hear me say consistently they have gumption.

?You further might be surprised that funders like founders are driven by curiosity.? They want to add-value.?They want to be part of the story.?They want to put the venture on a path to success.? The best funders in my humble opinion are those who have been founders and understand the nature of risk, uncertainty, asymmetry, doubt, ambiguity and pessimism.?But in most cases funders are first driven by reward, and they similarly convert risk into reward.?But in my experience, the finest investors with the best track-records know precisely how to assess risk, leverage it and assume it to convert it to reward.

Isn’t it curious that the antonym of risk is certainty, and at the same time reward?? Certainty is not in the lexicon of early-stage investing.?In early-stage investing, risk must be assumed.?But when things work best, we align a common understanding of risk among both founders and funders who both share in a common reward.?But both let go of any idea of certainty.?Certainty is simple interest, it is not early-stage investing.

So by aligning our goals and seizing opportunity and taking a shared risk, founders and funders will equally participate in reward. Or if it doesn’t work, at least founders and funders can be proud of the work they have done together to attempt it. After all, as the old adage goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained; so join me in in celebrating the founders who build and the funders who partner to back them. That’s the spirit of the Carolina Angel Network.