{"id":43739,"date":"2023-10-20T15:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/silicon-valley-veteran-susan-wu-on-what-makes-a-successful-founder-and-the-biggest-mistake-early-stage-startups-can-make-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:30:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:47","slug":"silicon-valley-veteran-susan-wu-on-what-makes-a-successful-founder-and-the-biggest-mistake-early-stage-startups-can-make-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/silicon-valley-veteran-susan-wu-on-what-makes-a-successful-founder-and-the-biggest-mistake-early-stage-startups-can-make-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley veteran Susan Wu on what makes a successful founder and the biggest mistake early-stage startups can make – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

According to \u201chacker, entrepreneur and investor\u201d Susan Wu, anyone can be a world-leading entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Wu, who has worked with tech giants like Twitter, Square and Reddit, and is the founder of Ohai, FreeAgent.com and the Above All Human conference, says that with the right training, anybody can gain the traits needed to succeed as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that through persistent effort of hacking one\u2019s own biases, through patterns, habits and inclinations, it\u2019s possible to affect genuine, deep change into someone\u2019s personal characteristics,\u201d Wu says in an AMA session run by Blackbird Ventures.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I believe anyone, anywhere can become a great entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wu says that there is a number of key characteristics that set successful entrepreneurs out from the pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve found to be common of successful founders, regardless of how they came by these traits, is a deep inquisitiveness and resilience, a commitment to always be learning, always be a beginning and always be open-minded,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best founders are tall poppies. They have to be comfortable being different, seeing things that other people can\u2019t see and not being afraid to stand alone in that field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wu has worked with countless founders as both an investor and a founder, and says that the biggest mistake she says people make is not thinking with broad global ambition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest common mistake I see among founders is when they can\u2019t build a team, a product, a vision or a company bigger than themselves,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften times in order to take the leap from promising idea to scaling entity founders need to be able to build something that\u2019s larger than themselves and their own personal capability \u2013 more adaptive, more resilient, more creative, more mature or more disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n

To combat this, she says it\u2019s crucial that founders are open to seeking outside advice and mentoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe founders that are most dangerous to their businesses are those who can\u2019t see their own blind spots or can\u2019t even understand that they might have blind spots that they can\u2019t see themselves,\u201d Wu says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who can see their own blind spots can at least hire around them or remedy them in some way, if not directly. There\u2019s a reason why all of the best Silicon Valley founders have executive coaches \u2013 they\u2019ve realised that they themselves need to level up if their companies have any hope of levelling up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trick is to make sure the coach isn\u2019t just a mirror but actually facilitates deep insight and evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question and answer session with the prominent Melbourne entrepreneur also included a number of other useful lessons and takeaways.<\/p>\n

Going global from Australia<\/h3>\n

While it will inevitably be tough, Wu says there\u2019s nothing stopping a company from going global from a base in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to be optimistic about here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more and more people working at successful startups, getting invaluable training of what it takes to work at a globally scaling tech company and there\u2019s more genuine risk capital available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you need to hustle harder and more cleverly for each dollar of equity valuation compared to your average Silicon Valley startup?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. But you can still succeed from here and that\u2019s what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to build the Australian startup ecosystem<\/h3>\n

An improved knowledge of what success actually looks like and a further adoption of an entrepreneurial culture will help the Australian startup ecosystem grow and take on the world, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest gap in Australia\u2019s startup ecosystem today is not enough community knowledge of what \u2018quality\u2019 looks like across the board,\u201d Wu says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re building to win globally you\u2019re not just competing to be the best X in Australia, you\u2019re competing against the most focused competitors worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore systematic learning and internalisation of what it really takes to succeed, to be the best in the world, is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian society in general also needs to more fully embrace its already successful founders and entrepreneurs, Wu says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEntrepreneurs and VCs aren\u2019t as celebrated in pop culture and in the media here as they are elsewhere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t as much social validation for becoming an entrepreneur and those who have self-selected to be founders today generally have unique characteristics that speak to their underlying commitment to the journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has unbelievable resources in engineering, hard sciences and research. The business, tech and product community need to do a better job of integrating with these communities to build new businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,LinkedIn and SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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