Some might call me a startup enthusiast, I think I thrive on the chaos of building something from scratch, not knowing exactly what to do or where to go, just diving into the unknown and finding my way through by trial and error. Survival through continuous learning. I’ve always pushed myself to do more, to learn more. Throughout my entire career, I’ve supported founders with their journey of building a company and it was only in the last few years when I actually started to have the confidence in myself to think that I could do it too. I could be the founder.
“Founder” seems like such a powerful and scary word. You think Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg; they don’t look like me, I’m not as smart as them. That’s when the self-doubt really creeps in. Then you look at Sara Blakely, Diane Greene and Katrina Lake and you start to think: Maybe it is possible, maybe I can be this “founder” person.
All of the illusions you have around the “founders” you have seen start to disappear and you remember why you choose this path. You are not thinking about how you have to be this lone creative genius or that this is your all or nothing shot to make it. You saw a pain point, found a way to solve it, and want to share it with the world. Let’s do this founder thing!
However even with all of this in mind, it still took an external push to kick start my founder journey. Initially when Brian came to me about looking for a co-founder for Jamyr, I immediately said that I would be happy to find someone in my network that would be a fit. I had thought that he was looking for someone with more experience founding a company, it didn’t even dawn on me until after more conversions that he was actually interested in me to be his co-founder! I was taken aback to say the least, especially since I hadn’t really seen myself in that light, the “founder” light. But after learning more about Jamyr and how it would help companies express their culture through the voice of the employee, I knew that if I didn’t take him up on this opportunity, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
Now, this couldn’t have come at a worse time, I thought. How am I going to balance a full-time role that I am deeply passionate about, two young kids, and still try to keep some kind of social life? Luckily for me I have a company that values continuous learning and supports employees who want to expand their expertise outside of what the company can offer them day to day as well as a fully supportive partner who understands that a passion side project means a few late nights and working on the weekends.
Stepping into the role of founder is going to be challenging and scary but I can’t let that hold me back from doing it. For others who might also have this imposter syndrome around not being good enough or having enough experience to be a founder, let's support one another. Instead of thinking about all the ways that you can’t be a founder, think about all the ways that you can. We can do this!
Jamyr is a video platform that helps Employer Brand or Talent Acquisition professionals to elevate their Company’s Employer Brand through authentic employee testimonials.
A platform and service to scale video content for recruiting.
