CEO Essentials

An Essential Entrepreneurial Enabler: Learning

November 21, 2020 /

Learning to learn quickly and effectively is one of the master skills of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Recently I listened to a podcast featuring one of my favorite angel investors, Walt Young. Walt is a super-angel who has an excellent track record of discovering promising startups to back. In the Entrypoint #TheCackle podcast, along with lots of other wisdom, Walt shares the three characteristics he looks for in entrepreneurs: drive, intelligence, and integrity. I agree with him that those characteristics are a great filter when selecting entrepreneurs to back, and yet they are not particularly teachable.

Reflecting on Walt’s thoughts also got me thinking about one of the great enabling master skills that is a bit more under an entrepreneur’s control to develop:  learning. When I think back over my 20 years developing as a startup CEO, I think one of my most critical skills has been my ability to absorb new information, integrate insights from different domains, and translate that knowledge into effective problem-solving. 

Being motivated to learn reflects a powerful desire to personally grow and improve. When you think about it, startups are all about innovation, which is the opposite of repeating an already proven model. To innovate, you see something new or combine existing things into something new. Doing this requires constant learning about what customers want, discovering what solutions might be developed and deployed to meet their unmet needs, and building an organization to make and deliver exciting promises to the emerging market you are creating.

Learning is a skill.  Learning to learn is something that can be mastered – and applied to the entrepreneurial life. My husband, a high school and junior college teacher for the past 29 years, observes that a critical part of learning is the perseverance to keep trying to understand something new even when it might not initially come easily. There are many accessible resources online and through other people who can help you get up the curve on a new subject area in today’s world. However, it does require the willingness to start from a place of ignorance and do the work to piece together the essential parts and systematically fill in the gaps. I read, listen to podcasts, devour audiobooks, and talk to other people to learn what they know.

When I think about some of the new domain areas I have had to learn about to lead my startups, I am amazed at the variety of information I learned for each startup I tackled. Perhaps the following examples of the diversity of topics I had to develop expertise in as I led two different startup companies will give you a sense of how important it is for a startup leader to cultivate the ability to build new domain knowledge quickly and well:

  • For Accuri Cytometers, I had to learn what a cytometer was, the basics of all the diverse technologies involved in both the existing technology and the new technologies we were developing, and the relevant aspects of our customers’ science, including immunology, microbiology, and cellular biology. I also had to learn about software development, angel and VC fundraising, sophisticated manufacturing of complex instruments, and international employment law complexities amongst other topics.  

  • For Fifth Eye, I pursued new learning curves in critical care medicine, data science and machine learning/AI, modern software development and DevOps automation approaches, on-premise and distributed cloud computing solutions that leverage fully-managed services, FDA medical device regulations and quality management systems, and hospital management.  This list will keep growing as our company develops.

In addition to the domain-specific knowledge one must develop to lead a high-potential startup that is inevitably trying to do something novel, entrepreneurs must also master an incredible diversity of skills to create a company out of nothing. No one starts out as an experienced startup CEO. We all have to learn the job on-the-job. That means understanding the language of business, mastering every business function’s core elements, figuring out how to fundraise, developing winning products, selling, and growing the business.  You must master how to recruit, lead, and manage a team of employees, contractors, consultants, and other stakeholders through the stages of growth.  And this is only the beginning.

Learning is one of my master skills – the underpinning of the rapid problem-solving necessary to lead a startup successfully. After going to college and graduate school, I spent eight years as a management consultant. During that time, I led thirty-five projects for twenty-five different clients in different industries. To be an effective consultant, I had to master the ability to quickly learn the essential elements of each new client’s business to help them improve their operations and performance. What I learned is that an excellent place to begin was merely exposing myself to a new area, washing my mind in the vocabulary, and understanding the new terminology. Then I started looking for similarities to other domains that I already knew something about. I would ask questions, seek more information, and look for patterns. I would try to identify what is unique to the domain I am learning about and what is common to other areas.  All of these techniques I continue to apply today.

Honestly, the need to learn so many things over the years is a core reason I started this blog. It is my attempt to help others on their learning curves because I know how hard it is to get succinct, practical, real-world experiences distilled down, and if those of us who have successfully walked the path do not share what we have learned, then each new startup CEO must start from scratch. 

Doing something novel and building something out of nothing requires continuous learning and innovating. As leaders, we have to do it, model it, and encourage it in our company cultures. This means that a startup CEO’s ability to learn is a critical competency – and the faster you can learn, the faster your startup can move forward. Work hard to build your capacity to drink up and apply new knowledge, and you will be more successful as a startup leader.

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