The Highlight Reel Effect

When we hear stories of other startups, especially successful ones, it is easy to perceive that the path they traveled was straightforward and easy, especially if we lose sight of the highlight reel effect.   

All who are familiar with sports programs become familiar with the “highlight reel.” Composed of snippets of a game or a season that point out the pivotal moments and capture the increadible events that make the season one to remember. The highlight reel does not review every play or failed attempt, it only captures the pinicale moments, collapsing the long story of each thing that happened into a easily digestible thrill ride.

There is a parallel in the world of entrepreneurial storytelling. In an upcoming event where I am on a panel of tech entrepreneurs, the panelists have been asked to tell “our story” in ten minutes. This is a classic request for public storytelling about startup journeys, and it is one of the most common ways that entrepreneurs have to learn from one another. I have done countless panels, podcast guest appearances, and speaking engagements to talk about my experiences with groups who are interested in them. Stop and reflect with me for a moment on what it means for me to summarize decades of experiences into ten minutes or 30 minutes or an hour. Fundamentally, it means that I will pick a small subset of emblematic moments to capture the themes of my career or that relate to the focus of the speaking event. Most likely, I will focus on those moments and experiences that are (a) easily summarized, (b) broadly recognizable, and (c) positive. The result will be that I will generate a “highlight reel” that fits into a very limited time period. The consequence is that anyone hearing that highlight reel will not hear all the hard-fought intermediate steps full of blood, sweat, and tears that made those highlights possible, and it will likely cause the misperception that my path was easier and more straightforward than it was.

The impact of the highlight reel effect becomes apparent when I can engage one-on-one to mentor other startup leaders, and their concerns remind me that the highlight reel effect distorts our perceptions of how challenging the startup journey is. I often find that the most pressing questions that peek out in the conversation are an attempt to determine if the struggles they are experiencing are common or somehow unique to them. In one way or another, they ask, “Is what I am experiencing normal? Is it always this hard? Is my struggle unusual? Am I doing something wrong because my experience seems tougher than what I hear about when I listen to others’ entrepreneurial stories?” When I hear those worrying questions, either voiced or implied, I try to make it real and share some of the more gritty stories of my own struggles and rides on the emotional rollercoaster that a startup always seems to turn into. This frequently proves particularly important for startup CEOs because they often feel they cannot show their fear, anxiety, worry, and uncertainty to their team, investors, and other stakeholders. 

I believe it is critically important to find ways to share the ups and downs of startup journeys with one another if only to counteract the lonely feeling that often plagues startup leaders and to learn from one another. Over time, I have found it valuable to invest my most precious time and attention resources to both advance my learning process as a startup CEO and to reach out a helping hand to others in my tribe of peers:

• Especially at the beginning of my journey to learn to lead startups and master the art of fundraising, startup management, and all the myriad aspects of forging something out of nothing, I leaned into whatever formal entrepreneurial skills training and mentoring programs I could access. There are programs offered in colleges, incubators, accelerators, and economic development programs that can provide introductions to the basics. And while many of the topics taught in a business degree are relevant, these courses of study are often slanted towards the classic MBA career paths of finance, consulting, and large company functional management rather than the all-encompassing breadth of a startup CEO. Even the entrepreneurial studies courses I have helped teach as a guest speaker or the seminars offered in incubator or accelerator programs do not begin to cover all the skills a startup CEO needs to amass. However, they can introduce some of the core basics, like what a startup financial forecast model looks like, how to structure a fundraising deck, types of potential investors, the concept of an MVP (minimum viable product), gathering user feedback, and other essentials. I have participated in probably a half-dozen such programs, primarily in the first stages of my startup career. While now they have become repetitive, in the beginning, they hammered home the essentials that helped me get started.
   
• Create and take advantage of opportunities to connect with and build relationships with other similar founders and CEOs. Early in my career, I began seeking out and forging relationships with others like me that I met. We often found the interactions to be mutually rewarding, so we would make a point of getting together a couple of times a year for breakfast, lunch, or coffee to mutually share and discuss our pressing questions in a safe place with someone who understood the dimensions of my world and its responsibilities. I learned many tidbits from these discussions, whether the interaction was limited to one fleeting encounter or built into relationships that have now endured years or even decades. More recently, I joined and am a Steering Committee Member of the Michigan Founders Fund, a founder-led network of high-growth entrepreneurs committed to fellowship, cultural intention, and funding solutions that uplift the communities across the state where we live and operate. This group provides a ready-made community of like-minded individuals with whom to connect and share ideas, connections, and support.
  
  
• The highlight reel phenomenon was one of the primary reasons for launching my StartupCEOReflections.com blog to fight against the need to compress out all the nuance and details that would have been helpful to me earlier in my career as I was learning to lead startups. Once I realized that I learned my craft of creating startups either through my own trial and error or from being inspired by the stories and experiences of others, I wanted a way to efficiently share my perspectives and experiences that bring to light some of the things I have learned that never seem to make the highlight reels of public speaking events. And, since many of the stories or ideas I typically shared during a one-hour one-on-one coffee date (of which I have time for a precious few) were repeated across meetings with different founders, my blog became my COVID pandemic attempt to break through the highlight reel effect and to help answer some of the frequent discussion topics that often emerge when I talk to other startup leaders or reflect on what I wish I had realized sooner.

Never forget that when you hear someone summarize a startup journey, they are of necessity leaving out many of the mundane slogging experiences that made the highlights possible. Likely it would be too painful and tedious for all of us to sit through listening to someone else’s realities of life. However, we must not then assume that when our progress is also halting and difficult, that somehow that means our ambition is not worthy, or success is not possible. Seek and find those who can validate your experience as normal, so you do not carry excess baggage as you climb your particular mountain.