The nine types of founders in the startup playground

Remember high school? We know there aren’t many people who want to read those three words, but bear with us. Chances are, your high school playground hosted a range of different cliques; a landmass divided into a patchwork of nation-states. Depending on your age bracket, you might have spent your recess with punks, lads, jocks, emos, theatre kids, bookworms, or TikTokers.

Now, we promise that - for all its challenges - launching a startup isn’t as awkward as living through high school. Even so, much like the cliques of your teen years, you’ll find that the founders you meet align with a few key archetypes. Based on our sightings, these are the nine you’re most likely to encounter:

#1: The Hero Worshipper

The loudest archetype on our list, this founder is all about paying homage to the entrepreneurs who inspired them. To date, they haven’t found a challenge that didn’t warrant a quote from Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg, or Jack Ma. Whenever they hit an obstacle, they’ll remind themselves that Steve Jobs was fired from Apple before he launched the iPhone.

Because they study the greats so devoutly, every idea they suggest is a remix of an existing hit startup. Expect to hear pitches about Uber for space travel, Airbnb for chickens, or Tinder for NFTs.

#2: The Mature-Aged Student

Anyone who studied alongside mature-aged students at uni will know that they come in two sizes. The first is the overachiever who maintains a full-time career, a family with children, and a High Distinction average. The second is the op shop-fashioned hippie who will hijack the class at every opportunity to Share Their Life Experience.

As you may have guessed, there’s a startup founder archetype that follows the mould of the mature-aged student. Some juggle an existing career with a successful startup launch, whilst still finding time to take the kids to soccer. These are the people who account for the statistic that most successful startups are steered by founders over 35.

…then there are those who have been talking about their idea for over 20 years, but will baulk if you ask them for a pitch deck.

#3: The Specialist

This is the entrepreneur who has spent their entire working life honing a Very Particular Set of Skills. While their subject matter insight is commendable, their outlook can be a blessing and a curse. If they’re a lawyer, they’ll only see regulatory issues - but might neglect a go-to-market strategy. If they’re an engineer, they’ll design a bleeding edge prototype - but may fail to research whether anyone actually wants it.

They’ve spent so long excelling in one area that they often overlook the fact that other problems exist.

#4: The Ideas Billionaire

This founder believes that their idea is worth a billion dollars - so they protect it like a Swiss bank vault. When they meet with a business coach, their first question will be: “When should I hire an IP lawyer to ensure nobody can steal my idea?” If you politely ask them for their elevator pitch, they’ll insist you sign an NDA first.

Of course, by refusing to discuss their business model, they guarantee that they never progress past the Idea phase. Who knows, though? One day, Blackbird Ventures might write them a cheque for the prototype they sketched on the back of a napkin.

#5: The Dropout

A common overlap with the Hero-Worshipper, this archetype has fallen in love with the longshot tales of famous dropout founders. They’ve plastered their bedroom walls with posters of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Elizabeth Holmes (seemingly unaware of how her story ended). Needless to say, there are countless people throughout history who have excelled in business without a higher education. However, this archetype seems to believe that a failed degree is a prerequisite for startup success.

When they apply this theory to their own lives, the pursuit from which they drop out can take many guises. They may unenrol from their degree, sell their home, or quit their job in a blaze of burned bridges. Certainly, launching a startup requires resolve, and these would-be founders have it in spades. But if they don’t marry their moxy with foresight, their all-or-nothing approach can backfire. Without a concrete plan for their startup, they can downgrade from “dropout founder” to “unemployed jobseeker” within months.

#6: The Part-Timer

The polar opposite of the Dropout, the Part-Timer lives and dies by their multitasking prowess. They can’t choose between their current career and their future startup, so they split their time between both. On most days, they’ll pursue their idea in the breathy moments they snatch between work, life, and family commitments.

Unsurprisingly, the Part-Timer can often coincide with the Mature-Aged Student. If you ask them when they plan to focus on their startup full-time, they’ll say something like: “When I can pull a salary from the business” or “When the business has enough runway for 18 months.”

Now, in the wild tempests of startup life, there’s nothing wrong with seeking shelter behind an existing stable income. However, after a certain point, the Part-Timer’s reluctance to step outside their comfort zone can hinder their business’ growth.

#7: The Blue Sky Visionary

So, the Ideas Billionaire? The Blue Sky Visionary embodies everything that they’re not. Rather than searching for existing business templates, this archetype fixates on ideas that have never been realised before. It’s their mission to change the world, you see, and they won’t achieve their goal by thinking like everyone else.

While this approach is perfectly noble, it doesn’t always leave room for details. Do they want to launch a fintech product? Don’t expect them to involve anyone with a finance background, because their product will do what the industry isn’t doing. Are they planning to design a new type of renewable vehicle? Well, you can forget hiring anyone who has ever worked in the automotive industry; it was their thinking that got us into this mess!

They’re so obsessed with delving into uncharted territory, they forget to ever glance at a map.

#8: The Silent Assassin

These are the quiet achievers who lurk in the shadows, building prototypes that would draw envy from any Ideas Billionaire. There’s only one problem: they don’t ever promote what they’re working on. Unlike the Specialist, they’re aware that problems exist outside their area of expertise. However, they often feel too awkward to solicit outside help. In a nutshell, their inability to advocate for themselves is the key hurdle to their success.

Fortunately for them, within the startup ecosystem, the Silent Assassin is in high-demand. These are the co-founders everyone is searching for - the highly elusive “technical co-founder”. If only they’d respond to that post in Founders’ Community…

#9: The 5:01pm Genius

“I had that idea first” is this archetype’s mantra. Whether it’s Bitcoin or bubble tea, they’ll tell you how they’d conjured a similar concept before it hit the market. In a social setting, we’ve all likely met someone like this. A loud uncle who insists that they sketched designs for an iPhone back in 1990. An old high school friend who maintains that Milkrun is based on their former side hustle. They never actually created a working MVP, mind you - oh, no. The fact that they dredged the idea to the surface of their minds is enough for them.

In a startup context, this archetype bases their credibility on the claim that they thought of a billion-dollar concept first. From their point of view, there’s a sound rationale for their complaints. If they were right about Canva or Airtasker, they reason, their current idea should be even more successful!

Sadly for them, though, their new pitch often lacks any detail beyond “offshore engineers will build it”. That’s why, 10 years from now, they’ll likely point to a recent unicorn startup and say: “See that company? I had that idea a decade ago.”

Whatever you do, do NOT put the 5:01pm Genius in the same room as the Ideas Billionaire.

What this means for YOU as a would-be founder

For all their differences, this rag-tag gaggle of founder profiles have one thing in common: none thrive in a vacuum. In a supportive, collaborative environment, they can contextualise their business concepts, and lend their strengths to each other.

When launching a startup, it’s easy to focus on competition, but crucial to focus on collaboration. Whatever your idea may be, it takes a village to raise a startup. By working alongside other founders in-the-making, you’ll unearth the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business model. You’ll also expand your network, meet prospective co-founder, and better your chances of landing the right funding.

Who knows? You may even learn which archetype - or mix of archetypes - you embody. If you’re the Hero Worshipper, though, just try to keep the Elon Musk quotes to a minimum. We get enough of those on Twitter.