Scribbles from the Startup Frontlines: All we need is to change our minds?
Plus: Event: Startup Theatre Episode 100 Live
Kia ora Caffeinators,
Happy Wednesday afternoon. Since it’s officially the start of Christmas planning season and all the punishing admin that entails, I thought I’d give you all an early Christmas present in the form of Serge Van Dam’s latest article - free for all subscribers.
Here’s what’s brewing:
Scribbles from the Startup Frontlines: All we need is to change our minds?
Event: Startup Theatre Episode 100 Live
Kiwi founder takes on global tech giants with New Zealand’s first “social map”
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Scribbles from the Startup Frontlines: All we need is to change our minds?
TLDR: Perhaps succeeding in startups is really as simple as changing our minds!
AI - technology or mindset breakthrough?
I recently ran an all day event called ‘AI for Adults’. We brought together 30 tech companies and 60 tech professionals, to review case studies of nine AI experts making breakthroughs with AI.
At the end of the day, we reflected on what we had seen first hand (mindblowing!!). And our collective reflection was that the AI revolution was not principally about the technology - albeit it is amazing - it’s more about mindset.
Because you can go so much faster, because your learning cycles accelerate profoundly, because you have a world-class educator in your pocket, because you are not constrained by your own knowledge or capabilities, your impact in the world can be more substantial. But first, you MUST believe this.
What is Mindset anyway?
In her fabled book, American Psychologist Carol Dweck wrote a fabled book on the topic, and more or less popularised the term Mindset. At its starkest, a ‘Fixed Mindset’ confines you to your existing capabilities, while a ‘Growth Mindset’ leads to:
Embracing rather than avoiding challenges
Persisting and going again when confronted by setbacks
Believing high degrees of effort as necessary in mastery
Seeing criticism as a gift to help you learn
Looking at the success and failures of others as another source of learning
Increasing the belief in personal agency, due to all of the above
Startups and Mindsets
So maybe mindset is all you really need to change the world. Maybe - even though I have argued for several other factors in this very column - a growth mindset is THE most important attribute of successful startups (and founders).
Consider the following notions:
Startups value resourcefulness as a trait over resources. They all know the incumbents have the resources - capital, customers, big teams, and so on - but in the long-run, that is simply not enough. Resourcefulness has a compounding effect; resources do not.
Culturally speaking, effort is treasured. Yes, everyone wants to be more efficient, but high-intensity, enduring, above-and-beyond work is what delivers mastery. And this is easier in a startup; the results of your efforts are more direct, there are less constraints on how you might do things, and more often than not, you are surrounded by people who believe in the value of hard work.
Purposefully venturing into the unknown is the thrill, not what you avoid because your compliance or risk management teams have imposed some guard rails on you. Of course you don’t KNOW that electric cars will be sexy or that people will want bigger screens on their phones. The exciting part is navigating your way through uncertainty towards what might be true in the future. Startups usually have a thesis. These theses have assumptions, and these assumptions have plenty of holes. That’s the point!
Rejection - from customers, investors and employees alike - is the most direct and effective feedback mechanism available. Great startups see each “no” as a data point, a chance to learn, to tweak, to pivot. If you view this rejection as a series of lessons, you learn so quickly (I wrote about this a year ago). Simply put, criticism is necessary for startup success.
Knowledge, know-how and intelligence can be developed over time. Everyone can be a better version of themselves tomorrow than they are today. And if a growing team of people do this over time, the impact is tremendous.
In my work with startups and founders, I have seen versions of the above time-and-again. Founders rapidly become experts in domains they knew nothing about. Companies launch products or initiatives everyone said were impossible. Failure in one product uncovers an insight that no one could have seen otherwise. And so on.
It is a total privilege to have a front-row seat in the ‘growth mindset fiestas’ that are startups.
Free Will and Agency
This column is not the place to deep dive into human free will (as a philosophy major, I am tempted though!), but a growth mindset makes you believe you have free will. And whether you do or not in reality, that belief translates into agency.
Agency means you see choices in front of you, and your accountability in making them. Agency ‘forces’ you to set goals and objectives, and evaluate the trade-offs between them. And it helps you take charge of your own conduct and behaviour.
Startups depend on agency. Why would you set out to change the world unless you believed you could do so?
Serge van Dam is an early stage startup investor, focused on going-global productivity software companies. He spends much of his time with a bayonet in hand yelling “now” in the startup trenches.
Event: Startup Theatre Episode 100 Live - What a phenomenal achievement from our mates over at the Startup Theatre podcast - celebrating their 100th episode with an epic celebration this coming Monday. Join them for a milestone as they bring together the people shaping New Zealand’s startup and tech community. From 2–4 pm, they’ll host fireside chats with local founders, investors, and champions of the ecosystem. Expect open conversations, bold ideas, and reflections on what it takes to build world-class companies from Aotearoa.
Fireside chat founders:
Rob Stirling - Scannable
Melissa Jenner - ACTVO
Heidi Farren - TIG
Stuart Mclean - EverCommerce
Fireside chat with supporters:
Peter Fullerton Smith - Mountain Club
Alison Meridith - Startup Queenstown
Anand Reddy - PwC
Kimberley Gimour - Sprinklr
Then, from 4–5 pm, prepare for something special. Rod Drury, one of New Zealand’s most influential tech founders and a driving force behind Xero’s global success, will take the stage for a live recording of Startup Theatre. Rod’s story has inspired countless founders across the country, and this rare live session will dive into the mindset, lessons, and vision of one of the defining figures in New Zealand innovation.More info and link to livestream available here.
Kiwi founder takes on global tech giants with New Zealand’s first “social map”: A New Zealand startup is taking aim at one of the most entrenched digital monopolies on earth with a world-first approach to mapping: a platform built for human connection, not navigation.
FriendWe, founded by radiographer-turned-entrepreneur Ahmad Aljazeeri, has launched what it calls New Zealand’s first digital social map. It’s a fascinating system that turns cafés, parks, cinemas, hiking trails and local hangouts into live meeting points for real-world connection.
Instead of trying to meet people on an app and then decide the location, the app flips the script and has you scroll a map and select your location first, before seeing who else is open to meeting there. It’s a clever twist which means before you even see the person you might be meeting, you already know where you’ll be going and have a baked in ice breaker.
“Google Maps is incredible for getting from A to B,” says Aljazeeri. “But it was never designed for helping people meet. New Zealand felt like the right place to build the map they never did — a map for community.”
It’s an interesting pitch and while there’s been a basic version available previously, this marks the first time the full version has been available to the public. Check it out yourself here.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co