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f some founders give the impression of having all the answers, then Jason Cohen
seems by contrast much more intrigued by asking questions. Now on his fourth company, WP Engine, Cohen is a serial entrepreneur by definition–but he’s far from a supercharged one, sure in the certainty of his own vision. In person, he’s the opposite of a posturing tech founder. He also happens to have the breadth of experience that lends extra weight to his words. Cohen is a mentor at Capital Factory, a start-up incubator in his hometown of Austin, Texas. He has invested in more than half a dozen companies. For over ten years, he has blogged about start-ups and marketing; his reflective, thoughtful posts have garnered more than 40,000 subscribers. In a wide-ranging interview that covers
entrepreneurial guidance, goal setting, and scaling a company, Cohen brings his blogging style to bear, studiously avoiding stock answers. When asked for advice for start-ups, and whether it’s better to have a strong team than a single-minded visionary at the helm, his first response is to consider both sides of the debate.
GO FAR TOGETHER “It’s easy to show the dream team but the founder was right and contrarian. It’s easy to show examples of the pig-headed founder who couldn’t listen to reason, so I don’t know that there’s a rule like that,” he says. “Here’s what I think is true: there’s that African proverb that everyone uses, but nevertheless it’s awesome, which is, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’. So, in that sense, team wins.”
Martin Shanahan, CEO IDA Ireland, and Jason Cohen.
something. It comes with the territory, because what kind of mindset says: ‘the world needs another company, and I’m the one to give it to them’? It takes a certain amount of ego and a certain amount of thinking that you are right,” Cohen says.
KNOW YOUR LIMITS While some level of ego is fundamental to the entrepreneur, too much of it can blind them to their own limitations. It’s essential to strike that balance, says Cohen. That means hiring true experts in their field and setting correct goals so that they can succeed. Otherwise, the risk is that a founder with
nevertheless it’s awesome, which is, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’.”
Tellingly, Cohen is neither the CEO or
COO at WP Engine. Others occupy those roles, and this was one of the themes he covered in his keynote talk at the Dublin Tech Summit in April. He spoke of how founders need to understand what they’re good at–but also what they aren’t–and to hire the right people to take care of those other aspects. “Founders generally think they’re better
than everybody else at everything, or they can make a better judgement call if they just have a few months of experience with
hubris who mistakenly thinks they’re an expert will recruit based on their own incomplete understanding of that area. “So, the company itself is sub-optimised.
That’s putting it more at risk, and less likely to be successful because the founder is not giving it something it needed.”
AVOID OVERDEPENDENCE “Also, if we’re thinking about the company, rather than worshipping the founder, if the organisation is to be healthy, it can’t be
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“Here’s what I think is true: there’s that African proverb that everyone uses, but
dependent on anybody, including the founder, because it’s brittle. To me, if it’s brittle, that’s bad.” That’s not to say everyone on a team is expendable, he hastens to add. “When you say a person is indispensable, that’s an indication of organisational failure. I’m exaggerating a little with those words, but I’m just trying to be direct. The person is not the problem, the organisation is.” That should prompt questions about how
a start-up should hire more people with the same skills as the ‘indispensable’ person. In turn, that leads to seeing how new recruits can learn from the key team member so that they in turn improve. That approach is just as applicable to ensuring a consistent company culture as it is to hiring more gifted developers. “If it’s a culture thing, why is it that only one person exemplifies the culture and what do we do about that? Many of these things have many answers and it depends on the company, its size and what the problem is,” says Cohen.
A QUESTIONING MINDSET That inquisitive approach can help founders to get answers that help them to handle the daily balancing act of managing the day-to- day challenges and imagining the big picture. As Cohen explained in his Dublin Tech Summit talk, many entrepreneurs are good at managing products and people, but often forget to manage their mindset. Yet without a healthy mindset, they increase
their chances of making poor strategic decisions, focusing on the wrong things or creating unnecessary stress. Cohen cites a study by Columbia Business
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