How Founders Avoid False Starts & What VCs Actually Add - E581
"Steve Jobs, for most people, was actually fired from Apple because he started doing some things—he was way too perfectionistic about his products, he didn’t listen to engineering, and he didn’t know how to marshal talent—so he kept drinking his own Kool-Aid, and Apple’s performance got so bad that he was fired. He cried and was very sad, and then he was known as an insufferable person. He would go into meetings and be a total—imagine your project work, and he’s just a total asshole amongst those peers. But then, after he was fired, he went on to build a second company called NeXT, and he was even more perfectionistic at that company. He wanted to create perfect cube computers, and he wanted the robots engineering these products to be entirely spotless—which didn’t make sense, because these are engineering assembly robots. Then he wanted these cube computers to be so square that the molds casting his cases would leave a corner behind. You get what I mean? Like, you actually need a little bit of roundedness in the cast to let go." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast
"You often see that founders are very often talking to other senior founders, similar to how freshmen talk to sophomores, talk to juniors, talk to seniors. You see a lot of founders will often get advice—they’ll say something like, 'Hey, I'm raising money from this person, what do you think about that?' They will triangulate advice, they’ll be like, 'Hey, do you think now is a good year to fundraise? How much revenue?' I got a WhatsApp message—she was like, 'I have raised my Series A, I want to raise a Series B next year, how much revenue should I get?' So I think the good founders, to avoid failure, will consult wiser people, advisors. And it’s got to the point where, for example, even in America, you may have dedicated executive coaches that focus on coaching founders because it’s a high-risk job, right?" - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast
"So last year a lot of people joined AI—was that the right time? We don't know. A lot of people did. Some people are still waiting it out too, so it depends on that perspective. The second thing that's important is that success breeds success. In other words, if you are a successful entrepreneur, you have the ability to attract more resources. So you walk around, 'I'm an exited founder,' and more people want to join you, more people want to give you money. Because of that, this amplifies the advantage over less successful peers in the past, and this creates a perception. And because they have more inputs—if that makes sense—therefore the outputs are better, right?" - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast
Jeremy Au unpacks how startup failure patterns often begin with charisma unchecked by execution. He explores how founders can avoid false starts, the real reason repeat founders succeed, and why the value of VCs and angels depends on founder maturity. The episode draws parallels between entrepreneurship and professional disciplines like medicine, stressing the need for coaching, humility, and peer learning to improve success odds.