Reasons that people found startups
I was talking to a good friend of mine recently who remarked that people who found startups often tend to exclusively socialise with other people in startups. My immediate response was that although this is true in many cases, it depends on why they founded the startup in the first place. Reflecting, I think there are a number of different archetypes of founder as far as motivations go.
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The socialite desires social proof. Entrepreneurship is frequently associated with both high economic status and virtuous qualities - a rare combination. That makes it well suited to those who want to be higher in social status. Socialites often have long LinkedIn taglines and attend lots of conferences.
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The conductor desires to govern. They have strong opinions about the way things ought to be set up and seeks the capital - both social and financial - to set up governance structures as they desire. This governance can either be on a micro scale, for example self-branding as a mentor or guru, or on a macro scale; with lofty political ambitions of some kind.
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The adventurer desires a story. They are interested in startups because of, not despite the frequent ups and downs. It is precisely this turbulence which keeps them interested and constructs their life’s narrative.
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The nerd desires focus. Making your main interest into your job maximises the amount of time you can spend deepening your expertise. The interest may intersect economic value, but only by happenstance.
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The representative desires to serve their in-group - typically their family, geography, identity group, or hobby community. This can be achieved in a diversity of ways to a diversity of ends, but the reason success is important to them is the ramifications success would have on those they care about. This can sometimes look like startups for some kind of social good, but not always - some founders just seek permanent financial security for their family as a foremost concern.
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The unvalidated desires to feel good enough. Starting a startup is the ultimate challenge, with the ultimate difficulty, and the ultimate payoff. A lot of startup founders in my experience are hiding from never feeling good enough in childhood. Starting a successful startup is important to reassure themselves foremost that they are competent and deserving of happiness.
We’re all a mixture of these things. What is my composition? Who knows.