Just Thoughts #4: Thoughts on self-awareness of Entrepreneurs and Women's Day.
This article covers thoughts related to entrepreneurs' self-awareness, Women's Day, the state of DEIB in the startup scene, and a short review of Dune 2.
The content in this article is “handwritten” - and only co-piloted with Grammarly’s tune copyediting and spell-checking. The content is free to read; if you want to support my writing work, you may buy my poetry collection on Gumroad here.
tells you how many new subscribers he has every week. My growth feels like a flow of zero, stagnating at 41. Packy also told you this week that Slack is the first tool entrepreneurs get; I think he is wrong, and it’s the second. The first tool entrepreneurs get is Notion.Why? Solo entrepreneurs don’t need Slack but need to start documenting their thoughts. When you go from zero to one, you add Notion; when you go from one to two, you add Slack. Before Slack, you may even add Calendly, depending on the amount of outreach. Still, if you’re doing b2b, you need Calendly before Slack to book time with people efficiently. After that, you will likely add the Google Suite, but I’m leaning towards a Proton + Videoconferencing tool with built-in notes features (think Gong or Woodpecker), which is the better setup.
Why? Proton is built cybersecurity first, and it’s open source. When you scale, you can customize. I haven’t used much other than Meets lately, but the mainstream call providers need to improve their game on the embedded notetaking features.
This is the end of unsponsored features. Get your product featured on Just Thoughts, and I’ll give it a proper review here.
The highlight of the week:
I watched the movie Dune 2, and it was good.
This week, I discuss some thoughts on DEIB issues in the startup world and briefly discuss some content I’ve consumed. Additionally, I have some thoughts on Women's Day and highlight that most are calling for equality when I wonder what equity would look like. Finally, as DEIB work is tiring, I went to the movies this week to watch Dune.
Headlines this week:
Self-awareness of entrepreneurs
Women’s day
The state of inappropriate behavior in the Finnish startup ecosystem
Dune 2 - The movie.
Self-awareness of entrepreneurs
This week, an interview that moved me was the one Harry Stebbings (20VC) made with Sami Inkinen (Founder and CEO of Virta Health). I haven’t consumed much of Harry’s content, and the few I’ve covered end to end haven’t been that good. Like the opening on the Slush stage 2023, you could tell it wasn’t the most inspiring for him.
Harry did a good job interviewing Sami, and Sami's story and this interview fall into the evergreen content category for any aspiring entrepreneur. The agenda for the content differed from Jyri and Timo’s interviews (Jyri Engeström YesVC, Timo Ahopelto Lifeline Ventures) with Sami. The only thing I got from “The Finnish Startup Ministries” podcast was “You need role models.” If so, Sami is a good one, but can we please have more diverse role models if that is the agenda?
Additionally, Sami mentioned Hjallis Harkimo (a Finnish business mogul, now best known as a politician) as a role model growing up, which would’ve meant nothing to Harris's audience. As much as Timo’s poetry reached near perfection when fitting different themes into context, one couldn’t help but think this was to drive the Finnish startup communities’ agenda of the meeting with the Finnish government startup working group. I trust the people's judgment in the picture, but the underprivileged representation in the Finnish startup community is in no way represented in this picture. That pains me, as nuance breeds better thinking, and people with different experiences can highlight the issues others do not see. It is the majority's responsibility to care for the interest of the minority, but the best way to ensure the view is heard is by letting them be part of the discussion directly.
To avoid straying too much from the headline and returning to Sami’s interview with Harry, I would like to highlight his ability to describe his personal experiences concisely and how they have affected his life choices. He can range from business to personal in a highly confident manner. He started his career as an entrepreneur by trying to solve problems for others that made sense and then, later in life, solving significant issues that touched him personally.
Nonetheless, there is one point, even if it’s right, that I'm afraid I have to disagree with: that “founders fail when they stop trying.” In a world with so much inequality and so many barriers from the underrepresented, it has a wrong tone to it. Even if well intended and further elaborated, being an “idiosyncratic” statement, as Sami puts it, you’d also need to know when to quit. That in itself is, of course, a rare skill. Steve Barlett (Founder of Third Web, Flight Group, The Diary of A CEO) highlights this notion as a recurring topic in his social content. However, I bet many people are minority representatives simply not getting the same support as Sami.
I’d rather talk about startups, not dying but drowning, a notion Anttoni Aniebodam (CEO and Founder of Veri) reminded me of a while back. There will always be more to do than you have time for, and you need to learn to focus. Additionally, some may not be helped simply due to their minority status in the vast sea entrepreneurs face, drowning as a consequence. Whatever your reason for being out at sea, it helps to know how to swim and have a destination in mind. Without equipment, you won’t survive without land.
Given the headline of this section, one could summarize by saying it pays off to know your limits, market, needs, and privileges. Use those to help others, as opposed to the opposite.
Women’s day
This week, the world celebrated Women's Day. I asked a female founder what she thinks I should do to acknowledge Women’s Day, and she said that when posting about issues in the working world, it feels good that not only women are highlighting the issue. At first, I struggled because I’ve been in working environments where the women didn’t want the day to be celebrated, but the conclusion I came to was that any backlash likely had to do with the way rather than the intent. As fellow DEIdreamer Nasim Selmani (Co-founder of Deidei) put it, who cares about flowers when there is pay inequality? Who cares about a social media post when there are unequal opportunities to work for and progress in the company?
As long as these problems persist, the day should be celebrated. Still, the best way to celebrate is to take concrete actions regarding any shortcomings you can identify within your sphere of influence. Discussing this with my female friends (some who even identify as feminists), I got article after article on problems and solutions. However, my question as a white cisgender heterosexual white male was, what can I do not to make things worse? It felt like a selfish question to ask on Women’s Day, but the answer was;
1. Be aware of your privileges
2. Educated yourself on the DEI topics and make an effort to educate others, too
3. Be mindful of your actions and interactions with others.
What do you think? What more can one do? Is this “the best” one can do as an individual with privilege?
Women's Day got me thinking that everyone is calling for equality. I’m wondering what equity looks like in this case.
Taking this thought even further, what does equity mean in a world where all the other issues have been fixed? The pay gap is fixed—equal opportunity is fixed. Role models are fixed. People are themselves at work. People feel safe in their environment. Women's Day should be celebrated until this is fixed.
Then comes the disabled individual, neurodiverse individuals, gender-diverse individuals, mentally impaired individuals, etc. Equity means they are lifted when it’s needed. Before you get mad and say it’s always needed, note that the blind are the privileged in a space of complete darkness.
Finally, what does equity mean in a romantic relationship with your life partner? What does the world look like when equity has been achieved in all the places it needs to be accounted for? Here’s an even harder thought building on the last: What does equity mean for the divorced?
I don’t have the answers, at least not yet, but the critical point is that equality is demanded and warranted. Who’s out there demanding equity, and what does that look like? Is equity the majority representative male giving up what they have so that the minority representative female who is pregnant can have more? In the gender discussion, something I can never do as a male is carry children for nine months and give birth to them. If children are the most beautiful thing in the world, should I give or expect to gain in a question of equity?
Maybe we should aim to answer these questions when we’ve achieved equality first. I have a final topic on that subject.
The state of inappropriate behavior in the Finnish startup ecosystem.
The Finnish Startup Community, Startup Foundation, Finnish Venture Capital Association, Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN), Slush, and Aalto Entrepreneurship Society issued a survey to investigate and address inappropriate behavior and practices within the Finnish startup ecosystem.
The survey results are here, and the outcome is an ethics committee.
Firstly, name another ecosystem that can initiate something like this. That is a very rare ecosystem. Arguably, you should be able to reach most of everyone with this, but about 520 individuals answered the survey. The only way to cover more ground would’ve been to add all hub actors across all cities in Finland, as described by the foundation here.
Secondly, it was addressed only towards harassment issues. Why not cover the entire specter of DEIB? An equal gender distribution among respondents was well done, but most were heterosexual and Finnish citizens. You can’t talk about a sample size that could act as a voice of the marginalized.
Thirdly, you could speculate that the startup industry would despise a committee. Committees are a place where ideas go to die. However, in defense of the solution, Lilly Zheng, author of DEI Deconstructed: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Doing the DEI Work and Doing It Right, recommends it as the way to go for organizations in which there is a LOW degree of trust that leadership can handle the issue properly.
Let’s talk action. How about someone pull up the data on the leadership in the organizations in question and the composition of the leadership teams? The data on the leadership teams of all companies affiliated with the organizations could also be aggregated. Then, survey their level of understanding of the DEIB questions. That would be a starting point. Then, we could discuss solutions like deploying DEIB coaching and consulting as part of investment strategies the way Cherry Ventures makes coaching part of theirs.
In places where harassment is an issue, and as a first line of defense in cases needing acute help, one could provide third-party solutions with unlimited access to trained and educated harassment contact persons. The second line of defense is to use employee engagement data analysis tools with embedded mandatory whistleblowing functionality like Teamspective in every organization. The third line of defense is allocating budgets, not just for HR to manage, but for every department to manage their own DEIB initiatives directed, not only towards the people in their teams but as actions taken to make the business units more effective and DEIB aware.
It feels like a full-on rant at this point. I’m beginning to feel the exhaustion DEIB practitioners have had forever. It’s tiring, and you have your sensor on all the time. I even started choosing my board game characters with diversity in mind this week. I could not play a VR game designed to simulate workplace discrimination in a “discriminatory way,” even when told it’s safe to test different things.
It’s tiring work, so to have the energy to get back to it, I went to the movies this week, which I enjoy.
Dune part 2
9.5/10 rating. It was an entertaining, captivating experience that wasn’t too slow or fast and was a cinematic experience worth watching at the movies. The storyline has a twist that makes you question how much you love the protagonist without admitting you also love the antagonist. As a movie, it was worth the three hours, and with all the AI development going on, I can’t imagine a fully AI-generated piece of art that could beat this any time soon.
Until next week! Remember to subscribe for more thoughts every Sunday and get access to an exclusive community of daily “Just Thoughts”!
If you found this inspiring, please share
and support my work
You can find me on LinkedIn here. I currently have no other active social profiles. Please get in touch with me if you want to contribute to or advertise this publication! I am always happy to hear feedback and suggestions on how to improve!