"Markets don't kill companies, people do."

What Happy Gilmore can teach us about building companies.

Happy Gilmore is one of my favorite movies. It’s quotable, hilarious, and the right level of socially unacceptable. Richard Kiel’s character, Mr. Larson, is amazing. His best scene is absolutely the “Guns don’t kill people, I kill people” scene. An instant classic!

At risk of being perceived as making a political statement about guns (which in no way am I intending to do…), what stands out to me about Mr. Larson (aside from the fact that Richard Kiel is actually 7’ 2” in real life!) is that he’s 100% right when he talks about bearing ultimate responsibility for killing Shooter McGavin! Mr. Larson is of course WAY more likely to actually kill someone using a gun versus his bare hands, but ultimately it’s Mr. Larson that bears responsibility for killing people, not the gun.

Which brings me to startups (how about that transition?!)! In our experience, markets don’t kill companies, people do. Customers (often) make buying decisions because of their relationship with salespeople (my product-led growth people will skewer me for this statement…). Employees join because of their belief in the founder. Investors invest (especially at the earliest stages!) because of their belief that this individual can build something of consequence, well before there’s any evidence that it can be done. And when these relationships start to unwind or fracture it often does so at an accelerating rate. The same customer flywheel built by the sales team can unwind faster than it was built when the sales team starts to leave. When the exceptional engineering team that built a hardware product in record time starts to splinter, more times than not that trend tends to accelerate, not decelerate. And when most investors start saying no, it becomes increasingly difficult to get the next investor to say yes.

Given this dynamic, we focus on the who and not the what. The strength of a relationship is often more important than the capabilities of the team or individual on paper. It’s why we gift all our founders copies of The Courage to Be Disliked, an approachable overview of Adlerian Psychology, whose core tenet is that “all problems are relationship problems.” We’re drawn to people that understand the nuance that every decision, big or small, should be viewed through the lens of how it affects an individual or individuals. All revenue, capital raised, and ultimately successful outcomes depend on building strong relationships over long periods of time. It can be easy (especially at the early stage) to focus on metrics, and market mapping, and branding because they address our natural instinct to feel in control. But if given the choice to focus on the person and their motivations over the outcome and its importance, we tend to choose the former.

Give Happy Gilmore a rewatch this weekend, you won’t regret it! :)

+Mike