🤌 Founder Finesse: How to Spot it and 7 Ways to Build It

Joel Hansen

Sep 23, 2022 • 5 min read

Happy Friday Legends,

Welcome back to the Kernal newsletter: King Charles' go-to spot to validate startup ideas for the Commonwealth and the Firm's $42B of assets 👑

Latest tech gossip: Clock's ticking on VC dry powder, interest rates are climbing, electric planes are flying. South Korea hit big tech w/ $72m fine, Canva elbowed Microsoft with their visual work suite, Spotify spooked Audible with audiobook drop, Twitch is banning unlicensed gambling live streams, and Beyond Meat's COO got cranked. We're 2 Chardonnays deep. Let's buckle up and get you some startup ideas. 👩‍🍳

🤌 Founder finesse lines to chew on
🔥 Spicy startup ideas
🐦 Boat load of memes

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🤌 7 Founder Finesse Terms to Think On

Brute forcing your way to sales or startup idea validation only works so far. Eventually, people figure out you're no fun to be around and not in it for the long haul. At Kernal University, we only hire professors that know the Founder Fruits of the Spirit.

Here's the 7 values Finesse comes down to and the one-liners we bring up at parent-teacher conferences when a student is underperforming:

💚 Patience: good things take time. Don't be a follow-up fool. Everyone's solving their own fires or changing their kids' diapers. We know you have quarterly goals to report to your board on but don't take it out on the person not replying to your email.
💚 Diligence: Do. Your. Research. Don't ask questions a 8th-grade student could google in class. Do reference checks, check mutual connections, and be 5 chess steps ahead of your next meeting. Investors take note and if they don't give you dry powder this time they'll definitely hit you up the next time.w
💚 Humility: the highest performers never toot their own horns. They let other customers, employees and investors speak for them. If you run out of things to talk about in a meeting, ask the other person a question. About their personal life. About their summer. About their 10-year plan. Humility is an Ace of hearts. Bragging is a 4 of spades. We both know which one wins the poker table.
💚 Creativity: Stop writing boring email subject lines. Stop doing boring employee perks. JAZZ IT UP. Prove your human. Shake up the formula. Think outside the box. Leave cookie crumbs in your products for your customers to be wowed. Send a surprise gift to random customers. Buy your staff Starbucks tomorrow near their favourite co-working space. Dopamine never hurt nobody.
💚 Courtesty: Remember how crazy life is. People get engaged, people quit jobs, people have mental health difficulties. No day's gonna be the same for everybody. Go the extra mile and spoon-feed easy opportunities to people vs making them do the work. Don't be that person that sends a cal invite with no meeting link. Send it with an agenda, context notes, and a 24 email reminder to see if they still have time to chat. Both choices reflect different founder values.
💚 Timeliness: Know the difference between urgent and important. $10 tasks and $10,000 tasks. Coffee with the Founder of Hubspot is a $10,000/hr meeting. Bet your bottom dollar your showing up early. Taking out your garbage is a $10 task. Plan your priorities accordingly.
💚 Kindness: Selena Gomez wasn't lying. Treating your community well goes a long way. Make introductions. Share feedback. Encourage others. Wait a sec - this sounds like the option for a startup idea on Kernal 🌚

You get the point. Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither is your startup network. Don't be a robot. Test out some of these founder values and let us know which one sparks a chord with you.

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Startup Ideas of the Week

Deal notes: Shared by Rob from Calgary, experience in social entrepreneurship, carbon credits and accelerator programming. [read more]

Deal notes: Shared by Sneha in New York, looking for teammates and workout buddies, Reach out here [read more]

Deal Notes: Artem's already got one customer on board (us), Jump on the train here and read his caption that made us blush [read more]

Deal notes: Keela and Stephen are shaking up financing your startup idea. The Paintbrush Loan model ($50k, 5 years, 15%) is the game plan their chasing [read more]

Deal notes: experienced founder, targeting dog owners with a goal to build an e-commerce product around the TRX for humans model [read more]

Deal notes: crafted by Devin, preview your going out experience from the couch, seeking marketing and sales experience to complement his tech background. Contact him here to chat further.

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