Overcoming a sense of unworthiness to become an entrepreneur
What keeps so many entrepreneur-curious developers from launching a product? In this series, I speak with dev founders to see what inspired them to launch. Email me if you’re a dev-founder interested in sharing your story.
Andrew Fraine’s career in engineering was a big departure from the entrepreneurial life he now leads.
Before he co-founded Automata — an AI-powered SaaS for marketing teams — Andrew Fraine was earning a Ph.D. and working full-time as a researcher in an experimental Quantum Optics lab.
What led Fraine to depart what would likely be a stable, lucrative career as a staff engineer for the uncertainty of entrepreneurship? For Fraine, it was all about freedom and the joy of building.
I spoke with him to learn about what inspired him to launch and what he’s learned so far from his entrepreneurial journey.
Why'd you become an entrepreneur?
I value freedom and ownership of my time over everything else including economic opportunity.
What’d you struggle with early on?
A difficult skill a lot of early founders struggle with, including me, is the ability to outsource repeatable jobs to free up enough time to do things that require research and deep thought. This is a huge challenge especially for bootstrapped founders because we’re always in the mindset that we have to do everything ourselves and it’s difficult to forecast an ROI on paying someone to do something that we could do ourselves.
What skills did you cultivate to become a well-rounded entrepreneur?
The most important core skill that an entrepreneur needs to have, whether technical or non-technical, is marketing and communication. There is no way around having a clear explanation of your product and the value you bring your users. It doesn’t matter if you build the most useful, advanced, cutting-edge piece of software, if you can’t market it, no one is going to buy it.
Did you encounter imposter syndrome?
Yes. I haven’t come across an entrepreneur that hasn’t encountered this. I felt this very deeply at the beginning because I am a 100% self-taught developer and I’ve never worked for a “real” company as a developer. There is always the thought in the back of my mind that I’m not following best practices, there are holes in our security, etc.
However, as soon as you realize there are many ways to solve every problem, you stop worrying about what Javascript framework you’re using, what email marketing software you have, and if your tech stack is as cutting edge as the new competitor that just launched. As long as you focus on building a product that serves a real market willing to pay you for it, it doesn’t matter what you use to build it.
What about the fear of failure?
If you fear failure as an entrepreneur, it’s a good idea to ask yourself how you’ll feel in 5-10 years if you don’t give it a shot. Whether or not you succeed, your skill set is your most valuable asset and you’ll always be able to fall back on that.
If you have a stable job and are not sure if you really want to be an entrepreneur, it’s a great idea to test the waters in a very small way. Create a small niche app in your spare time that serves a group of people that has a very clear problem. Market it on social media and see if you enjoy the process of starting from a blank page and building something from nothing.
Did you experience analysis paralysis?
The lack of knowledge of potential outcomes of leaving a job to become an entrepreneur is likely the main source of paralysis analysis. The best thing I recommend is to visualize the worst-case scenario if you start a business and fail, and the worst-case scenario is you never try.
Visualizing worst-case scenarios and understanding how you would deal with them is a great way to understand whether or not the risk is worth taking.
Being an entrepreneur sounds almost synonymous to being successful nowadays. Maybe it's because of all those blown-out-of-proportion LinkedIn success stories?
Calling myself an entrepreneur when I'm still struggling to make ends meet just feels wrong.
Cool story!
Firstly, congrats to Andrew for taking the risk and on launching the product launch, looks pretty cool (content is as relevant as ever, and so are content platforms).
My story was quite similar in the sense, that I started as a freelance designer who transitioned into development, while not having much real-world experience working in an actual company development team. Although I had the opportunity to experience it, I then saw just how that kind of work style is really not for me. I really prefer the freedom that freelancing gives.
Impostor syndrome is definitely something that regularly impacts engineers, academic intellectuals and many others. It can actually cause pretty bad damage in the sense that it can stop you from building the next big great product in your life.
What I noticed that helped me control the mental influence of impostor syndrome is to take it as a grounding thing. But that does not mean that you shouldn't try. Worst thing that can happen is you have a new project that you learn a bunch from and can use it as a showcase.
I feel these things for a reason, there will always be smarter, more capable people around, but there are always things I can do to improve. Be it improving my soft skills (business, communication) or technical knowledge (infrastructure, networking, app design,...). Many people's businesses fail just because of a lack of discipline or lack of motivation, even though they have clear advantages.
Small steps every day go a very long way.
Great interview!
In many ways, not having worked for a "real" company as a developer is an asset, as well as being self-taught. You don't have the baggage of treating everything like you would at a big tech co. At a big company, you tend to spend a lot of time on "bureaucratic code", i.e. code that helps ensure that a large team can maintain the code base over a long period of time. That kind of stuff is important for large teams, but if you're trying to ship quickly to learn about your target market, it really holds you back.
thanks
I like the advice of "What's the worst that can happen?"
I think we often build these worst-case scenarios up in our heads. Pair those with comparisons to wildly-successful indie hackers and you can definitely feel unworthy to "become an entrepreneur."
When/if we fail to meet those standards, we think that means something about our personal value. As a result, it's easier to avoid the potential downsides of building a new project.
"I am a 100% self-taught developer and I’ve never worked for a “real” company as a developer."
Totally can relate to this as a dev and in other parts of my life like music. I taught myself how to play bass so I felt like I couldn't be in a band. When I taught myself to be a developer, the same them popped up and I struggled to feel good enough to be a founder.