Why there is no place for founder tourists – UKTN

Every year, 10,000 aspiring entrepreneurs apply to the Antler founder residency in London. Each application is reviewed, screened and interviewed by the team. As a Partner, I then conduct a final interview to make the ultimate decision about whether they will join the next residency. 

We are ramping up to start our next residency in the next few weeks so I am in the midst of that process. In the last 12 months, I have interviewed 200 founders. You quickly learn what to look for, and the red flags that you need to avoid. 

And nothing sets alarm bells ringing than signs that I’m speaking to a founder tourist – someone who likes the idea of being their own boss and running their own startup, but who has wildly underestimated what it really takes to be a successful founder. 

The number of founder tourists is increasing. This is because the barriers to building are getting lower and lower with AI coding tools enabling more people than ever to build. 

We are seeing record numbers of founders entering the market in the UK, and there is hugely encouraging levels of investment activity for early-stage tech companies. These are very positive indicators about the health of the UK tech ecosystem. But they also create an environment that is more competitive than ever. 

And in that competitive environment, there is no place for founder tourists. 

The UK is one of the best places in the world to build a tech startup, but founder tourists distract time, energy and money from the real outliers – the founders who understand this is a marathon not a weekend job, and who understand that the objective isn’t to make a hobby into a reality, but to build a truly category-defining tech business. 

Founder tourists can be convincing. They might have a great idea and strong experience. But that isn’t enough. 

Most people can run 100m. But they can’t set a world record. And as a VC, that is what we are looking for – founders who have what it takes to reach Olympic-level standard in business and technology and be the best in the world at what they do. 

What sets apart outliers from founder tourists is dedication and commitment. There is a novelty to being a tech founder that can get you through the first year. But what really matters is when you’re at year three or four and you’re still working through the long hours, the sleepless nights, the setbacks and the constant new challenges. 

I’ve been there myself. I know what 80 hour weeks feel like. It’s not easy and you have to make significant sacrifices. 

And being motivated by a desire for freedom or the status of being a founder isn’t enough to get you through those times. Like athletes, the best founders are inspired by something deeper. A desire to solve a big difficult problem, a drive to prove they can be the best and a determination to have a positive impact on the world. 

We recently asked our founders about their experience building their companies. Most of them said it was the hardest thing they’ve ever done. But all of them said they loved doing it. The best founders know this is a test of endurance, and they run towards that challenge. 

There are two things we need to do as a tech ecosystem and as a society to replace founder tourists with real outliers. 

Firstly, we need to have an honest conversation about what being a founder really involves. We can’t shy away from the fact that work-life balance is difficult to manage for entrepreneurs and we need to share experiences about the ways founders navigate that. We need to speak openly about the financial sacrifices involved and the astonishingly slim chances of success for most tech startups out there.

But we also need to give outlier founders the recognition they deserve. Invariably they have made the decision to step away from secure jobs and lucrative salaries to do something risky and extraordinary. 

When Cristiano Ronaldo is the first to arrive and last to leave the training ground every day we admire his commitment. The same should be true for founders. We should celebrate their dedication and drive. 

Our next residency is starting in April and I have 20 founder interviews in my diary for the next two weeks. Starting a company will be some of the hardest weeks of your professional life. You will be pushing as hard as you can to figure out if your idea works – if it’s an opportunity worth solving and a business worth building. But it’s supposed to be hard, and the rewards are great. 

If you might be a founder tourist, ask yourself if this is really the right path for you. If you think you could be an outlier who has what it takes to embark on a ten year training plan to reach the heights of an Olympian, then I look forward to talking to you.

Adam French is a partner at VC firm Antler

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