How the wolf persona can make an entrepreneur vulnerable

Keep the wolf from the door

Photo by Virginia Johnson on Unsplash

When growth kicks in after the hustle phase, the Superman mode typically needs to transition to a more managerial and structured role. When a startup is becoming a scale-up, you need to be able to handle new challenges that affect your team. Mergers & acquisitions, hiring new executives, raising more capital changing the cap table¹ and the wolf pack. It can result in a potentially vulnerable position for any co-founder.

The wolf is the ultimate social animal and I find its behaviour is inspiring for startup teams. People who know me well enough, know I am not an Alpha type of guy by nature. Unconsciously, my role transitioned in just a year towards the Alpha wolf persona through many changes in our company.

Looking back now years later, the wolf was the persona that made me lose myself as an entrepreneur but its lessons made me stronger as a human being. Let’s celebrate the second persona, the wolf.

Changes in the wolf pack lead to distraction

The consequence of growing a business leader is that at some point you have to let go of colleagues, investors, co-founders and partners. The more you have to let go, the more this can lead to adverse outcomes.

I was surprised negatively to learn that quite some of the people found me a jerk and a liar, whilst I took care of them. Nobody has lost their money, everybody got their profit and got paid. Of course, some people do think differently and that’s fine, I am not a hater and am always there to apologise if I have made a mistake.

The same goes for people who don’t know the context and judge you from a distance, merely based on the success tip of the iceberg and stories that go around. They don’t see the cold, the uncertainty and the sacrifices you have to make to not be able to spend time with your family. 

These changes in the pack cost you tons of energy, time and money that you need to spend on lawyers, endless and useless meetings and political hazards that undermine your position. 

The battle between the Alphas 

One of my colleagues explained it spot-on whilst sitting together in our office in February 2018: “It is like we are part of a Game of Thrones series”.

And he was right, because already in the after summer of 2017 there were multiple attempts to get ‘family’ on board (initiated by our investor) and force me out of the company. 

At the moment I found a memo on the printer from three colleagues who joined just a few months earlier, I had my typical way of dealing with these situations:

I called in the ‘conspirators’ one by one in a meeting room and told them they would basically have 5 minutes to hand over their laptop, keycard and other items and that a taxi would be standing outside.

Game of Thrones plays are potentially present in any company. Whilst growing the company with 300% a year topline, these were the games I hated to play. When they took place, I dealt with them quickly and dirty, creating a lot of unwanted enemies. At that moment I did not care, it was just my way to get back to work.

A new pack leads to a potentially hostile environment

2017 was a crazy year for us: mega growth and a lot of expansion towards the team and at the same time many changes in our pack. This led to a “Game of Thrones” like situation.

My failure to get the right people next to me blurred my sights. As a founder, I transformed towards an Alpha wolf persona to compensate for the challenges I was facing and worked like crazy to fix everything. Like I mentioned before in my previous blog, I did not enjoy this phase and should have left earlier.

The moment that I made this transition unknowingly, was when the investment partner did not deliver on our investment agreement. On a November day in 2017, the full investment board provided their full approval for our expansion plans. Plans that would make us the undisputed market leader with cutting edge unseen technology.

However, they did not live up to our agreement and had their plans ready to move in a different direction. Including a full team and dirty middlemen. 

It is their signature business model. Injustice like this made me furious and outrageous at that time.

Leaving the pack

At the end of 2017, I became aware that I did not want to fight anymore and leave the pack sooner than later. In this process, I told myself regularly to ‘shut down the drama’ and enjoy life to the fullest. This brought a whole new dimension to my life. Not per se a good one, but I don’t regret it at all. It was my way of compensating for injustice and powerlessness.

I remember ordering a new round of Ace of Spades Champagne in one of New York’s prime clubbing venues. The bill totalled 150.000 dollars easily with over 50 bottles to even feed a village completely drunk. We partied until 6 am or even later with basketball and popstars and still were able to score new deals or do a keynote presentation after one hour of sleep. 

Despite these bizarre nights, we continued to find money to keep the business running and growing. 

Keep the wolf from the door

Of course, people ask me all the time: Why did it go wrong? The answer is simple: I quit too late because I was too far away from the authentic me. I did not even enjoy my work anymore. And that’s where things got risky. Especially if you are not an Alpha type of person and all of a sudden forced to act like one.

You have to protect yourself if the pack changes. I moved on with my passion to keep going. Instead, I should have dropped all my work the moment I felt discomfort and spend time with myself on journalling and talk about the challenges with people who are not part of the ‘family’.

Understanding the wolf persona and your own personal ‘shelf life’ as a founder is the most important aspect I want to share with you. Keep the wolf from the door and trust your gut. 

1. Cap table relates to the shareholdings in a company. The % of the ownership of the individual investors like founders, venture capital partners and other financial or strategic partners.