Solo Startup

I read about an interesting personality profiler in the TechCrunch article Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Startup Entrepreneur?. It’s a tool used by a company called Pairwise that uses images to determine your personality. The tools displays a series of pairs of images and asks you to pick the one you prefer. Your results are then compared with others. The company promoting the use of the tool do use in job interviews and assessments.

I took the test but I had a hard time deciding which image to pick in some instances – mainly since I was turned off by both. After reading my assessment it is apparent that I was too logical about my choices. According to this exam I am “very dissimilar” to the group of startup entrepreneurs at Y Combinator. Among other things I:

• base my decisions less on emotion/feeling/intuition
• am a ton less risk-averse
• am a lot less cleanly
• am a ton less likely to plan ahead
• am a lot more masculine (I knew that!)
• am a ton more of a night person (bingo)
• am a lot less likely to be honest about stuff (really?)
• am a lot more creative
• am a ton more of a natural leader
• am a little less likely to be right-handed (uh, no)
• am a little less extroverted/outgoing (probably right here)

So, I guess I don’t have what it takes to be a Silicon Valley tech startup entrepreneur, or at least I am not like this batch of them.

I think that tools like this can be very helpful. I used to believe that personality assessments were a waste of time and just an excuse for HR organizations to have feel-good seminars. But over the years I have changed my opinion. Really, it was having multiple children that helped me appreciate the different temperaments that individuals possess. My two daughters are very different in their personalities and they each have a blend of my wife and me (seems natural). Seeing my daughters strengths and weaknesses has opened my eyes to my own tendencies.

The point is that you had better know your own temperament and your strengths and weaknesses before you start a business and definitely before you become a solo entrepreneur. You need to know where you are lacking so that you can find those people to come along side of you and help.

Take a look at my Pairwise test results