There’s no denying that technology dominates most of our lives. Just about everything we do in public, in private entities and at a personal level utilities technology.
Little is known, however, about the people behind these technology companies. In the interest of creating more awareness about the founders of innovation and technology companies I’ve been speaking with people behind these companies to understand them better. It is clear to me that they are inspirational and I hope they will also inspire you.
The founder of Y Combinator, Paul Graham, was once asked to write about the qualities his technology accelerator startup and venture capital firm looks for in the startup technology founders that it supports.
He highlighted five key traits: determination, flexibility, imagination, naughtiness and friendship. What matters most, he indicated, was determination, which he ranked as more important than high intelligence. Provided you were over a certain level of intelligence, “what matters most is determination”.
In this regard, he noted that founders will hit a lot of obstacles and cannot be the kind of people who are easily demoralised. A founder, he wrote, also had to be flexible. The world of technology startups was an unpredictable one and a founder had to be able to modify their dreams and ideas on the fly.
On imagination, he said a founder had to be a little crazy and come up with novel and surprising ideas. Because if the ideas were obvious, someone else would already have implemented them.
Graham also believes a founder needs to be a little piratical and naughty – someone who delights in breaking rules, but not the rules that matter.
On friendship, he said it was hard to start a startup with just one founder. Most of the successful ones have two or three founders, though the relationship between them had to be strong and they must genuinely like one another and work well together.
I’ve seen all of five of these qualities among the founders we’ve covered in the upcoming issue of FastCompany (SA) magazine.
This is important because as trust in politicians and other leaders diminishes, society is looking for leaders who can make a difference.
There’s little doubt that the current generation is placing its trust in technology founders.
In the process of compiling the upcoming issue of FastCompany (SA) magazine, I’ve spoken to a number of them in an effort to discover what they do when it comes to developing institutions that are solving some of our most pressing problems. While many founders are admittedly imperfect and have flaws, they are also inspirational.
Many of them experience difficult challenges, yet they somehow find creative solutions that all of us can apply in our business and professional journey.
One such founder is Professor Eldrid Jordaan, the founder of Suppple and former CEO of GovChat.
I’ve observed Jordaan since his time as a board member of what was once the leading social network in Africa, Mxit. There he played a critical role in enabling the platform to respond to government requirements. Thereafter he formed GovChat, an entity that enabled the South African government to deliver services when it was not easy to do so. During this time he was facing a major battle with a global tech giant Meta (parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram).
Recently he formed another technology startup that is listed on the Luxembourg Stock. The company has already developed solutions that are enabling governments to use Artificial intelligence (AI) and health entities to benefit from the latest technology advancements.
These inspiring stories of local founders are designed to inspire more founders to emerge. More founders are invited to share their stories with FastCompany (SA) to be documented for future generations to be inspired.
Wesley Diphoko is a technology analyst. He has been operating at the intersection of technology and media as the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine. You can follow him on X via: @WesleyDiphoko
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