Be Exothermic! Igniting and Accelerating the Startup Flywheel

Exothermic leadership radiates energy and helps build vibrant company cultures, attract stakeholders, and accelerate growth.

Idea in Brief

• Firm culture is often evident by energy and buzz in the office
• Exothermic people radiate energy, embrace teamwork, enhance customer service and improve culture
• Energy is a cornerstone for success. Recruit for energy as well as integrity, intelligence and skill
• Be exothermic! Atomic exothermic habits: smile, ‘we’ not ‘they’, how are you doing – “Great!”

Companies presell themselves through the energy emitted before a meeting takes place. Yelp sparkled with energy, and the buzz around the office sold me before I had met the CEO. Employees wearing Yelp t-shirts greeted each other warmly and engaged in lively debates as they huddled around computers. Meetings at firms that emit a somber or pensive feel are often over before they begin.

SVT Robotics exudes energy. The receptionist greeted me warmly in the lobby with a poster of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man looming in the background. Robots whirred around the office delivering packages to employee’s desks as we walked to the conference room. Employees scurried around as if in a tacit race with the robots.

The CEO emitted energy consistent with the company’s motto emblazoned on his t-shirt: “Be Exothermic”. The first tenet of SVT’s culture, he explained, is to radiate energy. Dynamic companies, he believed, have employees who radiate energy. High energy firms are magnets for exothermic talent who raise the productive capacity of the entire firm.

Be Exothermic resonates and reflected well the effusive energy in the office. It also captures what companies may hope to achieve in their transition to a New Normal.

The Value of Office Buzz

We often learn more about people by the company they keep and books they read than by what they say. Company décor, layout and interaction can speak volumes. Does the office have buzz? Are employees engaged and enthusiastic? What do their interactions tell us about teamwork and company culture? Do they talk in the “we” or “they” pronoun? How do they respond when the CEO walks past? What values are conveyed through company décor? Does the layout suggest a flat or hierarchical organization? These observations may determine whether and how one proceeds with an engagement.

Reaffirming Culture & Commitment post-Covid

Most companies acquitted themselves well during Covid. They have treated employees well and found creative ways to build culture virtually. We have made the best of a tough situation, but our best efforts are leaky. People get distracted, teamwork frays and company cultures dissipate with remote work.

“Be Exothermic” resonates more in challenging times. Exuding enthusiasm during plentiful times is easy. COVID has been exhausting and enervating. Exothermic energy is a rare element during crises.

COVID disrupted company and personal norms. Our search for a New Normal may unleash a period of creativity around the hybrid workforce and reconceive the Future of Work combining the best of remote and in person work. Our first task is to reaffirm personal commitments and company culture. Only then can we redesign work for efficiency and effectiveness. We must form and norm again before we can storm.

Leadership in War and Peace

Jim Larranaga is a high energy, preternaturally positive college basketball coach who had a remarkable career, including leading a Cinderella march to the Final Four with George Mason University. He started each of his basketball camps with the question, “How are you?” The only acceptable answer was “Great!” yelled enthusiastically by all. No one, he explained, wants to hear anything less. Larranaga’s dictum has stayed with me and my boys for the last two decades. Our answer is always an enthusiastic “Great!”

“Be Exothermic” speaks brings many intangible benefits. In Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth showed that grit is often the best indicator of future success, particularly when overcoming adversity.

COVID was a crucible moment for companies and nations. Many CEOs have demonstrated resilience, resourcefulness, and persistence through COVID. At NGP we encouraged CEOs to “Survive and Thrive.” We have profound respect for teams that endured plummeting revenues, repeated cost cutting, and painful pivots, yet are emerging battle hardened with optimism for the future.

For those companies that have survived and won the war, the task of thriving and winning the peace is no less daunting. History shows that winning the peace differs from winning the war. Winston Churchill presided over Britain’s ‘Finest Hour’ during World War II, yet Britain turned to Clement Attlee to rebuild the country after the war. Mahatma Gandhi won freedom for India; Jawaharlal Nehru crafted an independent nation. Mao Tse Tung brought a Cultural Revolution; Deng Xiao Ping laid the economic foundation for China’s meteoric rise. Nelson Mandela led the Apartheid movement; Thabo Mbeki oversaw national reconciliation in South Africa. Lech Wałęsa led the Solidarity uprising that dismantled socialism; Lech Kaczyński rebuilt Poland as a democratic country.

Traits adaptive for surviving differ from those of thriving. As aging software assumes technical debt, prolonged stress weighs on organizations. Companies must rebound quickly as a new generation of startups await COVID survivors.

“Be Exothermic” applies well as survivors turn to the task of thriving. The vaccine has relaxed lockdown restrictions and brightened our future. The protective armor that enabled companies to survive must be shed to move quickly and thrive. Nimbleness and optimism to capitalize on new opportunities may augment the grit and persistence needed for survival.

Acquiring stakeholders is the essence of entrepreneurship. A successful entrepreneur attracts talent, partners, customers and capital ahead of its time. The ‘reality distortion field’ for which Steve Jobs is known is an inherent trait of entrepreneurship. An optimist turns a glass half empty to a glass half full. A great entrepreneur takes that one step further and with sleight of hand and mathematical chimera turns a glass three quarters empty to three quarters full.

Be Exothermic!

Exothermic: Related Concepts

Seed stage investors focus on Founder Opportunity Fit. Product Market Fit becomes relevant at the growth stage. Great promoters attract stakeholders: talent, customers, partners and funding. Great promoters are Exothermic: they internalize the kinetic energy to get the Flywheel spinning and accelerate momentum.

T Shaped Leaders combine breadth and depth. In Good to Great, Jim Collins referred to the Hedgehog and the Fox – the hedgehog knows one thing well, the fox many things. Entrepreneurs need to be adaptable, agile and do many things. But investors look for hedgehogs as entrepreneurs are disproportionally rewarded for insight and being the best at one important thing.

Warren Buffett looks for CEOs who safeguard shareholder interests. Alignment of Interests are essential in Crucible Moments. When times are tough, it is a blessing when entrepreneurs and investors can coalesce and focus externally on the problem.