The #1 Skill Startup Founders Actually Need

Hi, Christine here, 

I'm the founder of Startup with Christine (and a serial entrepreneur with two acquisitions under my belt).

Each week I share my advice for how to grow your startup in less time and with less stress.

Sound like something you want? Then click here first!

But I digress...

This week I met with a very bright founder who has just finished patenting a novel medical device that he developed while he was a professor at a top U.S. university.

I met with this founder because a mutual friend had told me that he was struggling with monetization.

On the surface he had everything going for him:

• ✅ Clinically proven medical device
• ✅ Patented product
• ✅ Studies that showed his product saved lives.

Yet despite all of this, his sales efforts were going nowhere.

“I don’t understand,” he told me. “This product can save lives. Why don’t people want to buy it?”

I felt my heart sink. I didn’t have the heart to tell him what I already knew after years of running businesses: your product is irrelevant if no-one wants to pay for it.

Harsh, I know. 

It also got me thinking about the top skills a startup founder/CEO really needs to succeed.

So many founders that I coach are brilliant people...

They have novel ideas, they find money to build a prototype, they recruit others to their cause, they toil for months perfecting their offering, and they build a solution from the ground up, through sheer grit.

🎉 This deserves applause. It is not easy stuff! 🎉

But perhaps you’ve also encountered a less pleasant part of a founder’s journey: you’ve unleashed your innovative solution on the world…. and…. crickets.

Maybe you have a few hand-raisers from family and friends, a couple of hundred app downloads, or one initial client. But retention is low, and organic growth is non-existent.

You’re crushed. 

You feel ashamed. You promised yourself (and those around you) that your business would be a success, and now what?

You try a few different marketing strategies: maybe some Instagram ads, or hiring a consultant. Hopes are high. You have to spend money, to make money, right?

But again, crickets.

Trust me - you’re not alone. This is a VERY common scenario, especially when you’re a first-time founder.

And it’s all part of the journey - no shame or blame here.

But you do need to do something about it.

If I was to give you a Startup Founder Archetype Test, it is likely that you (like our founder in the story above) would skew towards the Builder archetype. Your natural inclination is to solve problems by building a solution.

What doesn’t come so naturally is the archetype of ‘Seller’. 

And yet it is selling that is truly the #1 skill that a startup founder/CEO needs to succeed.

ALL founders need sales skills. It’s a non-negotiable that can’t be outsourced or hired away.

Sales skills are what great founders use to close investor deals; attract customers; discover new market opportunities; develop repeatable playbooks for growth; and prioritize the tasks that truly build a sustainable, revenue-generating business.

But if you haven’t come from a marketing or sales background, learning this set of skills can feel daunting.

That’s why I created a freebie for you: the Startup Founder’s Skills Matrix for Selling.

It’s a simple matrix so you can see exactly what skills you have TODAY and what skills you need to build ASAP.

When you build the skills in the matrix, startup life can become 100X easier. It's not a magic bullet, but it is getting you one step closer to a scaleable, repeatable, model of growth without the stress.

That's what I want for you.

 Find Out What Sales Skills You Have (and Are Missing) Here.