How generalists help generalist founders
When leveraging a generalist counterpart is the right choice for your team
We love a good series here at hWD HQ, so as we close out the summer, we’ll dig into great founders' skill profiles and where generalists can amplify their efforts internally and across teams.Â
Many would argue that all early-stage founders need to wear many hats given the simple fact that there aren’t other team members to fill functional roles within a nascent organization. While that’s likely the case, the skillset and schooling of the founder prior to launching their startup dictates what type of founder they'll be.Â
Say perhaps that you’re the founder of a tater tot tech company (and if you are, please reveal yourself to the oAT team. Food and software for the win). You got a business degree in college, worked in sales at a tech company, and had a deep love of fried potatoes brewing on the side. When you began your company, you likely knew enough about sales, marketing, and how businesses work to be dangerous and spent time understanding the food industry to grab some domain knowledge pertinent to strategic success before you began. This would make you a generalist founder, someone with broad functional knowledge who likely finds comfort in taking on the generalist role.Â
Alternatively, you could be a tater tot chef connoisseur, a Michelin-starred potato specialist who knows how to make the very, very best tater tots. While you might have had a stint at a restaurant or two and understand great mechanisms of fast-paced operations, project management, and how to work on a nimble team, for this exercise, we’d still consider you a specialist founder, a professional well-versed in a potato, but not so much in bringing a business from 0 - 1.Â
If you’re the former, and you’re ready to expand your team, you have loads of options in today’s world of work. FTEs, freelancers, operating partners, outsourcing, etc… but who do you choose?Â
how DO you… utilize a generalist as a generalist founder?
Leverage your proxy to 10x your effectiveness.
Why This Works
Generalists solve a velocity problem for generalist founders. At some point, generalist founders need to scale themselves, and while they can easily hand off one function to a specialist, the generalist-to-generalist pass-off is a 1-1 swap that allows founders to get a proxy to themselves as they’re still figuring out the right specialists to bring in to scale. Â
Why Do This Now
It’s a bold statement but we’re gonna make it: generalist founder burnout > specialist founder burnout. Wearing all of the hats and context-switching to keep it all going is a recipe for exhaustion and nothing kills startup momentum quicker than an energy-depleted founder. When you’re feeling right on the edge and you can’t get your startup growth to budge, it’s likely time to bring in generalist reinforcements.Â
how We Do: Delegate, delegate, delegate
Ways Generalists help Generalist Founders
Reprioritize founder effort toward high-velocity tasks: Not all tasks are created equal. For founders doing it all, figuring out what high-value tasks 10x their effectiveness for the organization and delegating the rest away to a trusted generalist can not only benefit the founder but the startup as a whole. Consider PM Shreyas Doshi’s the LNO framework when assessing tasks that can be passed to a generalist.Â
Provide founder with a trusted strategist: Many generalist founders can look to a generalist counterpart (think: Chief of Staff, COO, General Manager, etc) as their second set of strategic eyes and ears. A generalist can be a great directional and operational sounding board given their breadth and ability to manage cross-functional work. While many founders are lucky to have great advisors, VCs, and board members to rely on for strategic support, if they’re not in the day-to-day of the business, having someone do the work alongside them can often spur the best innovation and strategic thinking.Â
Scale operations with ease: Given the cross-functional nature of generalists’ work, you can trust them with the keys to build out systems and processes - leverage AI and automation where appropriate - to unlock opportunities to scale without additional headcount or capital expenditure. Â
Keep project management across the org breezy: Another win for the cross-functional nature of generalist’s work. Generalist founders who are the arbiters of truth for project management can be a drag on speed. Empowering a generalist proxy to do that work for you, and surfacing the right information to you (with a human touch even the best meeting note robot can’t replicate) can ensure proper prioritization and accountability while keeping things moving efficiently.Â
Manage user account access: Enlist a generalist to ensure that the team has appropriate access to your tools and data. Is your product manager the account holder for your Canva? Or an event planning tool? Or Linear? Ensure permissions are passed off efficiently with appropriate onboarding and offboarding of tools.Â
Have a second source for employees: As you start to expand your team, new employees, particularly junior hires, can feel intimidated by having to approach the founder for every little question. Having a generalist on your side with a similar breadth of visibility across your organization creates a second option for the team to direct their day-to-day questions.
Before you go
It’s crucial to recognize that building a versatile team isn’t just about filling gaps - it’s about strategically amplifying your strengths. Generalists bring a unique ability to adapt, prioritize, and provide broad-spectrum support, which can be a game-changer when you’re wearing multiple hats and managing the chaos of early-stage growth. As a generalist founder, having a generalist at your side, you gain not just an extra pair of hands but a trusted partner who can help you navigate the complexities of scaling your business. Whether it’s streamlining operations, providing strategic insight, or taking over project management, a generalist can help you maintain momentum and focus on what matters most - your vision.
Writer: Britt