25 Degrees

There are often two forces at work within a growing company. 1️⃣ The early team who see the benefits of being a scrappy startup & want to keep things that way 2️⃣ New hires from corporates who want to formalise the company and establish rigid structures As a founder, you have a responsibility in this scenario...

Every government says it wants more entrepreneurs. Yet founders are expected to shoulder all the risks. They leave safe jobs. They work without guarantees. They often take a lower salary than they could earn elsewhere. They carry the stress, the uncertainty and the possibility of failure. And if it works, everyone benefits. Employees get jobs. Investors get returns. Suppliers get customers. Cities get growth. Governments get tax revenue. But the kind of risk-taking that makes all that possible can’t happen unless governments are willing to pull some weight too. To remove unnecessary friction, reward ambition, and improve access to capital. To tolerate failure and stop treating wealth creation as something suspicious. ️⚠️ You can’t build a risk-taking economy with risk-averse rules. If the rules are too slow, too punitive, too uncertain, or too bureaucratic, the most ambitious people will eventually go elsewhere. Founders are mobile. So is capital. Policymakers need to start understanding this. Founders aren’t just another business constituency. They’re national economic assets. And countries that want growth should treat them that way.

Travelling the world has given me the best business training I could’ve asked for. Experiencing new places and meeting people from completely different cultures has taught me so much. Including the fact that not every market, customer, or partner thinks the same way.

This month’s newsletter is about what I call the “founder’s tax”. It's a very painful truth for all entrepreneurs, but if you want your company to outgrow you, you eventually have to let someone else lead it in their own direction. I share my own experience of stepping back from the day-to-day and explain how to recognise when you've reached this stage in your business, the distinct skills of a founder and a manager, and why what your business needs isn't always what feels comfortable for you...

Markets don’t reward short-term reactions. The world is a volatile place at the moment. One moment renewable energy is pushed down the agenda, and the next, people are interested again. That's why we can't let geopolitical noise dictate our investments.

Don't be so stubborn that you miss the market. As founders, we’re always told to be persistent and work tirelessly to make our ideas a reality. And I agree with that – to a point. But you also need to listen to what the market is telling you. When I founded my fashion brand, VONROSEN, the original concept was a members-only club. You had to be invited to buy our pieces. We wanted to create exclusivity. I liked the idea a lot. I still do. But the market wasn’t ready yet – at a time when even buying shoes online felt absurd to many people. So we pivoted. That didn’t mean giving up. But it did mean compromising on my original vision and opening access to the brand far more than I initially wanted. There’s no hard rule for when you should or shouldn’t pivot. Sometimes being stubborn is the right decision. But as a founder, your job isn’t to protect your idea. It’s to build something people actually want – even if it looks different from what you first imagined or if it needs to be revisited later when the market is finally ready.