[zemvpferreira]

I just finished reading The Cult of We. If the author is to be believed, Adam Neumann managed to build WeWork into a $50 Billion unicorn while fathering 5 children and being perpetually drunk and/or high. And having no real talents beyond incredible salesmanship and incredible obliviousness.

So yeah, it's possible. But is it right for you? We can't say without knowing more.

[wanderingmind]

Being an incredible salesman is the most important trait to be a founder. You can easily start a company if you can sell your vision to a technically skilled person and to the angel fund. You can never succeed no matter how technically strong you are or how good the product is, if you cannot sell it. The sheer arrogance of technical people waving off selling as a lesser skill is getting boring even to me and I'm not a sales person.

[kenrose]

As a founder, you have to get comfortable with doing sales. It’s how you get, you know, money and revenue.

But you don’t have to be an “incredible” salesperson.

Be able to explain the value prop of your product. Know your customer and know how you help them. Become good at having them know this too.

But that’s just rote sales and marketing. Nothing “incredible” about it.

But yes, if you are technical and hold “sales” as some kind of contemptuous skill, you won’t do well.

[zemvpferreira]

Personally I'd put luck and resiliency at the top but I can't say you're wrong/that I'd disagree that much - WeWork is exactly proof of that, at least in times when money is cheap.

But WeWork is also proof that unless there's some substance to go with the selling the story won't end well.

[wanderingmind]

Sure you will not succeed in long term without a good, market differentiating product, but a starup cannot even get off the ground without selling.

[matthewowen]

Luck isn’t a trait, it’s just a thing that happens.

[jl2718]

I didn’t read it, but, if true, this seems possible once you understand the broader personality disease associated with alcoholism. These people are ‘extreme takers’, and they are like magnets for codependents who pride themselves on their contributions. Then the taker puts this relationship into overdrive by creating a never ending string of disasters for the codependent employees to clean up. They will exhaust themselves trying keep him away by making it work without him.

I have a lot more to say about how this works and why the codependents keep falling for it, but that is the gist of how it works. Sounds like a great book to look into for a CoDA study.