Looking for great “first violinist” founders
Co-Managing Partner Patricia Tang (WG26) on why great founders are like great first violinists
In a past life, I trained to become a professional viola player. Here’s a glimpse at what I was up to back then.
After leaving the viola behind, I thought I’d never reflect on my music performance career again. However, as I support founders and invest in startups today, I’m starting to realize the lessons-in-common that I’m deriving between my music career and the startup ecosystem.
As a violist, I played in a lot of string quartets. For those not in the know, the first violinist is the de-facto artistic “leader” when a string quartet team (first violin, second violin, viola, cello) works together, and they play the largest role in setting the tone for building up an interpretation of a piece zero-to-one.
After working with countless first violinists, I found that traits of leadership potential, creativity, and resilience ultimately separated good first violinists from great ones. And, after closer reflection on the founders that I’ve been most excited to support, I see common threads between great first violinists and great founders.
The same qualities I see in the best first violinists, I see in the best founders. Great “first violinist” founders leverage their unique viewpoints to create remarkable things, take and iterate upon inputs most effectively, and inspire others to follow them on their paths to making incredible things happen.
Create Great Things
In classical music, performances are constrained by source material. You can think of classical sheet music as the “universe” within which creative decisions are made, where this universe imposes environmental constraints within which creativity must thrive.
Great first violinists interpret their universes uniquely to create standout performances. They do this by taking advantage of not only an eye for excellence, but also an eye for beauty. Great first violinists create exceptional and differentiated art that listeners actively seek out amongst a vast universe of listenable content due to the distinct visions of beauty that first violinists bring to their art.
“First violinist” founders operate within markets in similar ways. Markets have operating rules and constraints that limit creativity and bring about similar ideas and solutions. What “first violinist” founders do differently is cut through the noise, see where markets and industries can be made more efficient or more “beautiful,” and create differentiated products and experiences through their unique insights. Just as great first violinists create performances that captivate listeners, “first violinist” founders build products and experiences that compel users to adopt them because of how uniquely pleasant it is to use them. Through this, “first violinist” founders secure wins across industries.
Iterate on Inputs
In classical music, no performance comes fully-baked day 1. Refining a performance takes hours of iteration to develop a strong perspective and cohesive vision.
Competent first violinists tend to become the dominant voices in this process, coming in with their own visions and executing on them unilaterally. When teammates and listeners chime in with differing opinions on a performance, competent first violinists still hold fast to their initial creative vision without any deviation or consideration of alternative ideas / viewpoints.
Great first violinists, however, have conviction in their creative vision but also hold space for trusted opinions from other artistic stakeholders — coaches, peers, and listeners. By improving upon their own perspective via the input of others, great first violinists lead their teams to elevate their artistic product and create a superior artwork better than what would have been created in absence of external feedback.
Great “first violinist” founders seek out and take account of feedback. While a founder’s initial product vision is important in establishing the core of a product / startup, a founder is only as successful as their ability to proactively improve based on the feedback of their teammates, advisors, and customers. To an exceptional “first violinist” founder, feedback is valuable data that helps them iterate on their own approach / vision and take it to a higher level.
Inspire Others to Act
If one considers the best first violinists in the string quartet world, these musicians do not demand authoritatively that others must listen to what they have to say. They are, instead, virtuosos with viewpoints that others are naturally compelled to follow. These best-in-class violinists inspire others to act via their own visions, expertise sets, and competence areas, modeling what great looks like in building and driving a team forward by being a great musician that others want to follow.
The same can be said for the very best “first violinist” founders, who inspire others to act via their own founder-type virtuosity. Exceptional talent joins a startup when they have conviction in the founder’s vision and capabilities, and they outperform when a founder can model excellence of execution on the job.
In both cases, it’s important to note that virtuosity can come from many places. Some violinists are energetic musicians who bring intensity to an interpretation. Others might excel more at bringing a dulcet tone to a slow movement. Founders, for instance, might be deep industry experts with unparalleled vision shaped by their experience, natural salespeople who can connect easily with customer stakeholders, or charismatic resource and funding magnets. This serves as motivation for founders and violinists alike to cultivate mastery around individual comparative advantage, rather than trying to fit a “mold” of what a great founder looks like.
In my past musical life, I felt the most joy when I was lucky enough to stand behind great first violinists and help them execute on their musical visions. As I continue in my post-music career within the startups / venture space, I get equally excited about opportunities to support great “first violinist” founders in ways that matter — be it as a venture investor providing value-added support, an advisor bringing learned insights to the table, or as an operator on a team backing a great founder. Given this, I’d love to meet you if you’re a founder aspiring toward creativity and excellence and see how I can be the most helpful. Let’s chat!
Did anything in this piece resonate with you? Agree / disagree with my POV on either classical music or startups? I’d also love to hear from you and compare notes — reach out and let me know what you think.
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