Communication is a critical skill for founders.
Your ability to communicate can help or hinder you in every interaction you have. And as a founder, you’re constantly interacting with other people. You must be a good communicator.
No matter your official title, communication is a big part of your role as a co-founder. If you’re doing things right, you’ll probably end up spending multiple hours a day communicating with people.
You need to build your team.
To build your team, you’ll need to communicate with your team members. In the beginning this might be just your co-founder but, if all goes well, sooner or later it will be tens, hundreds, or thousands of people. If you’re a young founder, you’ll end up leading teams of much more experienced people than you. The best founders are able to build a strong and honest relationship with their co-founder, and lead and inspire their employees to follow them.
You need to sell your product.
To sell your product, you’ll need to communicate with customers. Even the best products don’t sell themselves. You could be selling through in person meetings with big companies, or simply through your website or ads you run to individual people. Either way, the best founders are able to speak their customers’ language and make customers want their products.
You need to convince investors.
If you want to raise investment, and you probably do if you want to grow fast, you’ll need to communicate with investors. It’s usually not enough to just build a product and sell it. If you want to convince investors, you’ll need to be convincing. The best founders are able to excite investors about their company – the one they haven’t even built yet.
Whether you are the CEO, the CTO, or something else, communication is what enables founders to do the most important aspects of their roles. That’s why the best founders are often legendary communicators. Think of the founder you most admire – they probably are too. Communication is a critical skill.
If you want to learn how to communicate as a founder, read more here.