I’ve at all times cherished music, particularly indie bands, and I’ve at all times cherished startups, particularly the untold tales of the pragmatic progress sorts. And the extra time I spend working with founders, the extra I see the similarities between the 2.
A startup’s founding group is so much like beginning a band. At its coronary heart, it’s a group of people that’ve determined to hitch collectively to construct one thing nice. Every contributor has a proper function: lead singer, drummer, guitarists, bass participant, although these can differ relying on the enterprise. There’s additionally a wider vary of supporting gamers, like enterprise supervisor, promoter, agent, and tour supervisor. Every individual fulfills a vital perform and brings their very own model and vitality. When all of it comes collectively, it may be magic. But when the gamers aren’t in sync, egos conflict, or communication breaks down, issues can crumble quick.
Seth Pitman, PhD, ABPP, a former member of the band Wild Gentle and now Board-Licensed Scientific Psychologist and Strategic Enterprise Guide, summed it up completely when reflecting on his personal expertise:
“We have been in that fortunate first group that one way or the other made it by the noise and into the 1%. Then we discovered we didn’t have the abilities to handle the following stage, and issues collapsed. The talents we lacked have been largely interpersonal and to some extent managerial. We had the imaginative and prescient, music, and exterior help however the issues have been inner.”
That is the very same problem startup groups face once they hit their progress inflection factors. The product, market, and exterior pleasure could also be there, but when the inner dynamics aren’t proper. If the group doesn’t evolve, if management doesn’t spend money on itself, then issues can crumble shortly and unravel.
The Early Days: Discovering Your Sound
Whenever you first type a band (or a startup), it’s all concerning the spark: the inventive vitality, concepts, and late nights making one thing new and thrilling. You’ve possible already spent years studying, finding out, and enthusiastic about what you need to obtain and the way you’ll stand out from the competitors. Founders, like musicians, are obsessive about crafting their product, ensuring it’s excellent earlier than sharing it with the world.
However ardour and obsessiveness alone don’t construct a sustainable firm or lasting music profession. You additionally have to construct replicable methods that help you enhance persistently over time and domesticate robust relationships based mostly on mutual belief and respect. It’s essential to learn to work collectively as a unit, not simply as particular person contributors. Briefly, you want coordinated execution.
Breaking Out: Scaling the Workforce and the Imaginative and prescient
Should you’re fortunate, the world begins to note your laborious work and worth what you’re doing. You land investments, early prospects, or press consideration identical to a band touchdown a report deal, gaining social traction, and performing in entrance of larger and larger audiences.
That is the place issues begin to get actual. You’re hiring quick, attempting to maintain up with demand, managing expectations from prospects, traders, and companions. It’s now not nearly making nice music (or constructing an important product); it’s about working a enterprise. In some methods, the toughest half has simply begun.
For a lot of founders, that is the place gentle abilities grow to be the difference-maker. Communication, function and authority delegation, battle decision, and group dynamics now matter simply as a lot as imaginative and prescient, product, and technique. Your concept can solely take you thus far. Now that you must execute, feverishly, over a for much longer haul.
Avoiding the Breakup: Investing in Management and Workforce Dynamics
Wild Gentle had the music, recognition, and exterior help in place, nevertheless it was inner issues that finally led to their collapse. I’ve seen startups comply with the identical sample: an important concept, robust market match, and powerful backing, solely to implode because of management misalignment, lack of belief, or an lack of ability to scale the group successfully.
Many founders at this stage are so centered on exterior progress that they neglect their very own improvement as leaders. That’s an enormous oversight. Should you ask any TEAMS which have fallen aside throughout any style or enterprise, they’ll blame the interpersonal conflicts at the start. The shortage of a capability to maintain the gel. One of the best startup CEOs, akin to the perfect frontmen in bands, know when to adapt, delegate, and evolve.
Seth’s Take: From Indie Rock Band to Enterprise Psychology
“After Wild Gentle broke up, I turned centered on understanding why ventures and relationships crumble, particularly when there’s a lot to achieve from working collectively. I’ve realized that success isn’t only a product of expertise or timing; it hinges on how folks navigate battle, construct lasting relationships, and maintain belief beneath strain.
Sturdy management means balancing exterior calls for — market pressures, traders, and the like — with inner group dynamics. Progress introduces friction, and if a pacesetter can’t maintain competing concerns concurrently, issues unravel. One of the best leaders don’t simply set technique. They acknowledge shifting group dynamics early, tackle them straight, and create the situations for belief and cohesion.
So how do you keep away from the numerous pitfalls at this stage of the journey? It takes extra than simply hiring properly or tightening up operations. From each my expertise in Wild Gentle and as a medical psychologist and guide, I’ve seen how management struggles typically stem from elements that aren’t instantly apparent: assumptions folks make about one another, unstated tensions (in any respect ranges of the group), and the way a pacesetter’s private historical past performs into their model, together with their blind spots. The founders who final might be genius visionaries, however they completely should perceive how one can maintain a bunch collectively when issues get robust.”
Consistency Wins: Don’t Intention to Be A One and Completed
For individuals who’ve adopted me over time, they know I’ve achieved numerous integration of music into the manufacturers I’ve constructed and made correlations between rising artists and startups combating and clawing for relevancy, prospects, and scale. The identical grit and grind exists in each professions. And there’s simply one thing so motivational and poetic when a band or startup rises to success.
That prior paragraph was ripped verbatim from a 2019 submit on the York IE weblog entitled, What Startups Can Study From The Nationwide. I’m nothing however constant in my band/startup parallels. I at all times joke, “I used to be born to be a lead singer of a band, however had no singing voice so I obtained into startups.”
Should you imagine in one thing, say it over and over throughout all mediums till you’re blue within the face.
Classes for Founders from the Bands That Made It (and Some That Didn’t)
The bands that endure aren’t at all times probably the most gifted. They’re those who realized how one can are likely to necessary relationships, navigate challenges collectively, and evolve with altering occasions and desires. The identical is true for startups.
Listed below are a couple of key takeaways from the music world that each founder ought to think about:
Know Your Function – Not everybody is supposed to be the frontman. Play to your strengths and construct a group with complementary abilities. Generally, the appropriate ‘employed gun’ makes all of the distinction.
Hold the Rhythm – A startup wants operational stability, identical to an important band wants a strong drummer. Tradition, execution, and consistency matter as a lot as imaginative and prescient. Determine your group’s glue and shield it.
Talk Like a Band – One of the best bands have unstated chemistry, however that comes from numerous hours of apply, belief constructed over time, and clear communication (a lot of which is intuitive and unstated). In startups, transparency, alignment, and coordinated execution hold everybody in sync.
Evolve Your Sound – What obtained you right here received’t get you there. One of the best bands (and corporations) don’t simply play the identical setlist perpetually. They adapt, experiment, and develop. Startups want to understand that at every stage of the startup lifecycle, they should behave otherwise.
Take Care of Your Psychological Well being – Scaling a startup or band pushes folks to their limits. However psychological well being isn’t solely a person duty. It must be baked into the tradition, not outsourced or handled as an afterthought. Leaders set the tone by fostering open communication, lifelike expectations, and a working setting the place folks can thrive, not simply survive.
Encompass Your self with the Proper Individuals – One of the best bands have nice managers, producers, promoters, and brokers prepared to go to bat for them. Founders want the identical strong help system: mentors, traders, board members, and operators who can assist them scale with out dropping their manner. Household help (and straight discuss) can be crucial to each careers.
Encore: The York IE Strategy
At York IE, we don’t simply spend money on corporations however we embed ourselves of their progress story, serving to founders and management groups develop the abilities, methods, and mindsets they should scale.
Whether or not it’s go-to-market execution, expertise operations, management improvement, or strategic advisory, we’re right here to be sure to don’t grow to be a one-hit marvel.
As a result of when a startup group is really in sync, when the management learns how one can evolve, talk, and scale collectively, that’s if you go from an important track to an all-time basic.
Let’s construct one thing that lasts. 
Retaining the Band Collectively: Seth Pitman, PhD, ABPP
“Most startups deal with exterior progress, however inner dynamics decide whether or not they final over the lengthy haul. Scaling magnifies stress, exposes management blind spots, and exams relationships in methods founders typically don’t anticipate.
“As a medical psychologist and strategic enterprise guide, I assist founders keep away from the traps that derail high-growth corporations: burnout, management bottlenecks, group cohesion, and the hidden tensions that floor as an organization scales. Past conventional teaching, I diagnose what’s actually taking place beneath the floor and assist leaders construct the abilities they should navigate strain with out sacrificing their imaginative and prescient or dropping their group.”
One of the best bands and startups don’t simply get larger. They learn to adapt and maintain their inventive momentum with out falling aside. Let’s ensure that yours does, too.
——
This submit was written in collaboration with Seth Pitman, PhD, ABPP. Seth is a Board-Licensed Scientific Psychologist & Strategic Enterprise Guide. He was additionally a founding member of the indie band Wild Gentle. In case you are inquisitive about his consulting providers, attain out straight for a free 60-minute dialogue and discovery name: seth@sethpitman.com.
