The Augmented Founder
Written by Anne-Sophie Delage, Head of Talent at Breega
As part of a VC Scaling squad, we proactively work hand in hand with founders and their teams to accelerate their scale. From our window, what we see is that being a founder or a founding team is isolating. No kidding! Even when supported by your board or external advisors, ultimately Founders are the boss — you are the owner and no one can make decisions on your behalf. And most of the decisions to be taken are tough, otherwise, everybody would launch their own venture, wouldn’t they?
On top of that, though huge advancements have been made to support founders with coaching, personal development, and self-awareness, in 2024 our world still doesn’t leave positive room for doubts, failures, issues and defects. Egos are boosted and that’s no surprise, but faults and problems are glossed over.
Doesn’t this build isolated Founders or worse, battling against themselves?
If it is fairly “easy” to ask and accept money from a VC, a bank, or whoever can help you financially grow and elevate your business, what about when you need someone, not something? What about when the support needed is mental, psychological or emotional?
Why is it so hard for our egos to admit we need help? When did asking for help from others become an insult or demeaning? Why is the thought of hiring a COO who can take the company further with you viewed as a threat?
You’d still remain the founder.
When you make a $1 billion company, no one will remember that you had a support system all along the way to achieve it.
It shouldn’t be so difficult to accept that someone, and not something, will help you.
It’s time to accept and welcome Augmented Founders
Let me explain. An Augmented Founder, is someone who has developed enough self-awareness and low-ego skills thanks to their robust and regular support systems in place with coaches, therapists or any qualified professional. The augmented founder is the one whose Ego is a best ally — allowing them to work to know their weaknesses — rather than a worst enemy — pretending they don’t have weaknesses.
Do we not use GenAI and other tech to augment ourselves and help us every day without shame ? It is not a shortcoming not to be an expert in everything — you just can’t be. It is your role as a Founder to rally a solid core team to help you.
It is your responsibility to know your limits and to hire your future Chief Operating Officer to augment you if you can’t push your company further. You’re still the Founder, no one could take that away.
Everyone needs help eventually. Someone to help you breathe, take a step back, and prepare you for your bright future. Keeping your business stable and profitable is ultimately the goal, wouldn’t you agree?
Let’s go back to what’s the role of a founder :
- Infusing, deciding and directing the Purpose, Vision, Mission, Values (PVMV) of their company
- Managing, hiring, coaching and leading the best team to execute this PVMV
- Living, sleeping, breathing your clients
- Securing funding for a sustainable growth
- Identifying and anticipating the potential challenges of the company in its development
- Pulling the company to its best version beyond the death Valley
… and much more, obviously.
So to do this all, you need as much force and skills as you can summon, and even more, otherwise, you might just become your worst enemy.
Founders are actually enhanced by the skills of their team and the complementarity of their people. Surrounding yourself with skilled individuals does not diminish your position in any way, it only strengthens it!
“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
As a founder, you are a generalist. Your added value is focusing on developing and driving the company: if there is no skipper, you won’t reach the finish line. Let’s develop this analogy: meteorologists, onboard engineers working on electronics, energy and telecoms, a logistics team to refuel efficiently, and physicists and designers to create the most hydrodynamic boat to enhance performance.
Each area of expertise is a profession itself and requires specific experience. Skippers don’t know it all, but without them, they wouldn’t win the race! Being a founder is the same. A founder becomes the global project manager of the company — this means 80% of the job is spent managing the team’s expertise and 20% is operational. Not the other way around, otherwise, the team will drown with no one leading the boat.
Stepping into the ‘Augmented Founder’ shoes means you’re not just making good choices, but the kind that shapes the future. It’s all about knowing that your big idea is only as strong as the people turning it into reality. This tight bond between your vision and the team’s hustle is what makes a company that can bend without breaking.
Walk the talk
Within our teams, more than 50% of the Executive Committee has already been coached including the CEO, and two of our members are professional coaches. We set up monthly feedback sessions between managers and employees to take a step back and give each other positive, constructive feedback to maximise potential and reduce interference. From this year onwards, we will offer in-house coaching sessions. We are not perfect and we know it but acknowledging your limits in order to better augment yourself is the point of this article. In the end, running a startup is about courage, clarity — and support.
It’s not a solo flight; it’s a team sport where being ‘Augmented’ means you’re never too proud to ask for help. Collective ego above individual ego. So, stay grounded, value your team, and together, you’ll take your startup to its rightful heights.
You’re not just tagging along with change — you’re leading the change.
