Once I cofounded Freedom Path Capital, I made a wager that almost all buyers had been fascinated by expertise all improper. They had been treating it like a commodity—one thing you purchase, plug in and hope performs. My expertise as an Olympian taught me one thing totally different: Expertise isn’t mounted. It’s dynamic, formed by alternative, management and surroundings. You don’t simply discover nice groups, you construct them.
This philosophy shapes all the pieces we do at Freedom Path, from the founders we again to how we advise our portfolio corporations on constructing their organizations. After working with dozens of startups and their management groups, I’ve realized that the businesses that scale efficiently aren’t essentially those that begin with probably the most spectacular, conventional resumés. They’re those that perceive develop culturally related expertise and partnerships with these people.
Rent for power and adaptableness, not simply expertise.
Some early-stage startups can’t afford to rent Fortune 500 corporations. The perfect early-stage groups search for individuals who can put on a number of hats and determine issues out as they go. Coaching occurs by mentorship and real-time drawback fixing, not prolonged onboarding packages.
This creates one thing bigger corporations wrestle to duplicate: a robust sense of possession throughout the workforce. When everyone seems to be studying on the fly and contributing worth no matter job title, tradition will get constructed by shared moments reasonably than HR insurance policies. Individuals keep not due to the perks, however as a result of they really feel like they’re constructing one thing of their very own.
Bear in mind, management is constructed on belief.
One mistake some founders make is believing their firm can’t run with out them within the room. If that’s true, your organization isn’t able to develop. As a result of succession planning isn’t about stepping apart; it’s about constructing a workforce and tradition that may stand by itself.
My expertise in leisure and brand-building at Roc Nation and Westbrook gave me a front-row view of how profitable leaders scale their affect by others. The founders who get this proper see management as one thing earned by belief reasonably than granted by titles. They doc how they suppose, share management early, and let others take the highlight when it serves the enterprise.
I search for this mindset within the founders we again at Freedom Path. The perfect ones perceive {that a} founder’s mindset is about being resourceful, coachable and centered on constructing one thing larger than your self.
Cultural icons have to carry greater than visibility.
We spend money on corporations led or powered by cultural figures, however visibility alone doesn’t create worth. I realized this firsthand throughout my time working with Jay-Z at Roc Nation, and later, with Will and Jada Pinkett Smith at Westbrook. The cultural icons who actually transfer the needle are those that perceive their viewers and are genuinely a part of the tradition themselves.
Take our portfolio corporations: Issa Rae’s Sienna Naturals hair care line, Kaley Cuoco’s Oh Norman! pet merchandise, or Ciara’s Ten to One Rum. In every case, the founder’s affect aligns authentically with the mission and so they’re actually concerned in constructing the enterprise. They will form how individuals really feel a couple of model in ways in which go far past publicity as a result of they’re not simply endorsing, however reasonably creating from private expertise and keenness.
Goal isn’t a buzzword—it’s the strategic spine of resilient corporations.
Goal is what retains groups grounded when issues get intense. When individuals actually consider in what they’re doing, they’re extra resilient and extra related. It helps reduce by the noise and reminds everybody why the exhausting work issues.
I take note of how founders deal with their individuals when nobody’s watching. How do they deal with setbacks? How do they have fun wins? Tradition exhibits up in these on a regular basis selections: how secure individuals really feel talking up, how choices get made, whether or not values are lived or simply written down. When tradition is actual, it attracts the precise individuals and retains them.
AI adjustments the sport, however people nonetheless win it.
The neatest groups I’m seeing use AI to take repetitive work off their plates to allow them to deal with creativity and technique. Roles have gotten extra fluid, and individuals are being requested to suppose throughout capabilities. It’s much less about becoming right into a job description and extra about contributing the place you’re strongest.
As AI handles extra routine duties, the human parts of labor change into extra beneficial: judgment, storytelling, empathy. Firms that perceive this are designing roles otherwise. They’re specializing in what people do finest whereas letting know-how deal with the remainder.
Consistency is simply as essential as depth.
Coaching for the Olympics taught me that consistency is simply as a lot of a precedence as depth each time. It’s a must to present up every single day, even when it’s exhausting. That mindset interprets on to entrepreneurship and workforce constructing. You received’t all the time really feel motivated, however self-discipline carries you thru.
I additionally realized how essential restoration is. Relaxation, reflection and help programs are simply as essential as effort. And perhaps most significantly, I realized that nice efficiency is a workforce effort, even in particular person sports activities. You want individuals round you who consider in your imaginative and prescient and enable you to maintain going when issues get powerful.
The perfect founders I work with perceive this. They’re pushed however grounded. They’re curious, clear about their function, and never afraid to get their arms soiled. Early on, I search for how somebody responds beneath strain, how they take suggestions and whether or not they see management as one thing earned by belief.
Small moments matter most.
Individuals don’t depart jobs—they depart managers and cultures. Probably the most neglected retention methods I see working are the best ones: involving mid-level leaders in actual determination making, small moments of recognition, clear progress paths, and sincere communication.
One technique that constantly works is giving individuals actual possession over issues and trusting them to unravel them. When workforce members really feel challenged and trusted, they stick round. It’s not all the time about flashy advantages—it’s about displaying individuals they matter.
The businesses that may win the expertise warfare aren’t those with the largest budgets or the flashiest perks. They’re those that perceive expertise is one thing you develop—and so they spend money on creating environments the place individuals can develop, contribute meaningfully and construct one thing they’re happy with. That’s in the end the muse of sustainable aggressive benefit.
