How to “pay it forward” without losing focus on your primary responsibilities

I’ve been starting companies for 25 years, GRID being my fifth as a founder. So I guess that if you buy into the 10,000 hours rule, I’m surely an expert by now.

And yet I don’t feel like one. I’m still making mistakes and learning every day.

Nevertheless, when I meet with younger entrepreneurs, or those that are new to it, I realize that I can indeed provide value by listening, asking the questions I know they will be asked by customers, investors and partners and sharing some of my experiences, mistakes and successes. Sometimes I can also point them to relevant books, videos or articles — and occasionally make an impactful introduction.

Every time I can help, it gives me a lot of joy. But it can also take a lot of time. What is more: making yourself available to a few such conversations tends to only drive more “demand” from others. As I’m working on an early stage startup myself — something that does and should take up 150% of my focus and energy — this can be a tough thing to justify and balance. I’ve therefore set myself a set of “rules” to make sure I can give back, while still putting only a predictable amount of time and energy into it.

I’m writing this particular post with two audiences in mind:

1. Entrepreneurs that think I can help, explaining how I think I can be helpful and what they should expect.
2. Mentors that are looking to strike a balance between their “giving back” and their focus on primary objectives. The approach should work regardless of the area people seek your expertise in.

Be generous one-to-many

I have found that most startups and entrepreneurs are largely facing the same few sets of challenges. So when talking to them one-on-one I find myself saying the same things over and over. That’s not to say that the perspectives and nuances that come up in direct one-on-one conversations aren’t valuable, but if I can deliver 80% of the value to several teams at once, the impact will surely be greater.

There are various venues for one-to-many communications, for example writing, conference talks and interviews (e.g. podcasts or online publications).

I’m an avid note-taker, and I feel that the best way to consolidate my “learnings” on a subject can be to go back to my notes and write them up as a more holistic piece. When I do, I usually try to write them for publishing. This forces me to really think things through (not just think I’ve thought them through) and make my thoughts understandable to others. Like Feynman said:

“If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it.”

I similarly try to prepare for interviews by aggregating notes on the subject in question and obviously you can not show up for a conference talk without preparing your remarks somewhat carefully (in fact the more limiting the format, the more preparation it demands, and the better the talks tend to be).

So when I’m asked for an interview or a talk I will use it as an opportunity to do a similar consolidation of notes on a particular subject or subject(s). The better I prepare, the happier I tend to be with the message that comes across.

But I also say no to such appearances. For example if I find myself doing too many of them in a short amount of time, if I don’t feel I know the subject well enough to add value to the conversation or if I feel it’s not the right audience (e.g. I prefer talking at startup events over corporate events).

Here’s a list of some writing and appearances from the last couple of years that meets this criteria:

• You want to start a company. But why? (the first steps)
• Writing a business plan: What to cover? (planning, pitching & pitch deck)
• Nothing is bought. Everything is sold. (Go-to-market)
• Fixing People Problems with People Solutions (podcast: teamwork and leadership)
• Don’t Be the Boss Who Talks Too Much (teamwork & leadership)
• Observations from raising a Series A in 2020 (fundraising)
• European Startup Show (podcast: product/market fit, fundraising and more)

Time-box one-on-one conversations

Reading and listening to some of the above can hopefully be helpful for many, but as mentioned above, meeting in person can be more valuable. For some reason — probably that I’m deliberately rather approachable — I have more people reaching out to me for such conversations than I could do justice with my other commitments. So last year, I began time-boxing these types of conversations. I set aside 2 x 1 hour slots every week, and for most “inbound requests” I have people sign up for a slot that works for them using Calendly.

At first I found this very arrogant of myself, and was afraid that it would come across that way to others as well. But it has worked phenomenally well, and people tend to be understanding of this approach. I do make exceptions, mostly for people I have previous — and sometimes long-standing — relationships with.

It is still worth noting that even with this setup, the communication and follow-up for each session tends to take another hour or so, meaning that the 2 x 1 hour slots, can take up to 4 hours a week in total. (I try to do the follow-up in the evening of the day of the conversation).

Be VERY selective of long-term commitments

The third and final category are long-term commitments. Board seats, advisory, various formal and informal committee memberships, etc. This is where I want to be the most selective for two reasons:

1. Added up, one such commitment can be a lot of work over time
2. If I take on such a commitment I want to know that I will have the time and resources to give it my best.

I’ve taken board seats and advisory board seats with other startups before, but since starting GRID I’ve stayed away from any new such commitments, and sought my way out of a couple of others. I did leave slots for 1–2 high-impact philanthropy or “social good” commitments (in addition to then existing ones), and quickly filled those with worth-while engagements. This means that I’m “at capacity” for what I’m willing to take on until GRID is further along.

Currently I have the following long-term commitments:

• Chairman of the Board at Kjarninn (local Icelandic media company)
• Member of the Board of Trustees at Reykjavik University
• Member of the Corporate Advisory Board for UNICEF Iceland
• Member of the Icelandic Growth Forum (forum for public-private cooperation on economic growth)

I try to select for potential impact over personal gain when deciding which ones to take on. In fact none of these are paid positions.

Wow, that’s still a lot!

Reading through the above, this may feel like quite a lot of work still. And it is.

I actually happen to know exactly how much. For almost a year and a half now, I’ve had the discipline to track how I’m spending my time every day, down to the hour, split into 5 categories. One of those categories is literally called “Paying it back”. In 2020 I logged 161 hours in that category. Sure, it’s equal to about 1 month of 9–5 work, but I have no regrets. At the same time I logged over 2400 hours working on GRID, so it’s not like my dedication to work is suffering :)

I’m a firm believer in “paying it back”. Not only is it the right thing to do, but I’ve also often seen my helping someone come back to me directly or indirectly, often from where I least expected it. So even if I was weighing this “investment” only on the basis of return I would not think twice about it. And I’m not. The far bigger compensation comes in the form of joy of being able to assist, connect and remove obstacles for others.

The saying comes in many forms, but as I am watching the Karate Kid derived series Cobra Kai these days (it’s great, and not what you’d think at all!), I’ll just put it in the words of Mr. Miyagi: