Finders, Minders, Grinders: Three Essential Roles in Your Business

by Rich Levandov, Partner at Avalon Ventures

What leads one company to succeed beyond imagination while others fail miserably?

Ask 10 people involved with the company and you’ll get 10 different stories…

For one company, it was the founder.

For another, it was early access to customers.

For a third, it was competitive pricing.

The list goes on…

On the other hand, there are companies that tackle a smart area in an emerging market, have a great team, diligently work, yet still fail miserably.

A company’s success or failure truly boils down to three things:

Finders, Minders and Grinders.

For any company to be successful at all, it needs these three specific types of people.

From product positioning to finding customers, it is the job of Finders to get your offering in front of the right people.

1. Finders: Marketing + Sales

The role of a Finder changes over time and involves fulfilling very different needs in the early stages (i.e. getting your first customers)

Versus the later stages (i.e. getting you to your next million customers).

Finders

Founders sometimes underplay this role, or are very reticent to be “salesy”, but at their best, Finders are not just salespeople or marketers but “people people” who know how to find customers and what to say to them.

Finders

2. Minders: Management

You can’t do everything alone; a crucial element for success is being able to inspire people to go through the journey with you.

A poor concept Founders have of management is the stereotype of a micro-manager ruling over others with a task list.

Minders

Founders need to be the captain of their Minders, steering the vessel straight on course, adapting where necessary, and enabling them to succeed.

Minders

In the early days, the founder is usually the sole Minder. As the company grows, this role multiplies and divides and becomes one of the most crucial parts of a company’s future success.

Minders

It is the job of a founder to enable their Minders to succeed and intervene only at strategic points.

Minders

3. Grinders: Engineering

Your idea doesn’t matter without your ability to execute. This is where Grinders come in. Without Grinders, your company stays in ideation mode.

GrindersA telltale sign of a company lacking Grinders are great meetings that fail to produce any results.

Grinders

While in many cases the role of a Grinder applies to the Engineering team, it also applies more broadly to the growth hacker culture of getting things done.

Thanks to YCombinator and many others, this role has received the appreciation it deserves.

A Word to Founders

At the end of the day, Finders, Minders and Grinders need each other. As the lifeblood of the organization, you need to embody all three roles too.

A Word to Founders

As a Founder, you must cast a vision so others catch it, guide others on the path to success, and be the primary grinder — getting things done no matter what so others follow by example.

A Word to Founders

As a company grows, many of the more painful junctures are the ones where a Founder needs to let go of these roles and invite others to take these responsibilities so that the organization can grow.

Learn more!Visit http://avalon-ventures.com/blog for more actionable advice on early stage startups, VC funding and other entrepreneurial tips.