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Founder Readiness 71

might be a key relationship that can make or break your startup.
These relationships constitute your greatest points of leverage, mean-
ing that they bring the highest upside, as well as the greatest risk (if
they are not working well). As these relationships go, so goes your
startup.

Who are your key relationships? What is the state of each key relationship?
For each relationship that is not rock-solid, what do you need to do to solidify
the relationship? Answering and acting on these questions is one of the
powerful, though not always easy, ways to reduce your risk and elevate
your probability of success.

At a broader level, you can expand and organize your entire brain-
stormed list, including anyone and everyone who might help you, buy
from you, or need to know about you and your new venture. Think
about prospective customers, employees, advisers, service partners,
vendors, investors, and referral sources. Cast the widest net possible
and cultivate a helpful network and community around your startup.
Try to take an objective look at the shape of your wider network and
target future relationship-building efforts to fill any major gaps.

YOUR RESOURCES – What assets are available to you? It’s important to
think through the type and amount of financial resources available
to help launch your new venture and to provide an economic cushion
until the business is generating healthy profits. These sources might
include savings, existing or untapped lines of credit, physical assets
that might be borrowed against, or interested investors waiting in the
wings. In Chapter Five, I’ll discuss the importance of tapping the
right mix of financial resources in a way that aligns with your goals
and needs to ensure your venture has enough funding to get off the
ground.

POSITION YOURSELF FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE

Regardless of why you’re starting a business and what skills and re-
sources you bring, your performance as a founder will fluctuate from
hour-to-hour and day-to-day. This is the nature of human striving.
Some days are better than others. A key question for every startup
founder is: What does it mean to bring my very best, and what does this re-

American Management Association • www.amanet.org