News, Blogs, Tips & Tricks From Founders
Culture, Environment, and Embracing Flexibility When Running Your Business
Kevin Ebberts is a Co-Founder of RiverNorth Inc., an IT modernization company supporting government agencies, organizations, and programs to access government funding and aid. RiverNorth is based in Ashburn, Virginia and celebrates its fourth anniversary in 2024. In this blog, we discuss the importance of innovation and flexibility within company culture when running your own company. Kevin started a business because he wanted to build an environment he would like to work in. He saw that processes and procedures can be done better and more efficiently within his sector. Being an employee at the time didn’t allow him to drive the change he wanted, so starting his own venture was a natural next step (read Kevin’s full Founder story here). “We all move really fast, and we have high expectations for our work product. A lot of the people that have shown success working for our company all have a history of being told that their expectations were too high or they were moving too fast. For us, I’ll always say, ‘Give me your best on this day.’ And that changes from day to day. But whatever you’ve got today, give us that.” Kevin has found that this flexible mindset helps everyone within his company feel safe in their space of work and prompts the team members to show up as themselves, be authentic, and bring their best to the table. For Kevin and his co-founders there is massive upside to nurturing a high-performing environment. “We wanted to create a place where you weren’t looked down on for being a try-hard, for doing more than is needed, but we also didn’t want to encourage putting effort into things that don’t have valuable outcomes. In the corporate structure, you do a whole bunch of work just because it would look good or because you can put it in your performance evaluation. “For us, it is all about how much you can do with the least amount of effort but a high quality outcome. We encourage everyone to be efficient, to be productive, to find better ways to do things. You’re not penalized for doing something really well really quickly.” This behavior may be seen in some sectors, such as tech, but it’s a completely new approach to working when it comes to the government sector. Implementing it there introduced a real change into procedures and has been a cornerstone of the service RiverNorth provides in helping organizations do better by implementing new approaches. “We went to the government because that is the industry we know, we understand how it works, and how we can be successful. But we want to run our business more like a product startup, not a government organization. This has to do with how our internal organization functions. We make fast decisions with the information we have at the time. If we need to pivot later, we will, and we’re not going to have six months of board meetings to figure that out. The new service offering will become stale by the time we make a decision on it.” The concept of doing the best with what you have is very important in the Founder role. So many people who are thinking about starting a business get really stuck on the details, thinking, ‘My brand isn’t perfect’,
Building and Managing Teams
Pierce Larick is the Founder and CEO of New Revolution Media, a visual content creation agency based in San Francisco, California. After celebrating the business’ seventh anniversary, Pierce shares his approach to management, how it has changed over the years, and how he built a motivated team to support the company’s development.
Building Successful Teams Through Shared Values
Kevin Ebberts is the Founder of RiverNorth Inc., an IT modernization company supporting government agencies, organizations, and programs to access government funding and aid. RiverNorth is based in Ashburn, Virginia and celebrates its fourth anniversary in 2024. In this blog, we discuss the importance of shared values in an organization and using these to create and manage successful teams. Having clearly defined values is crucial in an organization. They are the guiding principles, the North Star Founders and employees continue to come back to when faced with decision making, establishing processes, procedures, and maintaining a consistent market image. But values are also the building blocks of company culture. They are the common ground between employees. They shape leaders’ decisions when hiring new talent. Additionally, employees are more likely to stay with an organization that aligns with their ethics. We ask Kevin what RiverNorth’s main principles and values are. “We’ve got five fundamental assumptions. This is what guides our organization whenever we’re making tough decisions. “Our first one is that corporate purpose is the sum of each individual’s purpose. This gets to the heart of why we’re building this company and the people we want to be. We don’t have a fifty-year plan where someone gets a nice gold watch at the end. “We hire very driven and enthusiastic people that we assume are going to want to do something of their own. Whenever we’re thinking of a project, we ask people what their long-term goals are, and then we determine what they can learn while they are with us that will drive them closer to their goal. “If someone decides to leave the company, we won’t think, ‘You’re dead to us’. Instead, we know that was a relationship we built. When they go somewhere else, we might want to partner on something one day.” In reality, employees won’t stay in your company forever, especially in the current dynamic work environment. Viewing every person you work with as an addition to your expanding business network, extended team if you will, is much more valuable than trying to ensure someone would stay in your company forever. The latter would inevitably lead to hurt feelings and burnt bridges: a big mistake you can make in the world of business, where every connection has unique value. What Kevin shares with us next continues the theme of acting in line with everyone’s best interests and wanting to change the status quo. “Number two is we actively sense opportunities to challenge the current. That’s our tagline. But challenging the current is really about the current status quo, challenging the current approach. We wanted to be innovators and disruptors in our space, which we are. We’re smaller disruptors than some of the Silicon Valley startups, but when we approach an issue, we always update the client on everything that is going on. This is something that is not done in the world of federal contracting.” The magnitude of the changes doesn’t matter, even small innovations create ripples that organically change over time. Another innovative approach in RiverNorth is their incredibly inclusive company structure. “One of our assumptions is that every person is critical and valued regardless of role. We’re title-less, we have people that serve a certain role on a project, people that lead our internal roles.
Annalee Hagood-Earl: Running a Company as a Digital Nomad
Annalee is the Founder and CEO of Bash Creative, an event strategy and production agency based in San Francisco, California. In March of 2021, she embarked on a journey of traveling, choosing the digital nomad lifestyle. We will learn what digital nomadism means for founders and how it changed Annalee’s life.
Becoming a Founder By Following Your Passion
Jeriel Sydney is the Founder of FableRune, a botanically-based wellness brand offering various self-care amenities ranging from shampoos and conditioners, to candles, and skincare products. The company is based in Los Osos, California and celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2024.
Unconventional Path to Success as a Digital Nomad
Em has been an entrepreneur for three years now, most of which she spent outside of Australia, where she was born. After living in London for a bit, she decided to devote herself to traveling, choosing the digital nomad lifestyle. During 2023, she resided in 23 European countries.
Mentorship, Seeking Advice & Adopting a Beginners Mindset
Starting your company is as exciting as it is overwhelming. Many people, especially first-time Founders, set up their venture with a limited budget, almost making them obliged to do it all by themselves. But even with the needed capital, some continue this trend, resulting in failing or slow-growing businesses.
Self-awareness as an Antidote to Imposter Syndrome
Around 70% of people experience imposter syndrome at some point in their lives. The issue is especially prevalent with entrepreneurs: 87% report they’ve struggled with it during their careers. Imposter syndrome leads to feelings of inadequacy, doubt, and an impending sense that you are not good enough, capable enough, or deserving of your success.
Mental Health as a Founder
One of the issues we at Follow the Founder want to address directly is the inevitable loneliness at the top that entrepreneurs experience. Whether you have a partner or not, you need to make a lot of decisions on your own. Not having a network around you when doing things for the very first time is a hurdle for all new and sometimes seasoned Founders.
