The skills you need to be a successful founder

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This is a Discuss post where we feature short but strong and insightful opinions on interesting startup, entrepreneurship, and tech topics. Got a topic or question to suggest? Drop us an email or leave a comment.

What’s the greatest skill every founder should have to be successful? There are tons of possible answers: hiring, grit, resourcefulness, programming, product development, or what have you. Many of us also look up to superstars like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs to find the answer.

We asked two founders to share with us the skills they had to learn as leaders of their startups and how they improve their skill sets. Turns out, the skills that greatly help them every day have everything to do with people.

Editor’s note: Answers have been edited for clarity.

Priyanka Desai, founder at iScribblers

For founders and aspiring entrepreneurs today, I would say that one important skill they need to have is helping people (existing customers, leads, anyone in their network). When you help people, you gain their trust.

To improve my skills, I go out and meet people who are more successful and have already done what I’m doing.

But three months ago, you’d find me sitting in the office all the time. Then, I joined BNI, a professional organization, where it is almost compulsory to meet the members of the group. This helps me meet people who I wouldn’t have otherwise met, and it has turned out to be a learning experience for me.

This bore fruit two months ago when our sales were screwed. During the weekly meeting in the organization, my friend noticed that I was tense. She invited me over to her office, and she’s now helping me get in touch with top IT companies in our city. Turns out, she’s a self-made entrepreneur, a hustler, and one hell of an amazing woman!

Here’s another incident: I got in touch with a startup in July last year. We occasionally interacted when they needed to bounce off ideas related to PR. But last month, the founder emailed me about their funding news. I helped connect them to various media outlets, and the press wanted to cover their story. And now, we will handle their PR campaign for the next eight months.

When you don’t put a price tag on helping people, they will know that you’re genuine, and trust follows.