#6 Founder Beware! The Ikea Effect, plus awards, support and resources for impact founders.
#6 Founder Beware! The Ikea Effect, plus awards, support and resources for impact founders.
Advice, inspiration and opportunities for people building a purpose-driven business
Hey fellow good business fans,
š It feels great to be back for the second week in a row! Thanks for all the lovely messages of thanks, support and especially those LinkedIn shout-outs - and a special thanks to the new subscribers. If thereās another purpose-driven founder out there you know whoād like this, then share it with them now š:
ā ļø Founder Beware - The Ikea Effect
If Iāve not told you about my beautiful new desk then consider yourself lucky. Pretty much everyone Iāve been on a video call with in the past couple of weeks with has had to suffer a show and tell.
Why? Well, because its obviously very good looking! Plus, I spent a good 4 hours or so putting it together with my own two hands so I want some praise for my efforts!
Yep, itās an Ikea desk. And this is how I just discovered The Ikea Effect.
Founders are always told how dangerous it is to get too attached to your product. The internet is littered with stories of founders who built and built and built and then when they finally released their baby to the worldā¦.tumbleweeds were the only response. They couldnāt understand why no-one else wanted what they did, or saw just how great their product was.
I totally get why this is a bad approach. I just wasnāt sure of the psychology behind why so many do it.
Well, the Ikea Effect explains a lot:
Making something, be it furniture, a product, or a cake, makes us feel competent. And we like to feel that way. So we over-inflate the value of what weāve made.
We want the time, blood, sweat and tears to be worth it. Who wants to feel like an idiot whose spent all this time on something when we could have got it for cheaper, or had it done for us? So we decide that what weāve made is more valuable than perhaps it actually is.
We like things weāve made even more. We tend to think highly of ourselves and our capabilities, and so we see the things weāve made as better. (As an aside I learnt that this is even true for things we associate with ourselves, like letters of the alphabet that appear in our name. My Ikea desk was actually called āAlexā so really there was no hope.)
Added together, you have many of the reasons why founders keep perfecting, working, adding features, and building away, confident that when the time comes, the world will be ready with applause and orders.
So what can you do about it? Whilst you canāt really stop yourself from falling prey to these built-in reactions, you can try to mitigate them.
Firstly, youāre better off being aware of why it happens. The danger of just hearing about others whoāve done it wrong is that No 3 kicks in. You think it wonāt happen to you because youāre smarter that that. Not true. But forewarned is forearmed.
Secondly, you need to get your product into the hands of your users. Iām slightly kicking myself that my own MVP has been longer in the works than we would have liked. But hindsight is twenty/twenty, weāre fixing some bugs and it will be coming soon. With no more features or polishing or tweaking first. Thereās nothing like learning about the Ikea Effect to focus the mind, and getting impartial feedback is key*.
*Unless its to tell me that my new desk isnāt the best thing ever. Iām happy staying in my Ikea Effect with that one.
š°š This weekās recommendations:
š„ Funding, accelerators and awards:
The 2023 Awards Season has officially begun.
Hustle Awards - presented by Startup Magazine, tons of categories including Sustainability, Social Heroes and Inspirational Wxmen of the industry. Deadline 31 March.
Startup Awards - from the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Categories for all the different sectors, split by region and nation. Deadline 24 February.
Small Awards - for exceptional small businesses, with some lovely categories for social enterprises, sustainability and those who give back. Deadline 28 February.
Global Good Awards - does what it says on the tin! Plus they are a member of 1% for the Planet. Final, final deadline 28 April. This one has a fee, cheaper the earlier you apply.
š» Events and support:
Considered Capital Deep Dive Workshop with Library of Things - first off, subscribe to the Considered Capital newsletter, who send out 10 funding opportunities every other Sunday. This workshop in association with Emma Shaw, founder of Library of Things, on how they raised Ā£1.5m without compromising their values sounds great. Love the fair pricing model, from Ā£10.
š Reads and other good things:
REPORT: Beyond the Climate Bubble: How to grow the market for the products & services the world needs by Media Bounty - given that we donāt need a handful of people doing sustainability perfectly, we needs millions of people doing it, even imperfectly, as sustainable and ethical business owners we need to challenge ourselves to push out of the comfort zone of committed conscious consumers.
Enter the Persuadables - the big majority who do know about climate change, but havenāt switched to a more eco lifestyle yet. This report looks at advertising and marketing changes we could make to appeal more widely. Its also got some very interesting socio-economic insight on different groups around the UK.
š¤ Final thought:
I recently delivered a session for Impact accelerator Allia entitled āStartup 101ā. It def brought about major imposter syndrome which I countered by asking lots of startup founders for their words of wisdom. They had some great advice. Check out the compilation here.
š If you liked this issue of Just Good Company and know someone who would find it interesting too,Ā please forward it on. It means a lot š¤