Fast Company Daily How wearing many hats can be a founder superpower
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Sep 17, 2025 Nelson Chu, the founder and CEO of Percent, shares his insightful six-year startup journey. He emphasizes the power of founders wearing many hats early on to gain irreplaceable domain knowledge. Nelson recounts his chaotic early years focusing on customer success and budgeting, followed by designing scalable systems as he shifted roles. He highlights the long-term advantages of deeply understanding every facet of the business before delegating. His experiences reveal that hands-on involvement enhances strategic leadership and fosters innovation.
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Wearing Many Hats Builds Pattern Recognition
- Founders who wear every hat build deep, irreplaceable domain knowledge by doing each job first.
- Immersion across functions reveals how features, retention, and messaging connect in ways hiring alone cannot.
Early Chaos Revealed What Matters
- In years 1–2 Nelson handled customer success, QA, content, and budgeting while juggling a chaotic calendar.
- Those early tasks revealed which 10% of features drove retention and taught him what excellence looked like.
Customer Conversations Shape Strategy
- Direct conversations with early customers exposed unexpected differentiators like the one-month product.
- That customer-driven insight shaped product, marketing, and investor pitches.