Recently, YettaS, an investment partner at the renowned investment institution Primitive Ventures, shared an article on Twitter titled "Founder's Observations: The Cost of Identity". The article began by discussing identity labels and exploring the psychological traits typically found in great founders. Primitive Ventures invested in 14 projects over the past year.
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ToggleIssues Involving Identity Binding Will Inevitably Fall into Hostility and Division
He noted that the industry always has some commonly mentioned self-introduction labels, such as: "I was one of the earliest people in this industry", "I come from a pure technical background", "I am a believer in this track", "I graduated from an Ivy League school", etc. These seemingly background information unknowingly become anchors of some people's sense of value and even part of their identity.
He then mentioned that in today's society, the most easily uncontrollable discussions often revolve around gender, politics, and religion. Once these topics are raised, rational dialogue quickly turns into hostility and division. This is not because these issues cannot be discussed, but because they are highly tied to individual identities. Once a stance becomes part of "who I am", the discussion becomes a trigger for self-defense mechanisms. Thus, arguments become defense, logic gives way to emotions, and correction becomes a threat.
In contrast, discussing whether DeepSeek's model algorithm is better or whether the Pretraining strategy is more advanced can trigger heated debates but usually remain at the level of "technical right or wrong". This is because everyone defaults that these issues can be verified, updated, and overturned, making it a debate centered on facts and logic.
Viewpoints can be falsified and thus can be corrected; but the self cannot be falsified, so it is difficult to touch.
This psychological mechanism is especially crucial in entrepreneurship. Whether excellent founders can quickly adjust direction in the face of market feedback and failure, without viewing adjustment as a negation of self-worth, is often the decisive factor in whether they can overcome cycles and breakthrough bottlenecks. He attributes this psychological trait to Low Ego.
When questioned, "Didn't you firmly support XX before? How have you changed now?" would you feel ashamed? Are you brave enough to look back at your past controversial statements? Can you calmly end an ineffective relationship without denying your initial judgment? Can you accept the version of yourself that was once "not smart enough, not mature enough"?
Four Key Psychological Traits Constructing a Strong Psychological Core
Through long-term observations of entrepreneurs, he discovered that truly outstanding entrepreneurs do not excel through a single talent or skill, but by demonstrating an integrity and stability of internal psychological structure when facing uncertainty, conflict, and volatility. This structure is not represented by visible labels or resumes, but by a deep-seated order running through every choice and response.
He summarized four particularly critical psychological traits that form a strong and flexible founder's core:
- Low Ego
- High Agency
- Natural Curiosity
- Strong Execution
Primitive Ventures greatly appreciates founders who have a firm sense of direction without being hijacked by self-labels; who can persist in beliefs while remaining flexible; who have high self-esteem without obsessive self-importance. This sounds like an idealized persona, but behind it is a very clear psychological structure supporting it: Low Ego. They have a very clear but very relaxed grasp of "who they are". They defend viewpoints, not the self.
They want to support entrepreneurs who defend their views, not themselves. In the process of communicating with founders, they not only listen to their vision and look at their resume, but also repeatedly explore a core question: how they define themselves. Technical routes, industry labels, personal backgrounds - these elements are not inherently problematic, but once viewed by founders as part of their "identity", they easily form cognitive path dependence, where they no longer judge right and wrong, but merely defend "this is who I am". Once their beliefs are challenged, they are more focused on defending "I am right".
Still emphasizing past achievements? Rationalizing failures? You might have fallen into an ego-driven decision-making model
Yetta states they will deliberately observe the following dimensions to identify whether founders are prone to an ego-driven decision-making model:
- Frequently emphasizing past achievements, especially repeatedly mentioning early halos
- Frequently name-dropping or appealing to labels in conversations, such as: "We are friends with XX"
- Habitually interrupting, eager to maintain their position rather than deeply understanding the problem's essence
- Tending to rationalize failures afterward, avoiding admitting their own misjudgments
- Whether the team is dominated by a single authority without healthy tension to challenge each other
Once ego takes over, the founder's cognition loses flexibility. In the blockchain market, which is highly populist and extremely transparent, this rigidity is especially fatal. Many founders have seen beautiful products and smooth financing, but they can never truly unite their community, fundamentally because the founder has set a position for themselves, unable to open up externally or yield internally.
Some founders, without glamorous backgrounds and imperfect products, still receive time, patience, and trust from their community because they convey a sense of collective consciousness - not teaching how to think, but inviting collective thinking. These differences seem to stem from different communication styles but essentially reflect deeper differences in founders' self-identity.
When a founder internalizes labels like "I am technically trained", "I am a fundamentalist", "I have a prestigious school background", "I am contributing to the industry" into their identity, they find it difficult to truly listen to feedback or empathize with the community. In their subconscious, any questioning of product direction is challenging "who they are".
Behavior of emphasizing labels stems from deep fear
Yetta further points out that these self-labels originate from deep fear. Labels should be tools for external communication, helping others quickly identify one's position, profession, background, or value proposition. It is a socialized symbol system for easy classification and transmission. However, for many, labels gradually become distorted into supports for constructing internal self.
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach]
