From Necessity to Opportunity: What Every Founder’s Journey Teaches Us

Recently, three seemingly unrelated moments crossed my path but together, they made me pause and reflect on an idea I have carried for some time on what really shapes the entrepreneurial journey.

The first was a post by an investor I admire, Panos Papadopoulos, who shared his perspective on a question he often gets: Should I start a Venture? His response was a firm ‘No.’ (See his post for context.) His reasoning was simple: “If you were meant to be an entrepreneur, you would already know. You wouldn’t be asking anyone for permission. You would be losing sleep over the problems you want to solve.”

I found his perspective profoundly accurate. On one hand, entrepreneurship is fundamentally about problem-solving and if you don’t feel compelled by a problem or exploiting an opportunity, perhaps it is not your path. On the other hand, I also believe entrepreneurial patterns can be learned and developed. As I was wrestling with my thoughts on whether entrepreneurship is purely instinctive or if it can also be nurtured, I came across a second story that shed new light on the question.

The second was from a brilliant U.S.-based entrepreneur, Michael Bervell, who shared his inspiring journey as an immigrant founder and how he went on to raise $4M venture capital for his company, TestParty. (See his post for context.) One of the key lessons that stayed with me was his simple but powerful line: “Collect the dots, then connect the dots.”

His advice: stop optimizing for a perfect, linear path. Meaning that every experience or learning you take on is a “dot.” The more dots you collect, patterns begin to emerge either towards a problem or gaps that can be exploited into opportunities and eventually those dots finally connect, you reach a point where the pull of entrepreneurship becomes so strong it keeps you up at night - echoing Panos’ point. Michael’s dots analogy made me reflect on how this plays out in real life with the different types of founders. That reflection came into sharper focus when a close friend invited me to join a review panel for entrepreneurs tackling tough problems.

The third event was that review panel. As I listened to pitch after pitch, one thought kept returning: these founders weren’t asking for permission to start - they were already committed. And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. That reflection brought me back to a framework I had learned earlier and now use to evaluate founder success: the Necessity vs. Opportunity Entrepreneurship Theory. (See here for context.) It highlights that not all entrepreneurs begin from the same place.

• Necessity entrepreneurs start businesses because they can’t find (or keep) a decent job. Applying Michael’s analogy, they are still in the dot collection phase, gathering experiences but without yet seeing a clear pattern.

• Opportunity entrepreneurs, on the other hand, leave good jobs or stable careers to pursue even more promising ventures. They have often collected enough dots and pattern recognition starts to occur, hence they launch their entrepreneurship ventures and journeys with the aim of solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity

Back on the review panel, what was missing was that most of the founders had not collected enough dots, making them necessity entrepreneurs. For them, entrepreneurial patterns can still be learned and developed but often through many failures along the way, which ultimately become part of their dot collection process.

So, whether you are thinking of venturing into entrepreneurship or already deep in the journey, treat your dot-collection phase with intention. Look for the patterns, and the next time you listen to the stories of successful founders, notice how many dots they had gathered before making the leap, and how those dots continue to shape their journeys today. This is also why I run the Founders Spotlight series (check it out here): to uncover the hidden dots behind success.

The question that still lingers for me is this: how can necessity founders be best supported in their transition toward becoming opportunity entrepreneurs, no matter where they are in the world? Answering that question feels critical, and it is one reason I have become especially interested in the journeys of immigrant founders, who so often embody this transition in powerful ways.

Next week, I will share a deeper dive into why immigrant founders consistently emerge as powerful drivers of innovation. Until then, keep innovating - Catch this weeks updates, events and opportunities on LinkedIn.

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