What Startup Founders Can Take Away From Kamala Harris’ Failed Presidential Election Attempt

I took a moment to learn from Kamala Harris’ failed election campaign today.

Does politics have any mirror to the challenges first-time startup founders face, let’s find out?

As first-time startup founders, there’s always something to learn from these high-stakes election campaigns, whether or not the outcome is favorable or whether or not Kamala Harris will stand for elections again. 

Here are a few parallels between the presidential election campaign and digital product development, as I see them.  

It’s The Economy, Stupid!

As a startup founder, you have to stay close to the core issues.  Much as political candidates need to address the top concerns of their constituents, founders must focus on the critical needs and problems of their customers. Building a product around your users’ core pain points is key to maintaining relevance, achieving Product Market Fit, reducing CAC, and building a WINNING product that users love and are willing to pay for. 

Resonate with Your ICP and User Persona’s Priorities

Successful campaigns often succeed because they deeply understand and resonate with their audience’s current reality. Founders can benefit by ensuring their messaging, product positioning, and outreach genuinely reflect the values and priority needs of their target market (Ideal Customer Profile). Running a campaign (i.e. building a digital product) around needs that are not on the priority list will be a missed opportunity.

Agility and Adaptability is Essential

The speed of changing priorities can make or break a campaign. Likewise, founders who can pivot quickly in response to user, market, or economic shifts will stay resilient, even when conditions aren’t favorable. Building an agile team that is adaptable, collaborative, focused on continuous improvement, and comfortable with constant change is vital. Such agile teams' PODs are built on flexibility, transparency, open communication, self-management, and accountability, are poised to solve problems effectively.

Culture Of Taking Ownership

Candidates often gain respect by owning their decisions and mistakes publicly. As startup founders, taking ownership of the good, the bad, and the unexpected reinforces credibility with customers, investors, and the team.  This in turn makes your customers, investors, and especially the team respect you and make them your raving fan. 

Timing is Everything

Being too early or late to market can mean the difference between success and obscurity. Understanding your market readiness is key. Speak with your customers and connect with your market often to know if it is the right to launch your digital product. 

Experience Matters

The experience of the founder and the product team is invaluable in shaping the success of both a campaign and a software product.  Inexperienced product teams often fall into the trap of over-investing in features that aren’t working or aren’t needed or don’t add any value. This ability to focus on customer delight and moving away from on from feature stuffing saves resources and keeps the focus on building the software product that truly matters.

Ultimately, it’s a reminder that listening and learning is invaluable in any endeavor, whether you’re on the political stage or growing a startup. 

We all need to adapt, evolve, and double down on serving our core mission.

Should Kamala Harris stand for presidential elections again as a second-time founder, she may now bring experience and strategic vision honed by past successes and failures. 

She may now be able to spot patterns, foresee challenges, and make informed decisions swiftly. 

She may now focus on right problems and customer needs, and prioritize features and product roadmap that align with long-term vision and goals of the product.

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👋🏽 I help founders, funded startups, and enterprises with Innovation, AI and Product-Market Fit (PMF).  If this is you, pls follow me.

ISHIR’s Innovation Acceleration is a powerful approach to uncover customer pain, learn what users love, delight them and make them raving fans of your product.  This helps our bold startup founders to get their digital product right from the start.