Don’t be a solopreneur; become a teampreneur

Félix Lozano is not only the co-founder of TeamLabs and a designer of contexts in which **people learn by entrepreneuring in teams. **He is also deeply passionate about this way of building ventures and defends it tooth and nail with more than convincing arguments, as he demonstrated in the first TalkX of this edition of Santander X Explorer.

Patricia Araque,** Executive Director of the programme**, opened the conversation by asking Félix to define the project. And our guest, with a calm, clear and wonderfully vivid style, held the attention of everyone in the room: “TeamLabs is a borderland that ‘smuggles’ between territories in search of a shared truth. We are a** radical learning laboratory**, a community made up of teams that understand entrepreneuring as the best way to learn,” he explained.

“Entrepreneurship is a learning method; it’s about shaping yourself throughout life… and what you learn most about is yourself,” said Félix Lozano, co-founder of TeamLabs.

That self-knowledge helps you deal better with failure: an experience that, unsurprisingly, also brings lessons. “In entrepreneurship, every day you have the chance to do things better. Failure offers information you wouldn’t otherwise obtain; it allows you to take one more step, and then the next,” noted the TeamLabs founder. Mistakes also force you to stop and reflect because, as the Executive Director of Santander X Explorer underlined, “very often, going fast gets you nowhere”.

Team entrepreneurship vs. going solo

The image of the lone hero in mainstream entrepreneurship is well-worn and completely unrealistic, we’ve said it many times. To fully dismantle the myth, Félix highlighted an uncomfortable truth: “If you’re entrepreneuring alone, it may be because you haven’t managed to convince anyone to join you on the project. Take a look at that, because if you can’t attract partners, how are you going to attract customers?” Touché.

Félix has never been a solopreneur. Even so, fifteen years ago—after a 25-year entrepreneurial career—he discovered something revealing about teams. “I stumbled into the Team Academy universe of the JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Jyväskylä, Finland. Suddenly, the group becomes the key piece and you turn into a teampreneur,” he told us.

“I felt like** I’d won the lottery: the indicator of success was sustaining that team.** Working with this instrument makes you aware of who you are and helps you along the way in the best possible manner,” he said. At that point, attendees at the TalkX began exchanging contact details to support one another, looking for synergies and partners for their projects. Magic.

But why is this way of entrepreneuring the optimal one? “A company is not an Excel spreadsheet; spreadsheets make you believe you control the context and the people you work with. But that’s not the case: if you don’t create an atmosphere of trust, it’s impossible to get through the times we’re living in. Right now, a project is like a ship in the middle of a storm on the high seas; it’s extremely difficult to steer it alone from the bridge,” explained the TeamLabs co-founder. And if you do have a team, the command-and-control leader doesn’t work either, “because with the thunder of the storm no one can hear you. That’s why** collectivism is non-negotiable:** everyone must know what they need to do without waiting for instructions to act,” he concluded.

How to find a team to build a venture

During the Q&A, Explorers naturally wanted to know the best way to find people to partner with. Félix was clear: “Cooperation. Look for other solopreneurs and work out how to align interests, wills, shared purposes, the desire to explore. That’s precisely what this programme offers; those of you entrepreneuring here have the opportunity to** build that care network** with people who can help you,” he said.

Pay attention to the red flags that will tell you whether someone is suitable to work in a team: if they don’t listen, always want to be right, react badly when challenged, or “don’t take care of the interaction, they may not be the ideal partner,” Félix explained. “As a general rule, until you’ve seen each other in different situations you won’t know if it’s the right person. Trust your intuition,” he advised.

And how do you make a team last? The answer lies in values. “If we want to build something that endures and generates learning capacity, we need to design environments that encourage generosity, equality and dialogue. Nowadays talking about this can seem counter-cultural, but conversation is key, especially when there are different viewpoints within the team when it comes to decision-making. We must seek sovereignty over our work; that’s what will help us face and survive economic ups and downs,” explained the TeamLabs co-founder. As Patricia confirmed, “putting care at the centre of our projects is what will enable them to withstand uncertain times.”