What motivates you to go on this website or take the Navigator book into your own hands and initiate an innovation project in your company or start your own startup? It’s much easier to stay in your comfort zone and not go the extra mile. Quite simply: human beings, unlike animals, are beings that seek meaning. Happiness research clearly advises us: find your identity in what you do!
»I am developing a product that I wish for myself and my friends.«
Lea von Bidder, Ava
„We combined our positive naivety with maximum risk when we raised a privately guaranteed loan for our first restaurant. I come from an entrepreneurial family. «
Dominik Stein, VERTS Mediterranean Grill
Your entrepreneurial identity
The type of entrepreneur we represent depends heavily on our social identity. The identity poses the questions »Who am I?« and »What is my role in society?«. These two questions have a significant impact on our entrepreneurial identity as „Darwinist,“ „Communitarian,“ or „missionary,“ as research has shown.
Type Darwinist
Darwinists found companies out of an economic self-interest. They act competitive and they are driven by their own pursuit of profit and growth.
Type Communitarian
The Communitarist wants to use his products or services to add value to his community. He is a group-oriented person. Therefore, communitarians often start with a self-experienced problem and develop an improved solution for the people around them.
Type Missionary
Missionaries seek to make the world a little better with their products that solve an existing problem. Often, they use their company as a platform to spread their political, social or environmental visions.
Hybrids are common as you can see by the primarily Communitarian statement of Lea von Bidder and the dominant Darwinian approach of Dominik Stein who both show some ingredients of the other two types. Curious to profile your own entrepreneurial identity?
Learn more about the important first module „motivation“ of the Startup Navigator in the handbook.