Building A Unicorn Startup With ADHD

Switching ideas fast, the inability to sit still, completing monotonous tasks through sheer effort – none of these sound like the qualities of a successful entrepreneur, do they? These are symptoms of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And yes, I had them when I started building my company four years ago. 

But what if I told you that ADHD, which is considered an obstacle, helps me build a successful company?

Look. This neurodiversity is not something extraordinary. It is estimated that about 366 million adults worldwide have ADHD. Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Walt Disney and many other entrepreneurs share this trait. Pursuing an ambitious goal to make my mediatech company HOLYWATER a unicorn by 2026, I haven’t even considered any other option other than learning how to deal with ADHD.

And here’s how I succeed in not only managing ADHD, but even taking the benefit of it. 

Recognise How ADHD Affects Your Startup

My colleague noticed that I dropped out of conversations. You probably experience the same thing: your partner is talking for a long time, but suddenly you notice a notification on your phone and are mentally building a response to it. Coming back to the conversation itself, you have no idea what is going on. That is one of the signals. But not the only.

After getting tested by a doctor, I discovered having other symptoms as well. I couldn’t sit still and focus on work for long. I was constantly moving –– walking, sitting, standing, talking. When we had a small team at the beginning of the startup and I was multitasking, I simply couldn’t do chores like filling out spreadsheets or transferring information for long periods. It drove me crazy. 

Most importantly, I was out of focus, which affected my whole team. In our first 18 months, we launched over 10 apps. It was an enormous effort, but with no real direction. We tried everything instead of developing a few strong products. 

I could prioritise up to 20 features for development in one quarter. Yes, they were interesting, but it was disruptive because the team did not have time to concentrate.

With that approach, I certainly wouldn’t have built a startup with $90M ARR like we have now. Business is about creating a step-by-step process; building a company in such chaos is challenging.

Cultivate Self-Awareness

Once I accepted the presence of ADHD, I experimented with various approaches to managing it. And I’m not talking about pills. First of all, I started self-researching to understand the core reason for my condition. The mentors and coaches I worked with helped me. 

By examining different situations from my childhood, I uncovered how my stress reactions formed. Some ADHD behaviours were coping mechanisms I developed in response to early stress. Also I found patterns in how I react to stress now that echo my childhood responses. 

ADHD has brought a more curious attitude to my life. Understanding the link between my past experiences and current symptoms allowed me to develop more effective strategies for managing them in my professional life.

Be Honest With Your Team

Don’t keep your ADHD hidden. By being honest with your team about your condition, you will get support from them. As it is in my case.

I explained to my colleagues that I can get distracted or even forget to keep promises. Not because I don’t care, but because I have ADHD. I gave them carte blanche to ping me or bring me back to the conversation, and it made a big difference.

The team can stop me at a meeting when I jump from one idea to another. Or when I exaggerate the number of tasks for the quarter. They bring me back to reality and their support makes it much easier for me to cope.

For my side, I set a rule to fulfil small tasks as soon as I can. For example, if during lunch I promised someone to send an exciting book or share a contact, I do it immediately. In addition, I write down absolutely all tasks on a list, even the smallest ones. This helps me not to forget anything and to concentrate. 

Implement Behavioural Practices 

Since building a successful company without focus is impossible, I began to implement practices that helped me concentrate better.

These practices were:

• Meditation.
• Bathing in cold water.
• Cardio or other sports right in the morning.
• Getting a whole night’s sleep.
• Complete refusal of alcohol

It seems like an ordinary instruction manual for a healthy life that everyone should adhere to. But for a founder with ADHD, it’s not just a recommendation; it’s imperative for startup survival. Through laziness and “lack of inspiration,” you have to get up and do it.

These practices helped me sweep away the unnecessary in my work, become more conscious and more accustomed to working with ADHD. 

Delegate Responsibilities And Decision-Making

Do you remember me saying that one of my symptoms was difficulty completing monotonous tasks? Well, I still don’t do them. Instead, I gathered a team of professionals who do it much better than me. That allows me to concentrate on what I’m really effective – idea generation. 

Since I stopped jumping at everything and started relying on the team, everyone benefited. The team has become more proactive. Whereas before I came in and dictated our plan, now I eagerly listen to other people’s ideas. And they often turn out to be very cool.

For instance, we recently discussed how to improve the growth rate of our My Passion book platform. We brainstormed on how to get the product to the top. The team suggested expanding the number of book genres and going beyond the tools we used to get books: “What if we leveraged the booktalk format from TikTok as a source of new books for the app?”. I agreed, and we started doing it.

Now I have more time to explore the market and continue to get ideas from outside. 

While analysing the market, I discovered a product with impressive retention rates centred around AI character creation. I immediately saw its potential for our platform, which sparked an idea: combining our series with interactive AI characters.

I presented this concept to the team, proposing integrating character interaction into our existing series format. This creative leap might never have happened if I had been bogged down with routine tasks like filling out spreadsheets or handling day-to-day operations. 

So, founders, working with ADHD is your responsibility. Don’t be afraid to communicate about it with others, implement useful concentration practices and drop the distractions. This is the only way to evolve in one direction instead of rushing between tasks.