The concepts of “red teaming” and “blue teaming” originated in the military and were formulated in the 1960s to train combat units in offensive and defensive operations.
The approach was later adopted by cybersecurity, where it describes a team of “ethical hackers” working with a client’s information security staff. A Red Team identifies vulnerabilities in a company’s IT infrastructure and works with the client’s IT team to develop a defence strategy and a list of actions to address those vulnerabilities.
The concept of red teaming captures our approach to working with startups. When founders build businesses under extreme uncertainty, they are exposed to many cognitive biases. By combining a product approach, startup growth coaching methodologies and a coaching mindset, we identify vulnerabilities in a founder’s vision, business model, product, team and communication with customers and partners. By “hacking” the founder, we reshape the startup into a more resilient and competitive business with ambitious goals and prospects.