Just Hire Some Entrepreneurs

I saw a post on LinkedIn this week suggesting job seekers should avoid using the "open to work" setting and instead they should just build something to showcase their abilities. Show us what you can do and company leaders will find you and hire you.

The logic: demonstrate you can create independently, and employers will find and hire you.

It sounds empowering. But it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about innovation within companies.

Consider something I created well over a decade ago, the Ontario Startup Train. As an entrepreneur, I trusted my gut and committed tens of thousands in personal funds to charter VIA Rail cars, creating what became a decades-long success in building entrepreneur communities.

Now imagine proposing this inside a company:

• Build consensus across teams
• Create ROI projections
• Navigate approval chains
• Mitigate every perceived risk

None of this work advances the actual project. It's organizational work that entrepreneurs typically avoid by taking personal risks.

Two Different Worlds

Building independently, as an entrepreneur, means:

• Complete autonomy and rapid decisions
• Accepting complete risk and responsibility
• Every task falls on you
• Limited resources and reach
• Success or failure is yours alone

Building within a company provides:

• Distributed risk across the organization
• Access to resources and expertise
• Specialized teams for different functions
• Broader impact when successful
• Organizational support structure

Neither is inherently better. They're fundamentally different environments requiring different skills and approaches.

Why Hiring Entrepreneurs Isn't the Answer

When companies try to inject innovation by hiring entrepreneurs, they misunderstand this key distinction. The skills that make someone successful at betting their own money on chartering train cars are different from those needed to navigate organizational structures effectively.

This reveals why hiring entrepreneurs to drive internal innovation often fails. The skills and approaches that work independently can actually hinder success within organizational structures.

Building independently means complete autonomy, rapid pivots, and freedom from constraints. Building within a company requires navigating processes, aligning with constraints, and building consensus.

A Different Approach

The answer isn't hiring entrepreneurs and hoping they'll adapt. It's creating safe spaces within your organization where testing ideas becomes possible. Places where the natural corporate immune system response to change is selectively reduced.

This is what Forks enables: structured spaces where ideas can be tested without requiring endless pre-approval or consensus building. It brings the best of entrepreneurial experimentation into corporate environments without disrupting core stability.