What Matters Most for Startup Founders
Thursday, February 5, 2026, 10:00 AM PST – 11:00 AM PST
Virtual event
Hosted by Sam Wong
IQ alone isn't enough. Entrepreneurs need emotional intelligence. Paul Graham from Y Combinator said it best: characteristics related to your emotional intelligence matters more than your IQ. "We thought when we started Y Combinator that the most important quality would be intelligence. That's the myth in the Valley. And certainly you don't want founders to be stupid. But as long as you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, what matters most is determination…flexibility, imagination, naughtiness, and friendship." - Paul Graham, legendary founder of Y Combinator Too many founders focus solely on product knowledge, industry knowledge, or raw academic skills. These factors of course matter. But startups are hard. Stress is high. Resources are scarce. Disagreements happen. People -- customers and employees -- will let you down. Sometimes, it feels like you are drowning. How you handle these issues is actually more important than how fast you write code, how well you know the business problem, or how many years of experience you have. I did not know this when I was a first time CEO. But thankfully, when the startup hit some turbulence and I started to drown, I had help. When I ran into trouble and got in a dark spot, I had a support network to lean upon. One of the people who made a huge difference was Rich Hua. Rich Hua is one of the world's foremost experts in building emotionally intelligent cultures of innovation at scale. He built the world's largest corporate-based EQ community of 70,000 members at Amazon, making him one of the few people who has successfully scaled emotional-social intelligence from theory into a global movement. Formerly the Chief EQ Evangelist and Worldwide Head of EPIC Leadership at Amazon, Rich founded the EQ@Amazon initiative, which reached over 1.5 million leaders, employees, customers, and partners worldwide. He created the EPIC Leadership framework (Empathy, Purpose, Inspiration, and Connection), which has reshaped the mindset and behavior of hundreds of thousands of leaders at organizations all over the world—from startups to global enterprises. Today, Rich runs EPIQ Leadership Group, which helps Founders and Executives develop the critical human mindsets and skill sets to build successful companies. Both science and experience show that Founders need more than just “hard” skills to launch and scale their startups. They must possess EPIQ skills—an integration of emotional intelligence (EQ) and cognitive intelligence (IQ)—to navigate ambiguity, overcome obstacles, inspire confidence, and reach their goals. Large corporations pay tens of thousands of dollars to hear Rich speak. We have a special opportunity to learn from Rich and connect with him live in a free webinar on Thursday, February 5, 2026 from 10am-11am Pacific Time. Don't miss this opportunity to build what may very well be the foundation for your venture's success!