Unexpected Entrepreneurship: Guillaume Catella on His Venture Builder, Metal Music, and Red Flags for Cofounders [Part 1]
This is an article feature from the podcast episode: “Accidental Entrepreneurship: Guillaume Catella his venture builder, metal music, and red & flags for cofounders [PART 1]". Listen to the full episode here.
Guillaume Catella’s path into tech and entrepreneurship wasn’t a direct one. Growing up in France and spending years in Japan, he found himself in cultures that were more risk-averse than startup-friendly. Yet, his entrepreneurial spirit emerged early on, even if he didn’t immediately recognize it. “I think I always had a bit of an entrepreneurial personality that no one could help me identify at the time,” Guillaume says. From building and selling computers in high school to coding websites in university, he was drawn to creating and solving problems.
From Nuclear Engineering to Metal Music Websites to MBAs
Despite pursuing a master’s in nuclear engineering, Guillaume’s passion for tech grew. “In nuclear engineering, you need forty years and millions of dollars to build a product. With tech, you could do it in a few months with nearly zero budget,” he explains. This realization led him to start building websites for fun, eventually creating one of the world’s largest metal music websites. “I didn’t realize I was building one of the biggest metal music websites,” he recalls. “But if you have that entrepreneurial spirit, you will always look for opportunities and plant seeds.”
Though Guillaume had the entrepreneurial drive, he hesitated to make the leap full-time. It wasn’t until he pursued an MBA in Singapore that he felt ready to jump into startups. “The MBA gave me the confidence, the skills, and the network I needed,” he says. “It made me realize how easy it was to achieve these things. Ideas don’t fall out of the sky—you can learn this process.”
The Birth of Creatella: Filling the Startup Gap
This newfound confidence led Guillaume to launch Creatella, a venture builder aimed at solving a market gap between outsourcing agencies and internal tech teams. “Both models were flawed,” Guillaume explains. “I wanted to create a flexible team that aligned with the startup’s long-term vision rather than just maximizing short-term profits.”
Creatella grew out of Guillaume’s vision of a startup studio that could launch multiple startups by leveraging strong execution. “The executional excellence of a team is way more important than people think,” he emphasizes. “You could give the worst idea to the best team, and they’re going to pivot and find the right idea. That’s why the idea itself is worth almost nothing.”
Cofounder Chemistry: A Startup’s Make or Break
A key lesson Guillaume learned was the importance of finding the right co-founder—something he struggled with for over a decade. “I couldn’t find the right co-founder for 10-15 years,” he admits. “It’s like a marriage. You need to be aligned on your vision, ethical concerns, and long-term goals, but also complementary in skills and personalities.” Guillaume points out that most startups fail because co-founders aren’t aligned on critical issues like exit strategies or values.
Guillaume shares a couple of key green and red flags to look out for in a cofounder: “A green flag is when someone is genuinely excited about the idea and aligned with your values”. But the true test comes after you start working together. “It’s the same as living with a partner; you don’t really know if it’ll work until you’re in it,” he explains. Red flags include unresolved friction, poor communication, or a lack of shared vision for the startup's future. If you can’t work through these issues after a few months, it’s better to part ways.
Entrepreneurship Is Just a Series of Small Steps
For Guillaume, entrepreneurship isn’t about taking a massive leap of faith—it’s about small, incremental steps. “Most people are afraid of the leap of faith, but later realize it’s much easier than they thought,” he says. “It wasn’t a big leap, just a small step.”
Connect with Guillaume and Creatella Ventures!
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