Founders spend a lot of time evaluating other people. We assess staff, we assess suppliers, we assess market opportunities. We build scorecards for everything except ourselves.
Last month, I decided to fix that. I sat down with Claude — the AI — and asked it to score me as a founder. Not Adobha as a business. Me, as the person running it. I gave it everything: how I spend my time, what decisions I make, where I feel uncertain, what my team says about me.
"I didn't want flattery. I wanted to know what an honest outside observer would say if they had no reason to protect my feelings."
The scores
Vision and purpose — 9/10. That felt right. I know why I am doing this. I have always known. The story of Adobha starts with a conviction, not a market gap.
Resilience — 8/10. Twelve years of building without external funding will do that to you.
People and team building — 7/10. Fair. I am better at finding good people than I am at structured development.
Then: Financial Acumen — 6/10.
My stomach dropped.
The AI was right. I understand our businesses operationally. I know when a property is performing and when it is not. I know when a customer relationship is healthy. But formal financial modelling — scenarios, cap tables, detailed projections — I rely on other people for that more than I should. For a group chairman running four businesses across two countries, that is a gap.
Why I posted it
I almost did not. It is uncomfortable to publish your weaknesses. But I have been thinking about what kind of founder I want to be, and the kind I do not want to be is the kind who only shows the good parts.
I posted the scorecard on LinkedIn. The response surprised me. Dozens of founders wrote to say they recognised themselves in the 6/10. Several offered to connect around the finance piece. One CFO I respect a lot sent me a framework for founder financial literacy that I have been working through since.
The vulnerability was the point. Not as a performance — but because honest self-assessment is how you actually get better. I am 38 years old and I am still learning how to run these businesses well. If I pretend otherwise, I stop learning.
Ask AI to score you. Post the result. See what happens.
If you want to talk about what this looks like for your own business — write to me.