Notes on 'Founder Mode'

Most founders are in “founder mode” — and most of them fail anyway.

You’ve probably seen, if not already read, Paul Graham’s new essay: Founder Mode.

The gist? There are two ways to run a company as it scales: in “founder mode” or in “management mode.” Founder mode is about staying directly involved, keeping a tight grip and doing things your way even as a startup grows. Management mode, on the other hand, classically preaches to “hire good people and let them do their jobs,” among other things. According to Graham, when founders are gaslit into adopting management mode as they scale, it leads to bad outcomes—a lesson Airbnb’s Brian Chesky learned the hard way.

I’m all about founder’s acting like founders, but I think the specific gripes against management mode, e.g. delegation, are overfitted. I don’t think things like “being in the details” can be monopolized by founder mode either. And with the way companies are being built now, with less resources able to accomplish more, ‘founder mode’ is just more feasible, regardless of whether it should dominate…