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Founder Mode

paulgraham.com

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Re: Founder Mode

#481

Post by crop_rotation »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #191

I'm not surprised this theme would be popular with founding CEOs but not really sure what the promised "Ground-breaking Management Mode you Won't Believe!" actually is. Is it take your favourite employees on a retreat, don't worry about the message this sends? Stop hiring mediocre middle managers and do... something else? Run a giant public company like a 20-person start-up, only don't? Delegate yet stay in control o…

I think one point is that there is no shortcut to building a great product/company/society/nation.

You seem to be looking for a checklist where none exists. As many people have outlined in this thread, the difference is a founder takes everything about the company personally as an extension of themselves, and as a central point who can keep everything aligned. A manager ensures that directives given from top are followed and results delivered to the best of their abilities and any prevalent constraints.

Re: Founder Mode

#482

Post by corpMaverick »

Somebody here commented long ago about Bill Gate's style of management which reminds me of this piece. If you presented something to BG he would start asking questions and get deeper and deeper. He was merciless. It seemed that he was just making sure that you knew what you were doing. So your really had to be prepared. Someone as knowledgeable and smart as BG was able to keep the Bull shitters out of the development org.

I think what I am remembering is this story from Joel Spolsky. Good read. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...

Re: Founder Mode

#483

Post by crop_rotation »

Animats wrote: post #479

Much of this hinges on what the company does. AirBnB is basically a web site and a customer service operation. They don't own or run hotels. Netflix started like that, but now they also create content. The web site part is basically operating a server farm with a halfway decent interface. The negotiation with content providers part is crucial to success. Netflix also creates content. That works more like a VC operati…

> an auto company, or an aircraft company,

In both we are seeing how professional management can decimate a company with several decades of history. e.g Boeing.

Re: Founder Mode

#485

Post by jll29 »

detourdog wrote: post #119
breck wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> actually hire the superstars to join your startup as the early employees/partners? You have to become a superstar first. I had the good luck of living down the street from the AirBedAndBreakfast founders in San Francisco in 2008 and we'd commute together to our Tuesday night YC dinners in Mountainview. I picked up early that Nate was already a superstar coder, Joe was a superstar designer, and Brian was a superstar…

Don’t think of people as superstars. Think of them as individuals that are able to pay attention and consistently meet expectations. I’m starting to think paying attention to what is happening is undervalued.

Indeed, attention and listening is undervalued in the mostly male, high-on-ego dev culture.

And it's also easy to speculate in a forum about super stars and "10x coders" and what team you should have.

But in reality, you have to play with the cards you have been dealt with. You can search for better folks, but until you find them, the show must go on.

In many card games, being dealt 8 Aces means losing the game, and the same is true for startup teams with all-alpha animal "leaders" who are all super smart but cannot agree on anything.

Re: Founder Mode

#486

Post by bongodongobob »

bikamonki wrote: post #473

A friend bootstrapped his fastfood tiny chain to 5 locations and a couple of mill in revenue in two years. Low financial leverage, happy customers. An expert told him to hire experts to keep growing it. Now he's down to two locations, high in debt and uncertainty. Corpo bois are not founders, they know nothing of growing a startup. The have never produced value from thin air. They are just good at playing the corpo r…

What did they do that was so bad that it cost him 3 locations?

Re: Founder Mode

#487

Post by crop_rotation »

corpMaverick wrote: post #482

Somebody here commented long ago about Bill Gate's style of management which reminds me of this piece. If you presented something to BG he would start asking questions and get deeper and deeper. He was merciless. It seemed that he was just making sure that you knew what you were doing. So your really had to be prepared. Someone as knowledgeable and smart as BG was able to keep the Bull shitters out of the development…

The funny thing is at one point the bureaucracy becomes so big that even BillG shouting couldn't get anything done. One great example is his mail on Movie Maker being dysfunctional and in response several VPs playing musical chairs saying not my problem. Once you hire enough of them, there is no way out. BillG might care about Movie Maker but a random VP cares about his own fiefdom.

https://www.techemails.com/p/bill-gates-tries-to-install-mov...

Re: Founder Mode

#488

Post by portn0y »

bongodongobob wrote: post #486
bikamonki wrote: post #473

A friend bootstrapped his fastfood tiny chain to 5 locations and a couple of mill in revenue in two years. Low financial leverage, happy customers. An expert told him to hire experts to keep growing it. Now he's down to two locations, high in debt and uncertainty. Corpo bois are not founders, they know nothing of growing a startup. The have never produced value from thin air. They are just good at playing the corpo r…

What did they do that was so bad that it cost him 3 locations?

Probably load up on financing to expand. Expansion floundered and they had to unload unprofitable and profitable locations to cover the debt.

Re: Founder Mode

#489

Post by Drunkfoowl »

bongodongobob wrote: post #486
bikamonki wrote: post #473

A friend bootstrapped his fastfood tiny chain to 5 locations and a couple of mill in revenue in two years. Low financial leverage, happy customers. An expert told him to hire experts to keep growing it. Now he's down to two locations, high in debt and uncertainty. Corpo bois are not founders, they know nothing of growing a startup. The have never produced value from thin air. They are just good at playing the corpo r…

What did they do that was so bad that it cost him 3 locations?

Usually its an over leverage issue. He extends credit to the very limit and then something goes wonky, maybe a few things at once and the core business takes a hit.

Also, the more reach the less control (by design/definition) and QC is always a risk in that scenario.

Re: Founder Mode

#490

Post by dheera »

gregfjohnson wrote: post #446

I grew up seeing founder mode first-hand. My dad founded Celestron, and he operated just as Paul is describing. At my current company, I see the CEO doing the exact same thing, which gives me great hope. Huge contrast from my previous start-up, for which I have great anti-hope unfortunately. (Current company is Zap Surgical Systems, with Dr. John Adler as the founder.) I've seen John everywhere, all day every day. I'…

The real problem with methodologies like "agile" or whatever the hell is that:

- they are not magic solutions to a fundamentally flawed business, or a business that is building the wrong thing

- they are not solutions to people issues

To a great degree if you have the right business and people treat each other like humans, you don't need a methodology, just keep doing whatever you are doing.

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