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Founder Mode

paulgraham.com

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Re: Founder Mode

#561

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

fsndz wrote: post #531
ineedaj0b wrote: post #520

I think it’s still undecided if Airbnb is a force for good or a force for evil in the world. A lot, I mean a lot of people with middle incomes have bought desirable homes in nice locations and rent them out. There are many aspiring families, young couples priced out of the market because of this. Sure, this option was always a thing but the people who rent these properties out do not improve the community or unit the…

I frankly don't know why people keep using Airbnb now. It's costly, and the service is worse than a hotel. My worst vacations have happened in Airbnbs. Even for group vacations with friends, we now choose hotels. The good Airbnbs seem to be only the luxury or high-end types, suitable for very high-income or rich people.

If you want to go to a group location with several friends and have

1. Privacy

2. Your own kitchen

Hotels still don’t cut it. Usually a stay needs to exceed some length of time needs (due to the cleaning fee typically being flat in Airbnb’s) before it becomes worthwhile. But if you’re in that camp (4+ people, 4+ days) it becomes pretty worthwhile. The cost savings on food alone makes it back up pretty quick, plus there are other savings usually related to parking being included etc.

Re: Founder Mode

#562

Post by csa »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #561
fsndz wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I frankly don't know why people keep using Airbnb now. It's costly, and the service is worse than a hotel. My worst vacations have happened in Airbnbs. Even for group vacations with friends, we now choose hotels. The good Airbnbs seem to be only the luxury or high-end types, suitable for very high-income or rich people.

If you want to go to a group location with several friends and have 1. Privacy 2. Your own kitchen Hotels still don’t cut it. Usually a stay needs to exceed some length of time needs (due to the cleaning fee typically being flat in Airbnb’s) before it becomes worthwhile. But if you’re in that camp (4+ people, 4+ days) it becomes pretty worthwhile. The cost savings on food alone makes it back up pretty quick, plus the…

> But if you’re in that camp (4+ people, 4+ days)

Have you tried Residence Inn 2-bedroom suites?

There aren’t many of them in any given location, but they are absolutely amazing for 4 people when you can get one.

My experience has been positive, and my friends and family who have tried it were also impressed.

Re: Founder Mode

#563

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

csa wrote: post #562
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to go to a group location with several friends and have 1. Privacy 2. Your own kitchen Hotels still don’t cut it. Usually a stay needs to exceed some length of time needs (due to the cleaning fee typically being flat in Airbnb’s) before it becomes worthwhile. But if you’re in that camp (4+ people, 4+ days) it becomes pretty worthwhile. The cost savings on food alone makes it back up pretty quick, plus the…

> But if you’re in that camp (4+ people, 4+ days) Have you tried Residence Inn 2-bedroom suites? There aren’t many of them in any given location, but they are absolutely amazing for 4 people when you can get one. My experience has been positive, and my friends and family who have tried it were also impressed.

I haven’t stayed out of a kitchenette suite but yeah that does sound like a good option if you have the right amount of people who are cool with the sleeping arrangements as described. Gets rid of most of the drawbacks I mentioned above around kitchens. Still not ideal for a lot of scenarios but at least a good option in certain circumstances.

Re: Founder Mode

#564

Post by xandrius »

fsndz wrote: post #531
ineedaj0b wrote: post #520

I think it’s still undecided if Airbnb is a force for good or a force for evil in the world. A lot, I mean a lot of people with middle incomes have bought desirable homes in nice locations and rent them out. There are many aspiring families, young couples priced out of the market because of this. Sure, this option was always a thing but the people who rent these properties out do not improve the community or unit the…

I frankly don't know why people keep using Airbnb now. It's costly, and the service is worse than a hotel. My worst vacations have happened in Airbnbs. Even for group vacations with friends, we now choose hotels. The good Airbnbs seem to be only the luxury or high-end types, suitable for very high-income or rich people.

It really depends on the country and what you're looking for.

In your description, you might be doing it only for a short holiday but when you travel long term, living only in hotels is truly awful.

Airbnb is the only way to consistently be able to rent a full place without having to go through traditional renting agencies which require oh so much paperwork, even for just a month.

The alternative is finding privates on Facebook but with that you just can never be sure.

Re: Founder Mode

#565

Post by conductr »

JakeSc wrote: post #545

As both a 4x founder and recovering manager-of-managers, I have to say Founder-vs.-Manager is a bit of a false dichotomy. Interestingly, the most successful managers I've seen have themselves been founders. They had both autonomy and organizational trust, and also tenacious creativity, which led to significant successes. This binary notion of "are you a Manager™ or are you a Founder™?" is a false dichotomy and leaves…

I think the dichotomy is a gross simplification when presented as a single style or piece of advice to be implemented globally. The challenge of the founder is to know what is the truly important part of their product/market and exercise a Founder mode style for those areas. It's where your time as a founder is most valuable. There's reason most of the Steve Jobs tales are from product design perspective. I expect he knew that was, or would be, a significant differentiator of his product. Yet, as his company was scaling he likely was pulled in many more directions regarding other concerns of a scaling company as all founders would be (HR, Accounting, etc), and he knew that's where you exercise Manager mode. Hire a good head of HR and CFO and let them do their job. It's not worth his time to invest much effort in those types of functional minutia although they are very important and necessary parts of scaling.

Re: Founder Mode

#566

Post by bankcust08385 »

Yep. The problem with outside advice is that it's too often a low-effort opinion missing the context founders in the arena have. Another problem is too many rich people don't fully intellectualize the advantages or dumb luck (timing) they had on their side, and tend to freely proclaim opinions that aren't based on evidence as "iron clad laws". The best thing you can do as a founder if you have noisy a board member or investor is to derisk their mandatory "suggestion" on a smaller scale. It's probably a waste of time, but maybe not.

Re: Founder Mode

#567

Post by refurb »

So the idea is founder mode isn’t 100% delegation, its leaders staying close enough to the critical aspects to make sure they are done to the quality needed?

That makes sense.

Re: Founder Mode

#568

Post by sevensor »

gizmo wrote: post #9

The big thing missing from pg’s essay is how the professional managerial class has this big filter where only those who are willing to jump through hoops for 20 years get to the c-suite. In businesses of any size it’s just not possible to get promoted straight up the ranks in your 20s no matter how good you are. Seniority trumps ability. Founders are excluded from this filter process and to nobody’s surprise founders…

> the standard way businesses are run filters out the most capable and most effective people from executive positions

You say this like it’s not the intended outcome? If you have money, do you really want to invest in a high variance strategy that relies on a genius pulling rabbits out of a hat? Or do you invest in a sure thing? MBAs are very reliable at extracting value from successful firms. The continued success of the enterprise is a non goal. Same exact thing with Scrum. You have value locked up in some innovative software? Run Scrum on it for a few quarters until the juice is all sucked out, then move on, having reliably delivered features right up until the wheels fell off. It’s not about value creation, it’s about value extraction. Different game, different rules.

Re: Founder Mode

#570

Post by throwaway2037 »

gizmo wrote: post #9

The big thing missing from pg’s essay is how the professional managerial class has this big filter where only those who are willing to jump through hoops for 20 years get to the c-suite. In businesses of any size it’s just not possible to get promoted straight up the ranks in your 20s no matter how good you are. Seniority trumps ability. Founders are excluded from this filter process and to nobody’s surprise founders…

    > Seniority trumps ability.
This is great, pithy phrase. Thank you to share it. Where I work, when I look up the ranks (always, always "old" people), I feel like many of these people could just stop coming to work, and I would not notice for weeks or months. "Zero fucks given" to anyone below them, unless it is ticking a box for their year-end review. Does anyone else feel this way?
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