"Founder Mode" vs. Playing "Hero Ball"

The “Founder Mode” vs “Manager Mode” conversation has gotten too binary. Paul Graham's essay here for context in case you haven’t read it (~2 mins).

I’ve been a founder and I’ve worked for several brilliant founders, from the early days to points of significant scale. I believe the real meaningful conversation is around where a founder stays deeply involved and where they don’t as their company scales. This will also change as the company does. Or said differently, what are the beneficial parts of "Founder Mode", that truly help a company be their best? Versus what is keeping it from scaling and reaching its true potential?

By virtue of being the founder, you’ve been there since the beginning and it is your vision being brought to life. No one is going to know it better or have more conviction, particularly in the early days. Given how equity distribution works, you’re also going to work harder than everyone else because you’re incentivized to. There are parts of the company (product, strategy, key accounts, key hires, etc.) that you will always be more involved in regardless of how big the company gets. And you should be since those are the things that give your company its edge, and keep it out ahead. This is the Steve Jobs version of “Founder Mode”. The iPhone wouldn’t exist if he wasn’t there, heck, Apple wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t returned for a second tour of duty.

There are however, things you eventually need to learn to keep your hands (directly) out of, and instead get good at training and trusting others with. This is really hard. For a very long time you have been a combination of Yoda and a professional fire fighter. You know where all the skeletons are buried because you helped bury them all. It takes an organization reaching several hundred employees in my experience for all critical single points of failure to disappear, and even then you’re usually the one bridging a lot of those gaps when there is a failure. BUT… while answering sales and support questions in Slack at 4am may seem godlike to some, unless they are mission critical to the company, its not the best use of your time and you’re simply training the company to come to you in a crisis rather than allowing the right people to step up and build that muscle.

Until your company has truly scaled to 1,000+ employees, I don’t think this means bringing in professional executives who deploy the "how to run a Fortune 500 company" playbook, which is how I interpret Paul’s definition of “Manager Mode”. Hiring and/or developing others who give you leverage is a different super power founders have to develop. Not doing so, means you’re constantly playing hero ball, and are a bottleneck for EVERYTHING. This doesn’t help the company, it burns you out, and if it goes on long enough, the really good people supporting you will get frustrated and leave. Those people are your bench, and should be leveling up and giving you the founder, more leverage to keep running “Founder Mode” on the highest value things (???spoiler alert, its not responding to Slack messages at 4am).

“Manager Mode” also isn’t this binary state where one day most of the exec team is replaced by “adults” with impressive resumes. As a founder you’re forced to do so many jobs you have no experience doing until you can finally bring someone in (or grow someone) who does. Some of the best management teams I’ve been on have had some combination of home grown talent that kept stepping up when needed and professional managers who came in to fill and scale critical gaps. The biggest mistake I’ve seen companies make here is bringing in an executive who would be great at the next phase of the company, but is unwilling to roll up their sleeves to help the company in its current phase. Knowing how to hire (or develop) what you need when you need it is a skill every founder has to get good at.

Startups are unique entities that go against so many business norms you experience in large corporations or read about in school. In my experience if you are a founder, this reinforces the value of picking investors and board members who have operated in these environments. So much of being a founder is trusting your gut but knowing when to seek help. It can be a lonely road and real test of conviction. Surround yourself with others who have been on the journey and can provide practical advice, not just people who are smart but can only play armchair quarterback.