Brandon Kent, AIA’s Post

We got to dive into Allison Fannin's past to find the meaning behind Two Thirty-Five Designs and a little about her future. ⚡️ Read the blog here to get the scoop! https://bit.ly/4bBQEmc

love this. this only occurred to me in late 2022 when people like Brian Chesky and Elon started explicitly talking about doing what needs to be done without worrying about what the business books say about management. particularly i felt, many times, that most books that i read about management (especially The Making of a Manager) were irrelevant to the journey of a founder. I also felt like any person who has a “startup mentor/advisor” title somewhere on their linkedin but haven’t built a tech startup before is full of crap, because they were repeating all the default management 101 advice that breaks under the pressure of a startup that can still die. most management advice assumes your company never dies, because they’re by high paid managers at big corporations. and if they are written by big tech managers, they were written before the layoffs. how i’ve operated LL for the first 18 months and the following 24 months are completely different and the difference comes from this culture change and me feeling comfortable doing what my gut says is right instead of what the temporary culture of the past decade said was right

Such a great point by the one & only 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗵𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘃𝘀. "𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿" 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲. Couple of thoughts about this: 1. Most people whether they are founders or working in a regular companies 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. When you try to just "manage" people in a leadership position, it's not effective for yourself as a leader and for your organization. 2. I think the "Founder" Mode that Paul Graham is talking about is a subset of "Leader" Mode. But the 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽. That's why the generic leadership books and advices aren't really effective for startup founders. 3. This "Founder" Mode may be applicable to leaders of companies beyond startups, though, as Paul Graham noted with the example of Apple. In my early days at Apple between 2002-2007, what surprised me the most was how top execs (such as 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿) would email me, a mere MarCom manager sitting in Korea, to ask a specific question about Korea. Steve Jobs used to reply to emails from customers about iPhone or iPad. 4. I think some specifics 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 "𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿" 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 are: • Being 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 between 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 & 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻; better yet, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 & 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Willingness to 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀  • 𝗔𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 as needed • 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 to employees, customers, competitors, and advisors • 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 to employees founders delegate • Trying to make the "𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻" based on the available data, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 "𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻"  • 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀 and be responsible for the result, whether it's good or bad • 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 including their own opinions Founders - what else do you think the Founder Mode entails?

《𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞 》 💭 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐡𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐲'𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 🔵 "Founders feel like they're being gaslit from both sides — by the people telling them they have to run their companies like managers, and by the people working for them when they do. Usually when everyone around you disagrees with you, your default assumption should be that you're mistaken. But this is one of the rare exceptions. VCs who haven't been founders themselves don't know how founders should run companies, and C-level execs, as a class, include some of the most skillful liars in the world." 🙃 "The more diplomatic way of phrasing this statement would be to say that experienced C-level execs are often very skilled at managing up. And I don't think anyone with knowledge of this world would dispute that." 🤓 "I also have another less optimistic prediction: as soon as the concept of founder mode becomes established, people will start misusing it. Founders who are unable to delegate even things they should will use founder mode as the excuse. Or managers who aren't founders will decide they should try to act like founders. That may even work, to some extent, but the results will be messy when it doesn't; the modular approach does at least limit the damage a bad CEO can do." IMO building, launching, growing and scaling startup is as much art as it is science. keep finding the right partners, team members, funders, advisors to journey with you at each point in time. there is no real conventional wisdom. #Founder #YCombinator #FounderAndBuilder

Founders should understand management principles but be ready to break them when necessary. Hiring the best people and giving them space works well when a steady pace is viable. However, startups often demand speed that this approach can't sustain. Founders must actively connect with everyone to keep things moving quickly.

As your local twitter translator, this is going bonkers in Silicon Valley. The phrase founder-mode has instantly been solidified in the zeitgeist. You will hear about this for a decade, a new meta phrase like "product-market-fit."

New interview question on all senior role conversations. “Tell me what you think about founder-mode, if you applied it in your past work and how do you plan to to in this role.” And the interview prep industry already coming up with answers, with the help of ChatGPT of course! The most credible and honest answer is: “I have not applied it, i wasn’t trained to do it, but it does have merit and I’m open to learn and use it, IF your executive team is genuinely interested in doing so.”

From the perspective of Brian, this advice makes 100% sense. Most management models out there are not based on rapidly scaling startups. They are for established companies, with investors from the public market where losing value is to be avoided at all costs. If you do want to read some great books on how to run a company in founder mode, would highly recommend: 1. The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz) 2. High Output Management (Andy Grove) 3. What You Do Is Who You Are (Ben Horowitz) Keep in mind the survivorship bias at play here, super successful tech founders tend to regret following big company management practices. The opposite could also be true: WeWork or FTX founders might regret not adopting more "big company" management practices. Run your company in a way that feels authentic and makes sense to you.

The number one skill set of a founder is to evolve. Evolve with the idea, evolve with the stage, evolve with the market, evolve with the people, evolve with the journey… But self doubt comes along every step of the way with every part of that evolution. Fighting through self doubt and striving to evolve is what sets a founder apart from a manager. Having been a founder, I know that now. Here’s to keeping that faith and continuing to evolve! #foundermode

This simple post by Paul Graham seems to have caused a lot of discussion and emotion in recent days. Have startup founders been doing it wrong all of these years? Have we discovered a miraculous new way of managing #scaling #startups that guarantees success? Should we ignore decades of conventional management strategy and revert to a “only a founder knows how to make their own startup successful”, and should we change our TA and leadership strategy? The point is there was nothing new or novel in the article. Every founder I have ever known (including some from YC) have asked these very questions. When do I bring in new leaders into my business? What responsibilities do I handover (not delegate)? Can I source a leadership team that I want to work with, who will also want to work with me? Do I believe they can do a better job than me? What will happen if I don’t bring in a leadership team who are given meaningful roles? What is clear is that most founders cannot build and maintain a significant scaled business alone. Also that investors want to derisk the founder impact. Different founders have different styles and that’s ok. The key is to know your strengths & weaknesses, and build & optimize a leadership team to give the greater chance of success. Steve jobs knew where he added real value (and it wasn’t by running every aspect of the business). He set the vision, the standards and the USP, but as the article also states he knew he had to identify and develop great talent - this doesn’t happen overnight. If AirBnB wasn’t as successful as it should’ve been, then maybe they should be looking at the founding leadership rather than blaming those that were brought in? Did they really understand the business and the potential? There is no “silver bullet” to success. Successfully scaling a business is really hard. But to suggest that there is a brand new leadership paradigm based on “only a founder can make it happen” and will guarantee success is unrealistic.