Jing Conan Wang’s Post

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

Amazing to read this. So much of it resonates with my experience working with early stage companies. Quite often when companies get funding suddenly there are a few more “adults in the room” that founders think will make the right calls for the company. Quite often that doesn’t end up being the case - Founders need to very much stay in the driving seat to ensure those around them are executing at a high level - Anything less can spell doom. #leadership #management #founders #headcount #talent #foundermode

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.

Good read. The best part is the last note by PG. Founder mode, as everything else nowadays, will become a trend and also an excuse. Looking forward to "Founder mode consultants". P.s. One more thing. The casual "thank you" at the end for some random people like Elon Mask for reading early draft :)

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.”

Great article on the "Founder Mode" by Paul Graham at Y Combinator. While what constitutes it is a great topic of research, the end note is very foresightful: "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."

After doing my dissertation on "The Becoming of Startups", conceptualizing entrepreneuring as a process of creation- I think it is interesting the distinction between creating and managing . There is no set standard for creation, creation is experimental play that cannot be dictated by templates of organization. Creation (founders mode) is a process that is fundamentally different from maintenance and scalability. In my opinion, considering them to be synonymous would be detrimental to creative processes of entrepreneurship!

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

Love the “Founder Mode” concept. A few Founder Mode characteristics that I see: -deeply cares about the business and thinks why it exist is important for the world -curious about the learnings on what makes the business flywheel move and what increase/decrease inertia -is intentional with interactions and invites dialogue at all levels (employees, vendors, customers, etc) -won’t tolerate optics or distractions, cares about the ideas and actions that bring value. What do you think are founder mode characteristics? What would you change or add?

This all ladders back to how, even at the growth stage, the right people - even beyond the founder themselves - have the ability and opportunity to make and drive a company. Making the investment in understanding who are the right people for your organization before going on a hiring binge is essential to success.