"Founder Mode" in context - by Sam Gerstenzang

Paul Graham has written a great new essay called Founder Mode, which argues, in summary that great founders have hired great executives and it’s not worked. Instead the thing that works is “founder mode” which is direct involvement and oversight, of what would be typically called micromanagement. He argues we should, manage more “like Steve Jobs and and less like John Sculley,” citing Jobs’ annual ‘top 100 people meeting’ which crossed reporting lines as evidence of Job’s unique founder approach. This would all hold together a bit better if Jobs’ himself didn’t say exactly the opposite: Of course, Jobs was also famously in the details in the areas of design, product marketing, and business development. What gives? I hate to break it to you: this is also a bit more complicated than two binary options. First, let me tackle one core problem of Graham’s essay: tremendous sampling bias. It’s possible that these extraordinarily great, craft oriented founders who have built important companie

Paul Graham has written a great new essay called Founder Mode, which argues, in summary that great founders have hired great executives and it’s not worked. Instead the thing that works is “founder mode” which is direct involvement and oversight, of what would be typically called micromanagement. He argues we should, manage more “like Steve Jobs and and less like John Sculley,” citing Jobs’ annual ‘top 100 people meeting’ which crossed reporting lines as evidence of Job’s unique founder approach. This would all hold together a bit better if Jobs’ himself didn’t say exactly the opposite: Of cou