I’m a founder—and Paul Graham’s ‘founder mode’ is missing a key to growth

And so, when Paul Graham’s recent post, “Founder Mode,” came out, I was ready to like it. The speech by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky that he references is even one that I had heard a version of at an event in the past, so again, the ground was laid for me to like it. 

I did not like it. In my view, the Y Combinator cofounder presents a false binary in the post, and I felt like it was counterproductive to the conversation about the role founders play. 

I love founders, and I think we do bring special things. We have the DNA that says “the status quo is not good enough” and the willingness to go through the pain to make things better. And Graham’s post points out a trait that I absolutely have: not managing through my directs, but instead, maintaining deep relationships with amazing people throughout the company. When I want to know something, I go direct to the source. Passing information up and down a chain of hierarchy leads to bad results.

Management under scrutiny

The problem I have with the post is not in what it says about founders (which is primarily good), but instead what it says about managers (which is primarily bad). This line, in particular, is just incredibly damaging: “C-level execs, as a class, include some of the most skillful liars in the world.”

Graham explains later that he’s talking about the tendency of such executives to “manage up”—aka get the result you’re looking for out of your boss. Characterizing this as “lying” is unfair at best. People at every level of an organization are coached to be good at managing up, because it’s critical for your own personal success to have a boss that shares your perspective on whatever you’re working on. In managing up, you don’t lie, you work extra hard to demonstrate why your hard-won perspective is correct, to unlock budget, to do whatever it takes to move the ball forward. That is exactly what you get paid to do.

But let’s set aside that point for a second. The meta-problem with the post is that it creates a false dichotomy between managers and founders. Founders have this innate magic, whereas managers are just power-hungry bureaucrats.

Indispensable C-level executives

I have now hired some pretty experienced C-level execs on my team. And I fully acknowledge that they have different innate tendencies than I do. I do not actually think I would be that great at any C-level job (other than the one I have).

But I hired those folks because they actually have incredibly important skills, experience, and knowledge that I do not have. And that almost no founders have. 

Things like: how do you build a global salesforce that consistently achieves goals, create a compensation system that scales to thousands of global employees, get a team of hundreds of engineers and product people to build a consistent and integrated product experience.

Why would any founder know how to do that stuff? Generally, founders are people who are really close to problems, and those problems are most often experienced “closest to the metal.” Not in the ranks of executive leadership. 

And it turns out that there is actually important stuff to know about how to do these hard things. I am not familiar with many companies that have become massively successful that have never brought in senior execs in order to help it scale. It’s just…a part of the process.

What startup founders must do

There are two things that founders absolutely must do, though. 

First, they must hire C-level execs with integrity, people who are good humans. Startup culture is often strong, but it is also nascent. Senior leaders have an opportunity to shift it as they join, and you must hire people who will shift it in positive ways, in ways that are consistent with the way you want to see the company grow. 

Second, they must actually create an executive team dynamic that gets the best from everyone. The best teams are diverse, and a team full of founders sounds like a nightmare. It is often very challenging to cohere a team of very senior leaders if you have never managed people at this level before, but it can be done. This is where I spend a ton of my time and attention, and where my coach is invaluable.

If you’re a founder and you feel like your executives are gaslighting you, I would just ask two questions:

1.    Did you hire the right people? Not all C-level execs are the same.

2.    Are you doing your job of forming these amazing leaders into a world-class team?

I have found that, as often as not in my journey as a founder, the best way to identify the source of a problem is to look in the mirror.

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