Will Paul Graham's 'Founder Mode' essay do more good or harm as it spreads through startups?

Paul Graham · published Sep 2024

Once founder mode becomes an established concept, people will misuse it — founders will use it to excuse failing to delegate and non-founder managers will imitate founders, with messy results when it fails.

The modular managerial approach at least limits the damage a bad CEO can do, so abandoning it raises the downside.

Scope: framed as a less optimistic prediction

source Founder Mode

Zach Perret · published Oct 16, 2024

The 'founder mode' blog post will be one of the most misused pieces of startup writing and will cause some of the worst behavior in startups

0:00 20VC: Why Founder Mode is Dangerous & Could Encourage Bad Behaviour | Why Fundraising is a Waste of Time & OKRs are BS | Why Angel Investing is Bad for Founders to Do and the VC Model is on it's Last Legs with Zach Perret @ Plaid

Paul Graham · published Sep 2024

Founders have achieved what they have despite a headwind of bad advice, so understanding founder mode should unlock substantially more.

Their existing achievements came against bad advice, so removing that handicap should improve results.

source Founder Mode

Zach Perret · published Oct 16, 2024 · hedged

Paul Graham's Founder Mode essay will be one of the most misused blog posts and will cause a lot of the worst behavior in startups for a long time, though for people who reach the level of having all the context he does it will be a huge unlock.

It went viral extremely fast and is being discussed everywhere, and the two most available readings of it — deeply undervaluing great execs, and 'the founder should micromanage everything' — are both wrong.

Scope: still thinks much of the essay is good; valuable for those who have all the context Graham does

18:15 20VC: Why Founder Mode is Dangerous & Could Encourage Bad Behaviour | Why Fundraising is a Waste of Time & OKRs are BS | Why Angel Investing is Bad for Founders to Do and the VC Model is on it's Last Legs with Zach Perret @ Plaid

Harry Stebbings · published Oct 16, 2024

Founder Mode is being used as justification for a lot of bad behavior; the practices of exceptional CEOs aren't universally applicable, and not adopting them doesn't make someone a bad CEO.

Ryan Petersen and Zach are phenomenal CEOs, but not everyone is Ryan or Zach.

20:13 Practices of exceptional ceos arent universally applicable not adopting them isnt bad

Zach Perret · published Oct 16, 2024

Copying signature practices of great leaders — Steve Jobs' top 100 offsite, or building a philosophy off Brian Chesky — is horrible for most companies, because those practices were context-specific to that leader, company and stage.

Jobs had a specific reason for the top 100 offsite that made it incredible for Apple at that size and time; that doesn't make the practice universally applicable, and not all of us are Brian.

20:31 Copying context specific leadership practices is harmful for most companies