'Founder Mode' hit Silicon Valley last September like a mini tremor in a fault riddled landscape. You know, the place where San Andreas teeters on the edge... Never quite taking the whole show down - but always there, hanging over the existing status quo. Threatening its very existence. In this case, threatening the essence of traditional management theory.
And it awoke something within our Mothership . After all, we are founders, we've worked with founders and backed founders - and we were one of the early ones to do it. You could argue that 'Founder Mode' is our only mode. We have called it other things, and we have been talking about, writing and developing what is now thought of as 'Founder Mode' for decades... Maybe longer. As a result, we thought it might be time to extend the concept of Founder Mode. You know, take it on a bit - like a jackhammer to the fault line.
Founder Mode is a bigger deal than a few scant searches and a couple of notes might reveal. The term itself was first coined by Paul Graham from Y Combinator. He described a talk by the founder of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, who described getting bad advice from VC's and corporate managers about how to scale his startup. Even business schools seem bereft of management techniques for founders of fast growing, often tech-enabled startups.
Paul Graham's defining article on Founder Mode dug into how founders struggled with traditional school of thought which stated that you should scale your startup by hiring great senior managers (often from large corporations) then leaving them alone to build, manage and lead their function. 8-10 such corporate leaders should be able to run the business for you. Hey, you might even hire a COO to manage them! Except, it seemed, they don't.
Similar sentiments were expressed across the Valley and beyond by founder after founder. And this, following a legion of techniques, systems and training around Manager Mode, first developed during the industrial revolution, by academics, thought leaders and corporate managers. Today 'Manager Mode' is the system, the institution, the accepted norm. Founder Mode versus Manager Mode feels like a very young David versus one massive Goliath. Like Nigel Farage against Elon Musk.
Even Steve Jobs stumbled on the 'Manager Mode' curse. He ended up getting booted out of Apple by his leading corporate manager when Apple was experiencing some scaling challenges. Indeed, the stark differences between Manager Mode and Founder Mode were best revealed by John Sculley (Manager Mode) and Steve Jobs (Founder Mode). Steve Jobs was a product genius, but also a highly instinctive and effective Founder. When he returned to Apple in the 1990's he showed us all how 'Founder Mode' should be done. He had learned his lesson.
But, there have been equally effective founders before him - check Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Enzo Ferrari. Thomas Edison was an inventor, Walt Disney a cartoonist and animation film producer. Enzo Ferrari was a racing car driver, turned racing car designer and maker. And they all had one thing in common - Founder Mode.
Founder Mode is comparable to 'parent mode' - there is no manual, each child is different, and they grow in their own different ways. The optimal way to bring up a child is to be hands on and deeply involved in their early, first-start (startup?) years. Parents seem to somehow know best and they have a powerful natural instinct for their children's safety, development and health. Like Imelda Marcos and her passion for shoes, except with kids.
But to be a successful parent you have to be a great parent. You have to stay the course and be always on for your child, putting the kid first. Founder Mode is no different. To be a successful founder you have to be a great founder and not just any old founder. You have to stay the course and be always on, putting your startup first. You have to keep shaping and building your product until it breaks through in its market, and you have to know your key customers better than anyone. You have to build a great scaled-up company and a culture where your team is your family.
Founders need to stay nurturing their product and market for as long as they physically can. Deep in the weeds. They should remain hands-on - developing circles of expertise and trusted partners around them. They should manage from the middle, not from some arbitrary office up above with a bunch of corporate yes folk surrounding them (and often failing them).
Structures should remain flat - no hierarchical pyramids. Founders are like a senior trader on a trading floor, with specialist teams around them, and their eyes and fingers on the pulse of any key trade or major moves in the market. Corporate Managers should learn 'Founder Mode' before ever joining a startup or scale-up.
And this trend toward 'Founder Mode' might explain the inexplicable rise of Donald Trump and the coterie of tech titan founders that he is surrounding himself with - just waiting to smash big government like a founder!.
AI and increased automation make Founder Mode more possible than ever. After all, teams can stay small for much longer. A billion dollar company could have less than 20 people - maybe even less than 10 people. Perhaps this is Founder Mode. Perhaps this is the future.
Our Mothership wrote a book about it called 'The Size Zero Handbook'. They plan to serialise aspects of it as they develop a management theory and a set of practices for 'Founder Mode'. We thought you should know. And we welcome anyone who can share their experiences with 'Founder Mode' versus 'Manager Mode'.
In Part 2, coming next Month, we will explore how 'Founder Mode' is developing. Stay tuned - 2025 might usher in a whole new founder led world. God save us!
This post first appeared at The Letts Journal.
