Operational modes
There’s been a lot of talk around the tech internet lately about “founder mode”. I’m not going to summarize the concept. Go read the linked article if you haven’t already. Or don’t. Maybe you’ve been reading all the other articles and discussion about it, which is probably enough to give you the general idea.
At the risk of adding more useless content to the discourse, I want to say this…
It depends.
I have a habit of giving vague advice on the Yetto blog that boils down to “you need to decide what’s right for you, your company, your team, your product or service, and your customers.” It seems like I’m avoiding giving any advice at all, but I believe it. When making decisions about how you do things at your company or on your team, you need to think about the context.
Which is what drives me a little nuts about the idea of a “founder mode” vs a “manager mode” in general. I am not going to claim to be some sort of organizational expert or managerial genius. But I’ve been working in the corporate world for a while now - for the government and for tech companies of varying sizes (often varying while I’m there). I’ve seen a lot of different ways to manage organizations in that time, and I’ve read a lot about the topic. One thing that stands out to me is that successful organizations are usually successful because they’ve made decisions in the context of what they are trying to achieve.
There are a lot of different ways to operate a business, not just two. I don’t even think it’s as simple as a spectrum with “founders” on one side and “managers” on the other. That’s an over-simplification of a set of processes and theories that have been written about and tinkered with for over a century (if we’re just thinking in terms of the modern concept of office work and industrial organization).
It’s okay to hire managers and let them do their jobs. It’s okay to be a hands-on founder who gets involved in all aspects of your business. It’s okay to do some secret third thing. IT DEPENDS.
Point is, don’t listen to one person. Listen to lots of people and read about how other people and teams and companies have done this. Look at some that have succeeded and some that have failed. Then decide how you want to run your business for your product or service with your team for your customers. That’s the fun of it, right?
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