Scaling Founder Mode
Founder mode is valuable — but micromanagement doesn't scale. How to preserve the systems thinking and direct engagement of founder mode while enabling an organization that can run without you in every detail.
Founder Mode is all the craze these days. But here’s what I’ve seen: micromanagement doesn’t scale.
Founders obsessing over ALL details? Is that the only way?
What I like about Founder Mode is that it addresses head-on a problem I’ve been seeing for a while—the divide-and-conquer approach to scaling.
The way managers are taught to run companies seems to be like modular design in the sense that you treat subtrees of the org chart as black boxes. You tell your direct reports what to do, and it’s up to them to figure out how. But you don’t get involved in the details of what they do. That would be micromanaging them, which is bad. (Paul Graham - Founder Mode)
I agree with Paul - This modular design ignores the fact that the company is an organic, complex, system with many interactions between its parts.
Trying to optimize any one piece isn’t necessarily going to optimize the whole.
The mini-CMO problem
I recall conversations with a CMO who was frustrated that her people were only thinking about their domain (Field Marketing, Digital Marketing, Product Marketing) and not integrating.
“I want them to be mini-CMOs”
I believe the solution isn’t necessarily for founders to be involved in all the details.
Scale it through mini-founders
I think the right approach is to scale Founder Mode by selectively applying it.
For each strategic company initiative, have a mini-founder who leads a cross-functional, empowered, outcome-oriented team that focuses on one metric/outcome that matters—essentially a mini-startup.
For some initiatives, the Founder/CEO would be the hands-on mini-Founder.
For others, they would select someone else to step up to the plate.
I don’t think the issue is necessarily that the professionals around the founder are fakers, but more importantly, they’re hired for specialization rather than their ability to be a mini-founder.
A Founder who wants to keep scaling (and still have a life!) would select/nurture leaders around him who can take on these complex cross-function initiatives instead of focusing on their turf and playing a version of the corporate “schedule chicken” game.
Next, the Founder would ensure that these complex initiatives are tackled using principles used for building complex products—orienting around outcomes, iterating, learning, and adapting in short cycles.
Not for the whole company
This doesn’t mean the whole company needs to work this way.
This approach is overhead for stable operations.
A good heuristic I found when working with companies is that work ON the company is typically more complex than work IN the company. That’s a good place to start applying Founder Mode. Another is to only apply it for working on the few things that really matter right now (think your REAL OKRs)
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