The Founder Mode meme is a suggestion from Y Combinator founder Paul Graham about how big companies should be managed that has since turned into a joke as people debate his thesis.
It began with an essay in which Graham suggests that companies have been discouraged from “micromanaging” to their detriment and that it would be beneficial to have one person at the top in charge of everything and everyone below them—even if there isn’t enough time in a day for all that.
What is Founder Mode?
Founder Mode is when one person is involved in every aspect of a company’s operations and Manager Mode is where work is delegated to many people. If you are a business person, you might have a personal opinion about this. And pretty much every business person online did.
Some detractors say that Founder Mode creates unhealthy work habits and overwork and that one person can’t possibly have a say in everything, especially as a company scales up in size. Others say Manager Mode runs companies into the ground because a manager could not possible have the vision or care for a company that a founder does.
Or as Graham writes, “In effect there are two different ways to run a company: founder mode and manager mode. Till now most people even in Silicon Valley have implicitly assumed that scaling a startup meant switching to manager mode. But we can infer the existence of another mode from the dismay of founders who’ve tried it, and the success of their attempts to escape from it.”
Founder mode vs Manager mode in practice
Graham specifically cites Airbnb‘s Brian Chesky, who stepped back from day-to-day operations, which he thought led to other issues in the company that ultimately led to lost profits. He then returned as a manager/founder, which Graham said improved their “free cash flow figures.”
Other examples of Founder Mode Graham cites include the work of the famous Steve Jobs of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Sam Altman of OpenAI. Much like the concept of Founder Mode, the actual efficacy of any of these leaders is debatable.
…vs Bureaucrat mode
“Women founders struggle to get into the Founder Mode”
There are plenty of people who think “Founder Mode” is simply a new marketing term for having a megalomaniac at the helm of your start-up. One of the arguments in favor of it kind of being BS was actually shared by Chesky. Actually, it was shared by several women business leaders first, but because he also stated it, people paid attention.
“Women founders have been reaching out to me over the past 24 hours about how they don’t have permission to run their companies in Founder Mode the same way men can. This needs to change,” wrote Chesky in a post.
Women founders aren’t allowed the same freedom to operate as micromanagers without suffering serious repercussions and even getting pushed out of their positions. There was some pushback to this idea in Chesky’s comments, mainly from other men.
Founder Mode memes
A lot of the memes about Founder Mode are people making fun of the concept and in particular of the type of people who talk about it. Mostly dudes who ride branding all the way to the top.
Related memes:
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- Funny work memes to lighten your mood
- Nobody will remember your salary but they will remember this meme
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