“hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground”
Billionaire Paul Graham, Y Combinator Founder, (funded over 3000 startups, including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, and Reddit) wrote an essay about ‘Founder Mode’ earlier in September.
“Founder Mode” is a phrase coined by Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb. He spoke of how the business was nearly run into the ground by hiring “good people”.
“Hire good people and give them room to do their jobs. Sounds great when it’s described that way, doesn’t it? Except in practice, judging from the report of founder after founder, what this often turns out to mean is: hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground”
On a different scale, this has happened in my companies once or twice. No scars no wisdom.
Founders see a gap, or have an idea, they think differently. They plant the seed. They have a commitment even when no one else believes in it, before we know it works, before anyone gets paid, before sales or people or an actual “company”.
All the great stories are unbelievable, because someone kept believing !!
A great read. https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html
