Paul Graham, the founder of the famous startup accelerator Y Combinator, coined a new term this week that has taken over social media: founder mode.
In an article published on September 1 and published on X over Labor Day weekend, Graham distinguishes “founder mode” from traditional “manager mode” by pointing out key differences in management styles and organizational structure. Graham's X post has been viewed over 21 million times as of press time.
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Founder mode means that the CEO interacts with employees from across the organization, not just their direct reports. The startup, even as it grows into a large company, is less hierarchical; for example, the CEO might hold “skip-level” meetings with employees. Graham cited the real-life example of Steve Jobs, who hosted an annual retreat for what he considered to be the 100 most important people at Apple – regardless of where they were on the corporate ladder.
Manager mode, on the other hand, is less hands-on and involves more delegation to other people. Founders can grow companies and run them effectively without going into manager mode, Graham explained.
“Hire good people and give them freedom to do their jobs,” Graham wrote. “Sounds great when you describe it that way, doesn't it? But in practice, if you believe the reports of one founder after another, it often means hiring professional fraudsters and letting them run the company into ruin.”
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Graham cited the example of Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who tried to follow the conventional wisdom of “manager mode,” hiring good people and letting them do their jobs.
“The results were disastrous,” Graham wrote.
Chesky had to switch to a different management style, called “founder mode,” and explained in an interview last year that founders have several advantages over managers: They've managed every part of the process of starting a company from start to finish. They've built the company so they can rebuild it. And they have permission to rename the company or make major changes.
This is it: @bchesky in founder mode.
Three reasons why founders differ from managers:
1. Being the biological parent
2. Full permission to make changes
3. Know how to rebuild the company pic.twitter.com/VhuQ70B8FK
– Yana Welinder (@yanatweets) September 2, 2024
In the last few days since Graham published his essay, the social media world has begun to explore what it means in humorous and insightful ways, with one post drawing a comparison between micromanagement and founder mode.
Founder mode pic.twitter.com/LWOlaFq4UJ
— ST (@seyitaylor) September 2, 2024
Other contributions from female founders addressed the question: Can women also be in founder mode?
Chesky wrote on X earlier this week that female founders have been reaching out to him since Graham published the essay about how they can't run their companies the same way as men in founder mode.
“This has to change,” he wrote.
Remember when the female founders used founder mode and everyone got cancelled because of it?
— Sara Mauskopf (@sm) September 3, 2024
It happened to me first – I got headlines portraying me as a “toxic leader” because I had to make the same – often unpopular – decisions as my male colleagues without being criticized for it.
For them it's called founder mode and is celebrated (a proper name! With their own merch! And trademark… https://t.co/rF0IM1huy3
– Sophia Amoruso 3.0 (@sophiaamoruso) September 5, 2024