Founder Mode is everything wrong with venture capital
In a viral 2023 interview, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky explained the differences between company founders and everybody else in business. He discussed how founders are often given bad advice by consultants and others who try to help build out startups, and made a big deal about something he called ‘Founder Mode.’ But what is ‘Founder Mode?’ And why is it nonsense? Founder Mode Chesky differentiates between what he calls ‘Founder Mode’ and ‘Manager Mode,’ explaining that “a founder brings three things that a professional manager doesn’t have.” “First,” he says, “they’re the biological parent. So you can love something but when you’re the biological parent of something, like, it came from you, it is you. “Second, the founder has permission. I could rebrand the company and a professional manager would probably come and say ‘I can’t do that,’ but I know how we named it, I know how we branded it. “The third thing that a founder br...