The founder mode and the manager mode

During an interview, the potential employer asked the young man, “What do you consider your greatest weakness?”

The job applicant replied, “Honesty.”

The interviewer commented, “Honesty? I don’t think honesty is a weakness.” The young man replied, “I don’t care what you think!”

Writer and investor Paul Graham has written an article featuring a speech by Airbnb’s co-founder Brian Chesky in a talk that resonated deeply with many in attendance. The theme of Brian’s talk was that the conventional wisdom about running larger companies needs to be corrected. As Airbnb grew, well-meaning people advised him to “hire good people and give them room to do their jobs.” He followed this advice, and the results were disastrous. He had to figure out a better way, which he did partly by studying how Steve Jobs ran Apple. So far, it is working. Airbnb’s free cash flow margin is now among the best in Silicon Valley.

Chesky said that the advice he received boiled down to a popular management mantra: hire great people and let them do their jobs. On paper, this approach sounds appealing. However, implementing it can lead to disastrous outcomes, especially for founder-led companies.

Chesky learned, and many founders later echoed, that this model works well for professional managers – those brought in to run a business they didn’t create. But for founders, it often feels like a recipe for losing control. Rather than empowering their teams, they felt sidelined, watching as their companies drifted off course. The problem is that the management advice often given to founders is designed for those stepping into established companies, not for those who built them from the ground up. There are two distinct modes of leadership: founder mode and manager mode.

In manager mode, leaders are taught to delegate broadly and avoid getting involved in the details. It’s a modular approach where leaders trust their direct reports to handle specific areas with minimal oversight. Interfering is seen as micromanagement, a cardinal sin in the managerial world. However, Chesky and others have discovered that this approach can often backfire for startups. When founders delegate too broadly, they risk hiring what Chesky called “professional fakers” –  employees who may look good on paper but lack the vision or skills necessary to move the company forward. These individuals end up driving the company in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, founders remain deeply engaged in the company’s operations. They are uniquely positioned to do this because of their intimate knowledge of the company’s origins, values and mission. Conversely, managers are typically more focused on maintaining or growing what’s already there rather than innovating. The critical difference between the two modes is the founder’s continued involvement in shaping the company’s vision and direction.

As startups scale, many founders are told to switch to manager mode. The assumption is that a larger company requires more structure, more delegation and less founder involvement. But this advice often clashes with a founder’s instincts. Chesky, Jobs and Elon Musk resist this shift and find ways to stay involved without micromanaging. And the results speak for themselves.

While business schools and management books often tout manager mode as the ideal way to run a company, they largely ignore the existence of founder mode. The problem is that this advice fails to recognize the unique strengths that founders bring to the table. It assumes that as companies grow, founders must step back when, in reality, many of the most successful companies have founders who remain deeply involved beyond the startup phase.

Scaling a company doesn’t have to mean transitioning to a detached management style. Instead, it’s about finding a balance — knowing when to delegate and when to dive into the details. Founder mode may not be as neat or easily replicable as manager mode, but it has the potential to be far more effective. One thing is clear: founders who stick to their instincts and remain involved in their companies can often outperform those who adopt a more traditional managerial approach. The success of companies that embrace this mode of leadership has an edge that allows them to innovate, adapt and scale in ways that traditional management styles may never fully understand.

It’s not that professional managers are too honest not to care what their employers think, like the funny anecdote we had in our beginning story. It’s just that business is always personal for the founders, and that’s why they were able to start and found the company.

(Francis Kong’s “Inspiring Excellence” podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple, Google or other podcast streaming platforms.)