Leader Mode

Refuting the “Founder vs. Manager” False Dichotomy

Paul Graham’s recent essay on “Founder Mode” presents a compelling narrative that founders and professional managers operate in fundamentally different ways. While this argument may seem intuitive, it presents a false dichotomy that ultimately disparages the skills of professional managers while over-idealizing founders. Both founders and managers share the same qualities needed to build successful companies, and suggesting that founders have some innate advantage undermines the value of effective leadership at any stage of growth.

Shared Core Qualities: Vision, Execution, and Adaptability

Graham implies that founders possess unique, irreplaceable qualities that allow them to run companies more effectively than professional managers. However, this assumption overlooks the reality that both founders and managers share many of the same core qualities essential for running a company — vision, execution, and adaptability.

Successful founders and managers alike must have a clear vision of where the company needs to go. This is evident in the leadership of Satya Nadella at Microsoft and Jack Welch at GE — neither of whom were founders. Nadella turned Microsoft around by focusing on cloud computing, a strategic vision that led to the company’s resurgence. Similarly…