Founder’s transition to a Leader
The transition of a startup from the “tribe” to “village/city” stage creates an imminent need for the founder to grow into the role of a leader. This essay focuses on all aspects of this transition that I find intriguing and how they relate to the principles of blitzscaling.
Read the first two parts of this essay here & here.
The past few weeks of CS183C have been centered around one of the most radical transitions for a founder in the life of a growing company. During the initial stages, the founder has a survivalist mindset where his/her focus is on internal, micro-scale issues that keep the company afloat and help gain significant size. However, as the company scales and approaches the onset of the “village” stage, the focus shifts to more macro-scale issues and decisions are now optimized over a much longer time horizon. The mindset of the founder needs to evolve to that of a strategic leader whose goal is to build a great, lasting organization. This can be incredibly challenging for a founder on a personal level but is critical for the long-term success of the company.
As a leader, the founder needs to develop clarity of vision and set consistent goals that are clearly communicated to every employee. This helps unify the company, gives perspective to individual contributors on how their pieces fit into the puzzle and provides context for making everyday decisions (will it make the boat go faster?).
The founder does everything that needs to be done in the early days but now needs to enable others to do their work effectively. In his book ‘Drive’, Daniel Pink talks about the three things that motivate people to do the best work of their lives; mastery, autonomy and purpose. I think this is a very powerful framework and the founder needs to foster an environment that conforms to these attributes. Strong sense of purpose is the most powerful of them all and it’s what empowers people to persevere through moments of lack of confidence.
Time and again we have noticed that the best companies have a strong culture. In startups, this culture is mostly founder-led and sets the precedent for how people are expected to conduct themselves in different situations. I loved how Reed Hastings at Netflix defined their culture in writing as it leaves no room for misinterpretation and also helps evaluate potential hires for a good fit with a clearly defined framework.
Another fascinating idea that came out of the conversation between Reed Hastings and Reid Hoffman was that of simultaneously executing while knowing that there is uncertainty. Firm execution is key but it does not mean you compromise on agility. It’s important to keep farming for dissent within the company and gather ideas, but you have to be unequivocal about the path you choose to move forward on.
