Founder Mode is a Fad, Owner Mode is Forever

Outside of the tech world, the hype surrounding “founder mode” may not be widely known - least with our collective preoccupation with a troubling state of the world, with one eye on the state of the U.S. economy and the other on the elections. Yet, the debate between “founder mode” and “manager mode” has sparked some serious discourse, and the occasional meme - neither of which should translate into long lasting business or cultural norms.

To define founder mode is to hearken to the ethos and obsessive attention to detail and cut-through-the-red-tape decision making necessary in a high-stakes founder-led environment. The contrast to this is manager mode, which is seen as a somewhat pejorative, disempowering way of doing business where the voice, ethos and authority of the founder wanes. In its place, the place where good ideas go to die and the premium on execution, speed to market and flourishing of good ideas are starved by the hypoxia of layer upon layer of management. In a business world defined by three stages of growth, namely startup, scale up and sustain, is there another potential modus operandi for business and leadership that is a little more enduring than the functional lifespan of a founder or their fastidious tendencies to be in the weeds, rather than keep their eyes on the ultimate prize? 

The mere fact that founder mode or manager mode are “modes” suggests there is a toggle switch in which they can be turned off and thus may not be picked up as repeatable, teachable or coachable organizational habits. One of the challenges in perpetuating founder mode, is indeed the notion that there is a living legacy to founders and their early leaders who often live in the past or lionize the days where the founder could get on a real or virtual soapbox and rally the troops, delivering tactical and strategic guidance with no room for managerial interpretation? Founder mode, in effect, can reach a point of diminishing returns and may often conflict with human and business nature, which requires a functional span of control. In short, people in any organization and at every level of an organization must own their actions and get things done - often with little or no guidance from neither a founder nor manager. Manager mode can be equally deleterious to these aims and shows up in truly insidious ways often giving the illusion of progress under the guise of process, control and often route approaches to “this is the way things are done around here.” 

The allure, buzz and mission-alignment of founder mode often goes to die in manager mode - hence the notion that these two modes of doing business are anathema to one another. What if there were a more durable way of doing business that neither depends on the idiosyncrasies of founders nor the stultifying risk aversion of managers, but genuinely pervades time, organizational layers and business phases? This is called owner mode and it is so much more than a temporary fad, mode or meme, but rather an enduring quality of the people who wield real power in organizations and in life. Owners have agency. They do not seek permission. They do, they get things done and, most critically, they do so consistently without being asked. Owners work with intent and anti-bureaucratic ways well beyond their organizational station. Owners perpetuate enterprise and are the shoulders turning the gears of economic progress.

A company where a large share of people operate as owners, is a company that does not merely survive, it thrives. It is resilient. With owners, it is everyone’s business, to stay in business and not merely the domain of often messianic founders or risk averse managers who are disinterested and “clock out” at 5. Owners take pride in the individual and collective endeavor of the enterprise. They bring others along and they pursue new ways of getting things done. They are accountable and raise a hand, a red flag and when they complain they have the kernel of a solution. Owners fumigate the termites in the woodwork that erode the edifice of company culture. Owner mode is not merely about equity value or shared value, although that certainly helps create collective skin in the game, it is a more profound sense of agency and pride that is evident in the behaviors exhibited during periods of duress or crisis. Owners revive companies and stay with the franchise until the bitter end, where founders and managers may pivot in the name of ego or self-preservation.

There are many cautionary tales and many company tombstones warning us to avoid lionizing the latest management fad to come out of Silicon Valley or the tech world. From FTX to Theranos and companies in between led by people operating in founder mode - to many more that ossified in manager mode - the importance of collective endeavor is often deeply discounted by founder worship. Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurialism are indeed the world’s greatest drivers of economic prosperity and competitiveness, but as every founder will tell you, nothing worth doing is worth doing alone and the people who make founders and managers successful, are those who work like they own it.