Founder Mode
@Founder_Mode_ • 169,213 subscribers
a running archive of the chronically locked in
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Elon Musk was asked why his companies move faster than anyone else. His answer: "I'm constantly addressing the limiting factor. Whatever the limiting factor is on speed, I'm going to tackle that. If capital is the limiting factor, I'll solve for capital. If it's not the limiting factor, I'll solve for something else." He then said something most managers never figure out: "If something is going really well and making good progress, there's no point in me spending time on it." "The irony is if something's going really well, they don't see much of me. But if something is the limiting factor, they'll see a lot of me." He spends his time entirely on whatever is blocking the next step. Not on what's interesting. Not on what he's best at. But on whatever is the bottleneck right now. Most leaders do the opposite... They gravitate toward what they're comfortable with and away from the hard problem. From: Dwarkesh Patel and John Collison
Founder Mode1,072,531 views • 1 month ago
.Victor Cardenas Codriansky of Slash ($370M+): San Francisco is the best place in the world to build a tech company. Borrowing from Paul Graham’s essay on how cities shape and reward ambition, when a city consistently rewards builders, it naturally becomes a magnet for ambitious people. Over time, this shared mindset creates an environment where grueling 15 hour days and going the distance to build world class products are encouraged and reinforced.
Founder Mode1,134,946 views • 2 months ago
Jensen Huang: "People with really high expectations have very low resilience." "I think one of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations. And I mean that. Most of the Stanford graduates have very high expectations. And you deserve to have high expectations because you came from a great school. You were very successful. You're top of your class. Obviously, you were able to pay for tuition. And then you're graduating from one of the finest institutions on the planet. You're surrounded by other kids that are just incredible. You naturally have very high expectations. People with very high expectations have very low resilience. And unfortunately, resilience matters in success. I don't know how to teach it to you except for I hope suffering happens to you. And I was fortunate that I grew up with my parents providing a condition for us to be successful on the one hand, but there were plenty of opportunities for setbacks and suffering. And to this day, I use the phrase pain and suffering inside our company with great glee. And I mean that. Boy, this is going to cause a lot of pain and suffering. And I mean that in a happy way, because you want to train, you want to refine the character of your company. You want greatness out of them. And greatness is not intelligence. Greatness comes from character, and character isn't formed out of smart people. It's formed out of people who suffered. And so if I could wish upon you, I don't know how to do it. For all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering."
Founder Mode1,082,298 views • 4 months ago
Jack Zhang: “I'm taking on $70 million in debt to buy my own stock” Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang is asked on the 20VC podcast about his conviction in the $8 billion fintech he built. His answer: “I'm actually in the process of taking a debt of $70 million to buy Airwallex stock because I just have so much confidence in the company. My co-founders are doing the same. We're literally buying our own stock.” Host Harry Stebbings was stunned: “You're buying from early investors? Can I join?” Jack continues: “Of course you can. I thought that was a joke, but yes...of course you can.”
Founder Mode899,612 views • 4 months ago
"I turned down the opportunity in 1993 to implement censorship in the web browser, which would've been a completely different, and very dystopian world." Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 on the "censorship machine," why Elon Musk buying Twitter was a turning point, and how @SubstackInc held the line on free speech. from a16z The Ben & Marc Show with benahorowitz.eth Erik Torenberg Packy McCormick Full episode here:
Founder Mode625,997 views • 4 months ago
Marc Andreessen worked at IBM at the peak of their power. There were 12 layers of management between him as an intern and the CEO. He describes what that meant: if one layer lies to the layer above it, maybe that's okay. Two or three layers, the lies compound. Six layers, they really compound. Twelve layers... The CEO has absolutely no idea what's happening inside his own company. IBM even had a name for it. They called it the Big Gray Cloud, the cloud of men in gray suits that followed the CEO everywhere and made it physically impossible for him to ever talk to someone actually doing the work. "It was like a visit from the king. The king and the traveling court. A completely impervious bubble." That company controlled 80% of tech. Then it didn't. Elon looked at that model and built the opposite. The most dangerous thing in a large organization isn't incompetence. It's the distance between the truth and the top.
Founder Mode219,746 views • 1 month ago
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When is it too early to hire a finance leader & when is it too late? Hosts and KP’s very own "Leigh Marie" Braswell and Josh Coyne put the question to two experienced finance operators in the first episode of Builders, our new series. Adam Swiecicki, Chief Financial Officer at Rippling, prioritizes strategic finance, favoring “the banking, private equity background” and “somebody who’s seen another startup before.” Michael Miao, VP of Finance and Business Operations at Glean, agrees and outlines what matters most. First, there must be “an understanding of the economics of the business.” Second, the person must be “very comfortable in spreadsheets” and “comfortable with just like a mess.” Both point to the same early profile. A generalist. Comfortable with ambiguity.
Founder Mode484,697 views • 4 months ago
If you struggle with low productivity and lack of focus, watch these 7 videos: 1.
Founder Mode3,442,735 views • 3 years ago
Pixar was making millions on commercials in 1996. They were good at it. Fast turnarounds, steady revenue and clients loved them. Then Steve Jobs killed it. The math looked perfect on a spreadsheet. But Jobs was watching something else: his best people. Twenty-five of them... Incredibly talented were spending their days on work-for-hire assignments that belonged to someone else. "We reluctantly pulled out because great people are hard to find, and we couldn't afford to have 25 of them making commercials anymore." He saw the trap most companies never notice. Profitable work has gravity. It funds itself, grows and convinces you that doing more of it is the rational choice. But profitable work isn't the same as work that matters. Commercials meant no ownership, residuals or portfolio pieces that belonged to Pixar. Jobs understood something most executives don't: the opportunity cost of keeping talented people busy on someone else's vision is higher than the revenue they generate. Walk away from the millions now, and you keep the 25 people who might build something worth billions later. Stay in commercials, and you lose them, either to burnout or to competitors who offer something to own. This is why great people leave good companies. Not because they want more money. Because they want to build something that feels theirs.
Founder Mode129,298 views • 1 month ago
