Hacker News Reader

Comment by Joel_Mckay | Hacker News Reader

"Founder Intuition" == Founders syndrome is a problem... sooner or later... always a problem.

"Team Expertise" == Process people tend to form conglomerates, and productive talent tends to form pockets of chaos. These roles are both foundational concepts, and diametrically opposed to each other. The suits always win in the end, as they have a singular focus.

"Customer Expertise" == learning about the 4 types of customer, then why 3 out of 4 types are essentially irrelevant to a profitable business.

Its funny, because it is true =)

View on HN

This comment, though it lacks detail and is probably illegible to someone without the right level of experience, rings very true to me.

The OA puts forward a reductive thesis that is easy to digest but doesn’t get to the heart of anything interesting for me.

It’s definitely true that the traits and disposition necessary to be a successful founder are not the same as to be a successful CEO of a large company. I don’t think it can be reduced to the dimension of trusting “the team” more or less as you scale though. Judgement is required at all scales, perhaps even moreso at large scale when there is innumerable data and countless trained storytelling voices attempting to influence you. At this point bullshit detection becomes the primary leadership skill, whether it’s the founder or someone else in power doesn’t really matter.

I agree, with the exception of the second point. One can make the case, that team expertise and process people enabled, e.g., Amazon to become the juggernaught they are. And there is always the risk of assuming that chaos equals productivity, when more often than not it is simply chaos.

"Amazon" is not what most would guess, but indeed it tends to suck the oxygen out of local Tech economies (until it starts to slowly bid down salaries).

Real change causes chaos in product sectors, which is another reason most large firms haven't produced a real "winner" in decades. Why bother when people can still make money from garbage products, in fact I would conservatively estimate it is currently 90% of the Tech sector. =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q225u-qGpas

What's founders syndrome? Never heard of it

"Team Expertise" == Process people tend to form conglomerates, and productive talent tends to form pockets of chaos.

Do you have first hand experience in this? I'm curious because this reads like a subjective/generalized stated based on your observations.

My background is complex, but still very boring.

Rule #6: Perspective is earned, and cannot be given freely. =)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com