What I meant was the founder got what he asked for. Short term gain at the expense of sustainability. It is a feature rather than a bug. For a company looking for product market fit, "good code" might take a back seat. Andy Grove mentioned that an executive job is to, paraphrased, maintain the company culture. His context was about larger established companies. But I think the point still holds. It is the founder's job to sell his vision to his employees. It is the market's job to determine whether such vision thrives.