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Comment by wslh | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates was the founder... Larry Page is the founder... Ford was the founder... Bezos is the founder

You're missing the point. At some time, a company has figured out at least one way to succeed. At that time, you're going to grow extremely rapidly and take all sorts of ways the company does things, break them down into elements, and optimize to accelerate that growth. The "management team" are often the ones who drive that optimization. Someone who understands engineering is going to lead building software at scale. Someone who understands sales is going to scale out your sales. And so forth. Founders often lead this and see across all spectrums.

FWIW, I worked at MSFT and had opportunities with both Gates and Ballmer. I can absolutely ensure you management teams existed at the company. Hell, Microsoft is made of layers upon layers of management teams. A young, bright-eyed version of myself thought this was inefficient (and it was to some extent). But I got a chance once to ask Ballmer what a typical week was like for him--holy hell, managing an organization of 90k+ employees is not a challenge that many of us are made out for.

And... what was the Ballmer answer (if you can comment about it)?

I see it different, for many founders, companies are a way for a personal grow. In that case founders grow with the company and change their management styles. Ballmer was a very early Microsoft employee, he was even in the IBM/DOS license negotiation.

Probably not something I can share (sorry); just, really, good management isn't often as much about "command as control" as it is steering a lot of smart, opinionated people who often disagree.

You're completely right on the growth aspect. If you're working somewhere with a founder and their not growing in that way while the company is, I can see nothing but headaches. The original link essentially calls this out... what you did at 5 people doesn't work at 50, which doesn't work at 150, and on. You gotta learn and adjust; as it scales up, the folks who help move beyond the Founder and into a trusted group.

Founders can (should?) become part of management teams as their startups grow.

I agree. It's a silly idea to believe that people like Gates and Jobs roles stayed the same after their companies grew beyond a certain point. When a company gets large enough, it's simply impossible for a single person to know or even understand everything that is going on. There are too many moving pieces and too many areas of expertise to cover.

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