Where a founder is a boss, employees turn into minions.

You can fire all the employees of a well-established company.

It will suffer, but it will survive.

If you fire just one person from a startup—the founder—it will most likely collapse.

So, when a startup grows, its founder should ask themselves: “Isn’t it time for my business to grow up?”

Just like a child, every company should grow up and separate from its ‘parents.’

Managing a big company in a ‘founder mode’ is like feeding a young man who shaves twice a week with a spoon.

P&G is almost 200 years old, and it is in a perfect shape.

Apple has outlived one of its founders, and another founder hasn’t worked at the company for years.

We need management not to turn a nimble startup into a rigid bureaucracy.

We need it to make the business less dependent on one person.

No matter how creative, engaged, and motivated a founder is, they need to make their business independent sooner or later.

Otherwise, they are a bad parent.

––

Svyatoslav Biryulin