One of the core elements in Paul Graham’s Founder Mode is that well-meaning people (which I assume include investors) had given Brian Chesky (at Airbnb) poor advice on how to organize and manage the company.
I think that reflects the fact that one size fits all advice usually doesn’t fit. Both the person giving advice and the founder taking advice need to think deeply how general rules apply to the specific founder and company.
Viktor Nyblom said it well in a LinkedIn comment:
“I think it’s about culture. One a founder stops being true to who they are and how they act (eg to start managing “properly”) the culture in the company changes. This could be a good thing if the org was stressed by a founder who is medling too much. But it could also be a bad thing if nobody steps in to say “this is not good and/or fast enough”.”
