Worth noting that "manager syndrome" is often investors trying to force transition a company from "money in" to "money out." They often get that timing wrong - but at some level I feel there's a bit of pantomime surprise going on here that the average VC deal setup gives investors the power to mess it all up.
Yes, I get the sense that this is the massive subtweet in the essay - PG can't say it in so many words as he needs to preserve reasonably friendly relations with Sand Hill Road, but (as with some of his comments I noticed during the SVB collapse) he is at times quite unimpressed with the behaviour of his local financial services industry
Manager syndrome if the transition happens too soon, founder syndrome if it happens too late. Nearly all founders of very successful companies fail to adapt to the changing scale of their business at some point. Exceptions are notable: Steve Jobs, Andy Grove, Judith Faulkner (Epic), etc.
It's very interesting to read Grove's ideas about management; IMO they rhyme with Beer's.
My impression of Butler-Adams is that he got in early enough and young enough to become a quasi-founder in this sense. Certainly he's fully drunk the Kool-Aid. He seems to have the whole business in his head, still. His engineering background was key in enabling him to do this.
Worth noting that "manager syndrome" is often investors trying to force transition a company from "money in" to "money out." They often get that timing wrong - but at some level I feel there's a bit of pantomime surprise going on here that the average VC deal setup gives investors the power to mess it all up.
Yes, I get the sense that this is the massive subtweet in the essay - PG can't say it in so many words as he needs to preserve reasonably friendly relations with Sand Hill Road, but (as with some of his comments I noticed during the SVB collapse) he is at times quite unimpressed with the behaviour of his local financial services industry
Manager syndrome if the transition happens too soon, founder syndrome if it happens too late. Nearly all founders of very successful companies fail to adapt to the changing scale of their business at some point. Exceptions are notable: Steve Jobs, Andy Grove, Judith Faulkner (Epic), etc.
It's very interesting to read Grove's ideas about management; IMO they rhyme with Beer's.
My impression of Butler-Adams is that he got in early enough and young enough to become a quasi-founder in this sense. Certainly he's fully drunk the Kool-Aid. He seems to have the whole business in his head, still. His engineering background was key in enabling him to do this.