E23: “Founder Mode"? Setting the Record Straight with Jim Cook

When Y Combinator's Paul Graham released his viral essay "Founder Mode," it sparked a firestorm in the tech world. Based on a private talk by Airbnb's Brian Chesky and endorsed by the likes of Elon Musk and Patrick Collison, the piece garnered over 20 million views. Enter Jim Cook, legendary Silicon Valley CFO (Netflix, Intuit, Mozilla) who just wrote a counterargument to set the record straight. Cook challenges the simplistic notion of founder supremacy — where only 10% succeed — and offers a different Leadership Mode framework for building high-performance, generational companies.

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LINKS:

Cook’s Playbooks

Founder Mode PG

Lenny’s Podcast ep with Chesky

Product-CEO Paradox by Ben Horowitz

Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Scaling People with Claire Hughes Johnson

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(00:00) Episode preview