As a hybrid MBA-Dev-PhysicsPhD who has refused to give up my technical and scientific skills to join the caste of managers, this resonates deeply with me. My guess to the effectiveness of “founder mode” is that this it legitimizes skill-boundary-crossing. When even competent engineers become MBAs, they can get disavowed by fellow engineers, and all level of technical input is “micromanaging”. But having full-scope founder-level rights to call BS at all levels, and do real time risk assessments af low levels while automatically matching it with the company mission, is so uniquely valuable, that the lack thereof is enough for me to posit that to be what we see when management changes. - It isn’t universally applicable, you do need to be gifted in the various aspects of the company, but still.