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.

🔥Apply to join over 400 Founders and Execs in the Turpentine Network: https://www.turpentinenetwork.co/

--

RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

🎙️ This Won't Last - Eavesdrop on Keith Rabois, Kevin Ryan, Logan Bartlett, and Zach Weinberg's monthly backchannel. They unpack their hottest takes on the future of tech, business, venture, investing, and politics.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1765665937

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HwSNeVLL1MXy0RjFPyOSz

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWontLastpodcast

--

SPONSORS:

NETSUITE: More than 37,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. If you're looking for an ERP platform, get a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program on NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/102

METAVIEW is the AI assistant for interviewing. Metaview completely removes the need for recruiters and hiring managers to take notes during interviews—because their AI is designed to take world-class interview notes for you. Team builders at companies like Brex, Hellofresh, and Quora say Metaview has changed the game—see the magic for yourself: https://www.metaview.ai/heretics

BRAVE: Get first-party targeting with Brave’s private ad platform: cookieless and future proof ad formats for all your business needs. Performance meets privacy. Head to https://brave.com/brave-ads/ and mention “Turpentine” when signing up for a 25% discount on your first campaign.

Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off https://www.omneky.com/

--

LINKS:

Cook’s Playbooks https://jcookflix.substack.com/

Founder Mode PG https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html

Lenny’s Podcast episode with Brian Chesky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ef0juAMqoE

Product-CEO Paradox by Ben Horowitz https://a16z.com/why-founders-fail-the-product-ceo-paradox/

Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz https://a16z.com/books/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things/

Scaling People with Claire Hughes Johnson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63063173-scaling-people

--

X/SOCIAL:

@sashaorloff

@cookflix

--

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode preview

(00:26) Intro

(00:51) Founder Mode essay

(04:13) Challenges of polarized arguments

(07:44) Importance of leadership mode

(10:59) Balancing founder and scaling modes

(15:01) Sponsors: Netsuite | Metaview

(16:49) Trust and transparency in leadership

(20:41) Importance of creating a culture

(24:57) Leading with values and behaviors

(29:48) Sponsors: Brave | Omneky

(31:13) Importance of documentation

(36:45) Balancing founder and manager roles

(39:06) Structuring ownership and accountability

(43:06) Founders as Coaches and Captains

(48:12) Specialized operators in finance

(50:41) Scaling company to public

(53:50) Wrap