What shift must founders make as companies scale?

Dan Martell

Founder & CEO · Martell Ventures

Give team ownership

Dan Martell says the shift is to give your team the tools and ownership to do it themselves, because empowered team members using your encoded principles can make decisions that replicate yours when you're not involved.

Andy Frisella

Chief Executive Officer · 1st Phorm International

Allow others responsibility

Andy Frisella says founders must allow other people responsibility as they scale, because you can't scale with just your own two hands and refusing to allow it kills growth.

Matthew Wilson

Co-founder and CEO · Jack and Jill

Think like a category leader

Matthew Wilson says founders need to think like a category leader, constantly asking what the winner in their space does and how to get there, since most markets end up with only one or two winners.

The answer starts at 43:24.

CM

Coco Mao

CEO & Co-Founder · Openart Ai

Change yourself

Coco Mao says the key shift is to change yourself, because the company's growth requires different skills and mindset and if you stay the same you can't keep up.

Harshil Mathur

CEO & Co-Founder · Razorpay

Delegate responsibilities

Harshil Mathur says founders must stop doing everything and delegate: anything taking over 30% of his bandwidth goes to someone who owns it day to day, because a founder cannot be the single point of failure.

Mirko Novakovic

Chief Executive Officer · Dash0

Focus on revenue growth

Mirko Novakovic recommends founders focus on revenue growth, saying it is the one metric that matters and that other metrics do not matter if growth is high.

Vivek Vaidya

Co-Founder/CTO · Kana

Sell ahead of curve

Vivek Vaidya says the most important shift is to sell ahead of the curve: sell tomorrow's technology today as if solved, since enterprise negotiations and contracts allow enough time to build it.

David Lortscher, MD

Co-Founder | Board Chair · Curology

Planning ahead

David Lortscher, MD, says the biggest thing is planning ahead, because timing a step-back is hardest and there is always a reason to stay, so he planned it out with time and board support.

Stop delegating judgment

Max Hodak says a founder cannot delegate their judgment — as CEO you must make the decisions that make sense to you even when you're alone in that view. He argues succeeding requires differentiated judgment, since average outcomes aren't good enough.

Sam Altman

Chief Executive Officer · OpenAI

Scope to agents

Sam Altman says founders should stop scoping projects to what a small team grinds out in a quarter and instead scope to what agents make possible now, since the cost of building collapsed and ambition can be bigger.

Mike Grossman

Board Member · Filmhub

Become a CEO

Mike Grossman says the shift is becoming CEO: he started as a founder-entrepreneur but became CEO because somebody had to run the company, and says those roles require doing things differently.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia · Vaynerx

Delegate

Gary Vaynerchuk says it's always time to delegate to employees, because you can't build something by yourself.