Founderitis

When a founder retains disproportionate control in a startup past the time they are qualified to, leading to management problems:

-The organization is strongly identified with the founder.

-Staff meetings are held generally to rally the troops.

-Typically, there is little organizational infrastructure in place, and what is there is not used correctly.

-There is no succession plan.

-Key staff are typically selected by the founder and are often colleagues of the founder.

-Staff may be chosen due to their personal loyalty rather than skills or experience.

-Professionally trained and talented recruits, often recruited to resolve difficulties in the organization, find that they are not able to contribute in an effective and professional way

-The founder begins to believe his/her own Press/PR

-The company suffers from decreasing public trust.

-The organization becomes increasingly reactive, rather than proactive.

-The company is unable to listen to their own users, community or outside experts.

-The company is unable to learn from previous mistakes.

-The founder frequently tries to position themselves as a "visionary" in a market they are inexperienced in.

-The CEO is often unable to make tough choices related to operations such as removing inefficient staff.

-When challenged the CEO assumes that users who do not agree with the CEO simply cannot understand the expertise he/she has built.

Dan: Oh man, I wouldn't invest in that business that guy has a bad case of Founderitis

Steve: What's that?

Dan: It's like when Ted ran Kik into the ground and bled that unicorn dry...

Steve: Oh...

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