I completely agree with you. From my own experience, if you don’t fully understand and grasp the mechanism of your success, it’s impossible to hire the right people or lead them effectively. As a founder, your role isn’t just about having ideas; it’s about deeply understanding how the business works, where the value lies, and what drives growth. Without that foundational knowledge and vision in your DNA, you're essentially an idea generator rather than a true entrepreneur. You need to be the one to test, learn, and refine the business model before anyone else can effectively contribute to that vision. Only once you've built a clear, repeatable system can you bring others on board to scale it
Love this, Sean! It’s such a good reminder that you can’t just outsource the “magic sauce” of early growth. Founders know the heartbeat of their product better than anyone—so naturally, they’re the ones who should set the tempo before anyone else joins the orchestra. Learned a ton from your Dropbox and LogMeIn stories! Super pumped for the Lightning Lesson—it sounds way more useful (and less terrifying) than “guess and hope” growth.Love this, Sean! It’s such a good reminder that you can’t just outsource the “magic sauce” of early growth. Founders know the heartbeat of their product better than anyone—so naturally, they’re the ones who should set the tempo before anyone else joins the orchestra. Learned a ton from your Dropbox and LogMeIn stories! Super pumped for the Lightning Lesson—it sounds way more useful (and less terrifying) than “guess and hope” growth.
This resonates deeply, especially the part about growth being a system, not a role. Too often, companies treat “Growth” as something they can outsource by hiring a Head of Growth, expecting that person to magically unlock momentum. But if there’s no system, no alignment, no real culture of experimentation underneath, the role becomes ornamental at best and a scapegoat at worst.
I’ve seen this firsthand. Growth, as a methodology, demands organizational change. It’s not just about tactics: it’s about reshaping how decisions are made, how teams collaborate, and how success is measured. And that often means confronting legacy systems, entrenched behaviors, and even corporate culture. That’s where it gets political. You move from being a practitioner to a negotiator, a translator, a change agent...
What rarely makes it into the glossy success stories is the resistance. The endless reframing. The friction of trying to inject agility into structures designed for "predictability". But that’s the real work. That’s the muscle you build when Growth is treated as a methodology, not a job title.
The founders must lead that first phase, not because they’re growth experts, but because they’re the only ones with enough context, authority, and emotional investment to lay the foundation. Once that foundation exists, then a team can build on it. But without it, you’re just handing someone a wheel without a car.
Thanks for putting this into words. It’s a message more founders (and execs) need to hear.
With my freelance clients, many are in a rush to 'get it off their plate'. But what happens is that techniques and practices are undercooked and it all ends in tears.
For example, sometimes proper scripts aren't written for calling back leads. The company doesn't know how often to call, and when. Or, there's no refinement to what's said in email or SMS follow ups. And then clients are left playing whack-a-mole, trying to fix the channel performance while flying it.
It leaves everybody frustrated. Blame flies out left, right and centre. When really, the client needed to be at the wheel and to have driven the journey long enough to know all the twists and turns before handing it off to the team.
I completely agree with you. From my own experience, if you don’t fully understand and grasp the mechanism of your success, it’s impossible to hire the right people or lead them effectively. As a founder, your role isn’t just about having ideas; it’s about deeply understanding how the business works, where the value lies, and what drives growth. Without that foundational knowledge and vision in your DNA, you're essentially an idea generator rather than a true entrepreneur. You need to be the one to test, learn, and refine the business model before anyone else can effectively contribute to that vision. Only once you've built a clear, repeatable system can you bring others on board to scale it
Love this, Sean! It’s such a good reminder that you can’t just outsource the “magic sauce” of early growth. Founders know the heartbeat of their product better than anyone—so naturally, they’re the ones who should set the tempo before anyone else joins the orchestra. Learned a ton from your Dropbox and LogMeIn stories! Super pumped for the Lightning Lesson—it sounds way more useful (and less terrifying) than “guess and hope” growth.Love this, Sean! It’s such a good reminder that you can’t just outsource the “magic sauce” of early growth. Founders know the heartbeat of their product better than anyone—so naturally, they’re the ones who should set the tempo before anyone else joins the orchestra. Learned a ton from your Dropbox and LogMeIn stories! Super pumped for the Lightning Lesson—it sounds way more useful (and less terrifying) than “guess and hope” growth.
I totally resonate with this part, "the real blockers aren’t tactical—they’re foundational.
Without a clear success metric, team alignment, or a way to learn what’s working, even the best hires are set up to fail."
Memo to myself: https://glasp.co/kei/p/b3932807b91dba75c480
This resonates deeply, especially the part about growth being a system, not a role. Too often, companies treat “Growth” as something they can outsource by hiring a Head of Growth, expecting that person to magically unlock momentum. But if there’s no system, no alignment, no real culture of experimentation underneath, the role becomes ornamental at best and a scapegoat at worst.
I’ve seen this firsthand. Growth, as a methodology, demands organizational change. It’s not just about tactics: it’s about reshaping how decisions are made, how teams collaborate, and how success is measured. And that often means confronting legacy systems, entrenched behaviors, and even corporate culture. That’s where it gets political. You move from being a practitioner to a negotiator, a translator, a change agent...
What rarely makes it into the glossy success stories is the resistance. The endless reframing. The friction of trying to inject agility into structures designed for "predictability". But that’s the real work. That’s the muscle you build when Growth is treated as a methodology, not a job title.
The founders must lead that first phase, not because they’re growth experts, but because they’re the only ones with enough context, authority, and emotional investment to lay the foundation. Once that foundation exists, then a team can build on it. But without it, you’re just handing someone a wheel without a car.
Thanks for putting this into words. It’s a message more founders (and execs) need to hear.
Loved this—founder-led growth builds more than momentum, it sets the cultural tone for curiosity and ownership.
How do you keep that spirit alive as the team scales? 🚀🤔
Building a Foundation is terrific job!
Most of the founders do fall for this. When I worked with the accelerator, I vividly remember how growth=hiring regardless of the stage.
I've found this to a common problem in practice.
With my freelance clients, many are in a rush to 'get it off their plate'. But what happens is that techniques and practices are undercooked and it all ends in tears.
For example, sometimes proper scripts aren't written for calling back leads. The company doesn't know how often to call, and when. Or, there's no refinement to what's said in email or SMS follow ups. And then clients are left playing whack-a-mole, trying to fix the channel performance while flying it.
It leaves everybody frustrated. Blame flies out left, right and centre. When really, the client needed to be at the wheel and to have driven the journey long enough to know all the twists and turns before handing it off to the team.
There are some other issues similar to this that I've found, too: https://benjaminsnotes.substack.com/p/hiring-marketing-freelancers