Founderitis 

The foolish assumption that some founders of some companies and organizations have that leads them to believe that they have special privileges to make decisions that don't make good business sense.

I realize that having a palatial crash pad in Hollywood is a waste of money but I am the founder of this company and I go there once a month so we are going to spend $10K a month to have it. What?! You think I have founderitis?

Founderitis by ZMissy July 20, 2009

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...

Founderitis by B3NYC March 21, 2019