Big news: I'm no longer a Founder. I've wrapped up my startup journey, and started as Head of Product in Cartesia AI. The first six words of the last sentence neatly abstracts out six+ months of of thought, deliberation, heartbreak and consternation. There's a lot in that space worth sharing more about, but that'll happen in a different time. Instead, this is a post about the second part of that sentence. Specifically, it's about what it feels like to *report* to Founders after being one. ### Complaints I've Heard Throughout my founder journey, I've been blessed with getting great advice from founders, and give what I hope was equally good advice to others. But I've spent equal amount of time giving advice to people who are reporting to the founders. In the latter, I felt like I mainly "surrogated" for the founder, showing what their perspective might be like. And I've heard similar complaints: * Founder micromanages me (this is always the chief complaint) * Founder doesn't trust me * Founder expects everything in the world to be done with no time * Founder doesn't give me any time/guidance * Founder changes their mind every few weeks The funny thing? For each of these, as well-intentioned and thoughtful I tried to be as CEO, I could see the same exact complaint laid out on me. ### It's the Ring, Mr. Frodo Luckily or unluckily, I joined a month before a big launch, and was quickly thrusted into the work in my first week. I didn't get to apply the First 90 Days (TK: Link) or other lessons that they write in management books. As the demands and pressure mounted, two things happened: * Though I was very much bought in and all-in on the company, it didn't *sting* the way it did as a founder. * I started seeing the Founder-behaviors, now from the other end, but I strangely held ~0 frustration and instead, a lot of empathy. At that time, an analogy popped into my mind...