Posted by Kirsten Gibbs
Last updated 8th September 2021
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I learned a new concept this morning: 'Founder's syndrome'. Here's the Wikipedia definition:
The founder responds to increasingly challenging issues by accentuating the above, leading to further difficulties.[29] Anyone who challenges this cycle will be treated as a disruptive influence and will be ignored, ridiculed or removed. The working environment will be increasingly difficult with decreasing trust. The organization becomes increasingly reactive, rather than proactive. Alternatively, the founder or the board may recognize the issue and take effective action.[30]
A lot of this looks to me like the classic painful transition from one-person-band, to few-person-band, to full-blown company.  Which is really the transition from a small, personal, human-scaled business to a large, impersonal capitalist corporation.  The founder wants to keep things personal and true to their original vision. New owners or new management want to make things efficient, corporate and therefore impersonal. As far as the founder is concerned, they want to make it 'someone else's business'. Of course the founder resists.
There is a preventive for 'Founder's syndrome'.
Embed the founding vision and personality into the operating processes of your business before you try to scale, with a Customer Experience Score. You'll be able to scale without managers, even without investors other than the people you serve. The best of both worlds: personal, true to the original vision and magnifying your impact.
Even better, once it's built into the way your business works, your Score takes on a life of it's own, nurtured and improved by everyone in the business.  It becomes harder for anyone to interfere - even you.
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