Sybill reposted this
I raised $15M+ as a young founder. I was told to “Hire the best people & get out of their way.” That’s spectacularly unhelpful advice. I tried that in the early days of Sybill: I hired smart people. Gave them tons of autonomy. Assumed they needed ‘creative freedom’. Till it all came crashing down: Smart ppl built things that didn’t align. And moved fast… in opposite directions. Not because they weren’t good. But because: 👉 Talent without alignment is chaos. 👉 Autonomy without clarity is useless. Clarity IS your job as a founder. So today, I ruthlessly filter ‘advice’. Today, I DON’T “hire & get out of the way.” I’m in the trenches. Working on the details. Because that’s what wins tech wars. #Startups #Clarity #Contrariantake
Totally get this. Early on, I thought giving my team full creative freedom would lead to magic...but without clear priorities, everyone was solving different problems. Learned the hard way that alignment isn’t optional—it’s everything.
Insightful!
Mehak Aggarwal, congratulations! I We can learn a lot from young enterpreneurs! Fully agree with you and clarity starts within us and skin in the game is for me the key which I learned by contrast! Go on ❤️🔥
ClariTY
Mehak Aggarwal that would be like a sports coach telling their team to individually play the way they want. Strategically aligning great talent is a tough, but important skill for a founder to have. It sounds like you learned quickly and adjusted well. Also, great skills for a founder to have.
I've got some better advice over the years is Hire smart people > explain the goal to them > then get out of the way. Smart people will find the best ways to get you there. But periodic checks are still needed to make sure it is on the right track!
I disagree with this in some ways. I have bailed people out of the shit through my side projects, up to Director meetings where the team has been chewed out. I think it's important to have a central focus but, had my managers had their way over everything I did, I wouldn't have built the Ace card that bailed them out when things were going south. I just built it anyway. I'm not trying to suggest that I know better than the management team, but don't dismiss people taking creative freedom that you can't, yourself, fully appreciate. One day it may come to your rescue.
I agree @ Enabling Cross functional collaboration and building playbooks is the job of a leader, autonomy within that wireframe should be encouraged
You're the type of leader that folks want "in their way" to "show them the way!" 📈 🚀
Co-founder@Sybill | Do less, close more.
1wMy career took off because folks helped me. This is why I make it a point to give back through what I put out here, and my work at Sybill. This is my way of giving back: https://www.sybill.ai/mehak-linkedin-1