Revolutionary founders who aren't complete arseholes
July 24, 2022 4:00 PM Subscribe
An acquaintance establishing a (non-computer) technical startup believes that the road to success requires technical excellence (fine) and rule-breaking, whip-cracking ruthlessness (oh no). Elon is an inspiration. Can you help me with positive examples of how to be a strong but conscientious and humane innovator?
Thinking techbro? Sorry, you're way off --- imagine about the opposite, on multiple axes! But this person has convinced themselves that they need to be just like Musk or Jobs in order for their dream to succeed, and that includes things like expecting >60-hour weeks from everyone on the team --- at least once there's a going concern and they have a team. It's nothing this person wouldn't do themselves, after all.
Besides their technical hard work, they've also invested in trying to transform themselves into the kind of person they believe they need to be in order to lead this venture. That includes overcoming considerable shyness and (I would assume) some amount of assumptions about the kind of things that a person "like them" "ought" to be doing with their life. This is all really laudable!
But an end goal of megalomaniacal hypercapitalist tyrant? It's not like this person needs yet another rando telling them how to live their life, but what if they succeed in following this trajectory? The world really doesn't need more Bezoses. Are there some examples I can give of innovative, successful, world-changing technical founders who weren't utter soul-consuming jagoffs?
Again, I'm looking for positive examples, not cautionary tales (so there's no need to mention Theranos).
Thinking techbro? Sorry, you're way off --- imagine about the opposite, on multiple axes! But this person has convinced themselves that they need to be just like Musk or Jobs in order for their dream to succeed, and that includes things like expecting >60-hour weeks from everyone on the team --- at least once there's a going concern and they have a team. It's nothing this person wouldn't do themselves, after all.
Besides their technical hard work, they've also invested in trying to transform themselves into the kind of person they believe they need to be in order to lead this venture. That includes overcoming considerable shyness and (I would assume) some amount of assumptions about the kind of things that a person "like them" "ought" to be doing with their life. This is all really laudable!
But an end goal of megalomaniacal hypercapitalist tyrant? It's not like this person needs yet another rando telling them how to live their life, but what if they succeed in following this trajectory? The world really doesn't need more Bezoses. Are there some examples I can give of innovative, successful, world-changing technical founders who weren't utter soul-consuming jagoffs?
Again, I'm looking for positive examples, not cautionary tales (so there's no need to mention Theranos).
Not a tech company, but from the things I’ve heard, Jim Sinegal of Costco seemed pretty invested in the idea that you have a better company if you treat your employees well.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:28 PM on July 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:28 PM on July 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Paul Graham has written a lot about what it takes to be a successful company founder. Here's a short example. He has a lot of other good, practical advice. I'm pretty sure he never tells people to be mean, megalomaniacal jerks who abuse their employees. I realize that this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but this sort of actual advice rather than b-movie fantasy could help your friend reset.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:34 PM on July 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:34 PM on July 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Hewlett and Packard seem a fine example.
Charles Geschke and John Warnock (Adobe) too. All Chuck and John wanted to do was make the kind of company they wanted to work at with the kind of employees they wanted to work with. Absolutely stand-up guys.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:12 PM on July 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Charles Geschke and John Warnock (Adobe) too. All Chuck and John wanted to do was make the kind of company they wanted to work at with the kind of employees they wanted to work with. Absolutely stand-up guys.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:12 PM on July 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Paul Brainerd, co-founder of Aldus, which produced Pagemaker, the first desktop publishing software.
posted by JonJacky at 5:15 PM on July 24, 2022
posted by JonJacky at 5:15 PM on July 24, 2022
I worked with someone who worked for Tesla fairly early on. It sounded legendarily terrible (and I've worked at some awful places). Life is too short.
Granted, startups commonly feel they need to work everyone to death, but it's not necessary.
Looker was a successful startup which placed an emphasis on employee well being (it has since been acquired). It was a fun place to work. Unfortunately the culture deck never got published externally, but the values included "time to shred" (take time doing whatever makes you thrive).
best place to work 2017
Bike rides
For inspiration, I recommend reading up on Lloyd Tabb who was one of Looker's founders.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 5:28 PM on July 24, 2022
Granted, startups commonly feel they need to work everyone to death, but it's not necessary.
Looker was a successful startup which placed an emphasis on employee well being (it has since been acquired). It was a fun place to work. Unfortunately the culture deck never got published externally, but the values included "time to shred" (take time doing whatever makes you thrive).
best place to work 2017
Bike rides
For inspiration, I recommend reading up on Lloyd Tabb who was one of Looker's founders.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 5:28 PM on July 24, 2022
Dan Price at Gravity Payments springs to mind as someone who transitioned into the kind of leader you are interested in.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:52 PM on July 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 5:52 PM on July 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
I started my software career at Intuit and Scott Cook always seemed like a reasonably decent guy to me. I saw him speak a couple times though he wasn't super involved in running the show by then.
If you're looking for a billionaire, not quite in software, but Irwin Jacobs has basically re-founded San Diego over the last few decades with his money from founding Qualcomm. He's well known as a philanthropist and I've never heard him disparaged as a boss. I've met him a bunch of times too and considering he's richer than Midas he's absolutely the nicest guy.
posted by potrzebie at 7:32 PM on July 24, 2022
If you're looking for a billionaire, not quite in software, but Irwin Jacobs has basically re-founded San Diego over the last few decades with his money from founding Qualcomm. He's well known as a philanthropist and I've never heard him disparaged as a boss. I've met him a bunch of times too and considering he's richer than Midas he's absolutely the nicest guy.
posted by potrzebie at 7:32 PM on July 24, 2022
Ben & Jerry?
posted by NotLost at 7:43 PM on July 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by NotLost at 7:43 PM on July 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Ricardo Semler
posted by JohnnyForeign at 10:59 PM on July 24, 2022
posted by JohnnyForeign at 10:59 PM on July 24, 2022
I'm pretty sure he never tells people to be mean, megalomaniacal jerks who abuse their employees.He does tell people things like how they obviously shouldn't hire pregnant people, with the "good, practical advice" that it doesn't count as employment discrimination if you're picking a co-founder. And also a lot of varyingly more subtle awful stuff. Please do not recommend Paul Ghram to people.
posted by wesleyac at 3:11 AM on July 25, 2022 [8 favorites]
Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, was well-loved by his employees.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 3:35 AM on July 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 3:35 AM on July 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Dan Price at Gravity Payments springs to mind as someone who transitioned into the kind of leader you are interested in.
"Dan Price, Gravity Payments’ CEO who has drawn national attention to company-wide wage discrepancies by raising his employees’ minimum salaries to $70,000, has been charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault and one count of reckless driving in Seattle Municipal Court. The charges stem from an alleged assault with sexual motivation. Price is also being investigated for “felony rape of a drugged victim” charges stemming from a Palm Springs incident in April of 2021, according to a Palm Springs Police Department report."
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 6:09 AM on July 25, 2022
"Dan Price, Gravity Payments’ CEO who has drawn national attention to company-wide wage discrepancies by raising his employees’ minimum salaries to $70,000, has been charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault and one count of reckless driving in Seattle Municipal Court. The charges stem from an alleged assault with sexual motivation. Price is also being investigated for “felony rape of a drugged victim” charges stemming from a Palm Springs incident in April of 2021, according to a Palm Springs Police Department report."
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 6:09 AM on July 25, 2022
Well, that's certainly disturbing. Sorry I mentioned him -- I read a lot about the $70K thing and the aftermath of it, but hadn't heard that he is a rapist.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:21 AM on July 25, 2022
posted by jacquilynne at 6:21 AM on July 25, 2022
Best answer: Hi! I'm a BIPOC founder CEO who has raised multiple times, and whose company is rapidly growing. Our company culture is very anti tech bro - we value work life balance, and have an explicit no asshole policy that we base our hiring, promotions, and firing on. We have an exceptional employee NPS, and rapidly growing in revenue. I see those as very intertwined. I guess I'm an example but I'm anonymous so feel free to memail.
There are so many of these founders! Candidly, most successful founders and companies are not assholes, because while narcissistic ones tend have an easier time fundraising, they have a hard time recruiting and retaining talent. Also keep in mind they tend to be more public, because they thrive on attention and puffing their ego. Elon Musk is a great example here. He's actually not that involved in the day to day running of the company anymore, which isn't a surprise given that he tweets so much.
Some favorites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katrina_Lake (1B worth)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cannon-Brookes (1B worth, very values centric: https://www.atlassian.com/company/values)
https://www.intercom.com/blog/our-new-ceo/
I have way more, but I have a company to run :)
posted by treetop89 at 8:45 AM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
There are so many of these founders! Candidly, most successful founders and companies are not assholes, because while narcissistic ones tend have an easier time fundraising, they have a hard time recruiting and retaining talent. Also keep in mind they tend to be more public, because they thrive on attention and puffing their ego. Elon Musk is a great example here. He's actually not that involved in the day to day running of the company anymore, which isn't a surprise given that he tweets so much.
Some favorites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katrina_Lake (1B worth)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cannon-Brookes (1B worth, very values centric: https://www.atlassian.com/company/values)
https://www.intercom.com/blog/our-new-ceo/
I have way more, but I have a company to run :)
posted by treetop89 at 8:45 AM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
Jim Collins studied this concept and wrote a book about it. He has lots of great examples in there.
posted by equipoise at 10:54 AM on July 26, 2022
posted by equipoise at 10:54 AM on July 26, 2022
Seconding Ben and Jerry (e.g. their early salary policy, and a little more about more recent company culture, but searching on "ben and jerry's early company culture" should get you some good stuff).
Also, Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman's deli, via this great MeFi post: How Food Empire Zingerman’s Was Built on Anarchist Theory.
posted by kristi at 4:38 PM on July 26, 2022
Also, Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman's deli, via this great MeFi post: How Food Empire Zingerman’s Was Built on Anarchist Theory.
posted by kristi at 4:38 PM on July 26, 2022
Joel Spolsky founded Glitch which is known for Stack Overflow and Trello.
Hopefully Anil Dash, CEO of Glitch will be able to add to these comments.
posted by Sophont at 12:10 PM on July 27, 2022
Hopefully Anil Dash, CEO of Glitch will be able to add to these comments.
posted by Sophont at 12:10 PM on July 27, 2022
Ken Olsen created the second-largest computer company in the world, and he did it through compassion and inclusion and opportunities for all employees. Look up the history of Digital Equipment Corporation, and how his management style was extremely against the whip-cracking "norm" of modern start-ups, despite being arguably the first venture-financed computer company.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:47 PM on July 30, 2022
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:47 PM on July 30, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by derrinyet at 4:17 PM on July 24, 2022 [4 favorites]