Manager Mode

Topic

A conventional management philosophy, often taught in business schools, that emphasizes hiring good people and delegating tasks to them without micromanagement. It is contrasted with 'Founder Mode'.


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8/22/2025, 1:48:56 AM

entitydetail.last_updated

8/22/2025, 1:49:49 AM

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8/22/2025, 1:49:49 AM

Summary

Manager Mode is a leadership style characterized by a delegative and top-down organizational structure, where responsibilities are broken up and distributed throughout a company. It stands in direct contrast to "Founder Mode," a hands-on, detail-oriented approach popularized by Paul Graham's September 2024 essay, which was inspired by Brian Chesky's insights on Steve Jobs. The concept of Manager Mode, while traditional, gained renewed discussion in the context of the debate surrounding Founder Mode, prompting analyses of various company management methodologies, the pros and cons of micromanagement, and the distinct leadership traits of founders versus non-founders. Historical precedents for delegative management, such as Andy Grove's "High Output Management," are often cited in this discussion.

Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
  • Context

    Business and tech company management

  • Core Principle

    Breaking up and delegating responsibility

  • Leadership Style

    Delegative

  • Organizational Structure

    Top-down

Timeline
  • Paul Graham publishes an essay popularizing 'Founder Mode,' which sparks widespread debate and discourse about different company management methodologies, including the contrasting 'Manager Mode.' (Source: Wikipedia)

    2024-09

Founder mode

Founder mode is a term used and popularized by Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham in a September 2024 essay in response to a talk delivered by Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky. It describes a specific kind of leadership in which a founder has a direct, hands-on approach to their company rather than breaking up and delegating responsibility through a top-down structure. Often cited examples of leaders embodying founder mode include Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jensen Huang. Immediately after its online publication, Graham's essay led to widespread debate and discourse about the different methodologies regarding how to run a company, the pros and cons of micromanagement, and the nature of founder personalities versus that of non-founders, among other relevant concerns. It also spurred many memes, jokes, and stereotypes about the culture surrounding Silicon Valley and big tech.

Web Search Results
  • I Found 6 Different Ways to Play Manager Career Mode!

    easy to do open manager mode like normal pick a club that has an old player create your manager to look like them and have the same name and then just lock controls to that one player every time you play a match you might think that this is an unrealistic way to play football because there's no real teams out there that do this at the moment but player managers have actually had success at basically every level Kenny dowle won three Premier League titles at Liverpool as a player manager rude [...] to sign players to make sure that your player manager still performs on the pitch rather than just replacing them because they're one of your older players believe it or not you can actually simulate basically every every part about being a director of football on FC 24 rather than managing the games yourself you can just focus on buying the players developing an academy and managing the club's finances while leaving tactics and gameplay to somebody else it's actually a really good way to see [...] give you signing requirements so you know what players can come into the club let them suggest formations and player instructions and all you have to do is use their tactics use their signings and try and win as many games as you can you're solely in charge of basically developing players that are given to you from above and I've done this kind of save a bunch in the past on football manager and I'm sure it's just as fun to do inside FC 24 the assistant manager save is kind of similar to the

  • EA SPORTS FC 25 | Official Career Deep Dive

    at a specific club; being it a manager sacking, a big transfer, a team overperforming, and so on. We have also got loads of new updates across Manager mode driven by FC IQ, FC IQ by way of team tactics and Player Roles. Player Roles add a dimension to tactics beyond player positions and drive success more than ever in Career, on and off the pitch. Picking the right Player Roles is a key factor across player development, staffing, scouting, training and coaching. And it helps fuel and influence [...] ### Transcript: Intro To be a legend in the game, you have to take a club to new heights. You have to go where no one else is going. Career Mode in 25 is the most forward-thinking in FC history. Real-life tactics and situations with Live Starting Points, Player Career with ICONs, and I am delighted to introduce Women's football to Career. Yeah, thanks Mia. Let's get into it. FC 25 marks a new era for both Manager and Player Career. Players will be able to live out [...] they can play for any of these top clubs. And finally, across both modes, we have designed a new visual system as a slicker and more simple UI. With a new suggested task list that helps players with their next important decision. And of course, we have got social media in FC 25. Playthroughs are now powered by partnerships from some of the biggest news outlets in football, like Fabrizio Romano. who will be keeping you up-to-date

  • EA SPORTS FC 26 | Pitch Notes - Career Mode Deep Dive

    A major addition to the FC 26 Manager Career Mode is the ability to unlock ICONs and Heroes by progressing along the Season Pass. [...] Authentic Gameplay is the tailor-made, default setting for both Manager and Player Career Mode, and fundamentally transforms every match. The movement and actions of the players on the pitch will look more realistic, with more granularity behind each pass and varied ball behavior, so being on your toes pays off. [...] Alongside Full Career and Live Start Points\, Manager Live is home to a variety of challenges, released throughout the new season. Some Challenges align with real-world football, like frenzy of transfer windows or the UEFA Champions League knockouts. Reactive Challenges are timed to capture specific events, creating “What If?” moments like unexpected upsets or epic title battles.

  • 'Founder mode' vs. 'manager mode': Here's what the 22 Fortune 500 ...

    # Is ‘founder mode’ or ‘manager mode’ better? Here’s what the 22 Fortune 500 companies still run by founders show Geoff Colvin Geoff Colvin is a senior editor-at-large at Fortune, covering leadership, globalization, wealth creation, the infotech revolution, and related issues. Paul Graham, cofounder of Y Combinator, has stirred up Silicon Valley with his embrace of “founder mode.” [...] © 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information;) FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

  • Football Manager

    In a press conference in early September 2012, the makers of the _Football Manager_ series revealed a few new features in _Football Manager 2013_. These included the addition of a director of football, being able to give certain roles to other staff that managers would have to do themselves in previous games, taxes, a new way of making loan deals and the addition of Classic Mode where players could go through one season in eight hours without having to customize training or deal with team talk. [...] In August 2013, the Sports Interactive official website unveiled the main tweaks and upgrades to be added in _Football Manager 2014_, the most noticeable being the decision to release a simultaneous version for the Linux operating system. Among the other changes announced were extended options in transfer and contract negotiations, as well as player conversations, the ability to play with more than just three nations loaded in Classic Mode, a tactical overhaul, and improvements to the 3D match [...] _Football Manager_, also known as _Worldwide Soccer Manager_ in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as _Championship Manager_. Following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, triggered by the fiasco release of _Championship Manager 4_ in 2003, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights to Eidos