Founder Field Notes: AI Is Moving Power Back To Founders
I’ve AI-pilled a number of founders recently.
Field Note: I’ve been talking with founders who are thoughtful and tech-forward, but still feel behind on AI. Then, once they see what’s possible; their own capability expands faster than the company’s capability. This sucks power up to the top, and I’m not sure if/when it will flatten back out.
I’ve AI-pilled a number of founders recently.
These are thoughtful, tech-forward people. They are not resisting the future. Mostly, they just feel like they haven’t had the time to catch up with what is now possible.
They keep telling me, “I just don’t have the time.”
Then, once I get them going on Codex or other platforms, their perception changes quickly. They’re still thinking about a few months ago with Openclaw and all of the setup time. Now they realize they can write, research, prototype, analyze, build, and operate with a level of breadth that used to require a much larger team.
Teams, though, have been harder to AI-pill. And founder’s are complaining about it. That is creating a strange effect inside companies. AI is supposed to make organizations more productive, but in the short term I think it may be consolidating more power at the top.
The founder gets faster first.The exec team gets more capable first.
And because the rest of the team is slow to adopt, more responsibility starts flowing back upward in the org.
That is probably a net negative, but it is also a natural response.
AI tools give strong operators more range and they reward people who can make decisions, test quickly, and own the messy middle between idea and execution.
Founders are usually hungry to learn this stuff because they can immediately feel the leverage. Most teams do not yet have the habits, permissions, or operating norms to use these tools well.
So, we are still missing the middle layer.
Plus there are all of these thorny problems we haven’t solved yet.
How do you safely sandbox company data?
Who gets read/write access to what?
What should AI be allowed to touch?
Who owns the decision when an AI-assisted workflow changes part of the business?
There are no standard practices yet. So for now, the organization starts to flatten, but not in the healthy way. The founder becomes more capable before the company becomes more capable.
I still don’t think the major productivity wave has fully hit small companies yet. I’m excited about this major tailwind thats’ going to hit startups with small teams who could use the boost.
Turns out we need to teach employees to think more like Founder’s.
That might take a while…
xx David