The founder bottleneck: when the CEO is your growth ceiling
The trait that made a founder fast — being the answer to every question — hardens into the constraint once the team grows. McKinsey's data on 3,000+ Series A startups found roughly 80% never scale, with 65% of failures traced to people and organization issues. The fix isn't working longer hours; it's shifting from central decision-maker to clear decision rights. Startups don't outgrow their founders — they outgrow operating systems that depend on one person.