Don't be the bottleneck.
The moment you become your company's biggest threat.
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Every Tuesday, free: raw reflections from my founder journey. I built two AI companies and sold one for $60M.
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Almost every founder I coach has the same problem. I had it too.
We convince ourselves that if we do it, it’ll be faster. Better. Less painful than explaining it to someone else.
So we don’t delegate.
The reasons are usually one of two things. Either you don’t trust your team. Or you think you’re the smartest person in the room.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about the second one: even if you are, it doesn’t matter. Because you can’t do everything.
And once your company hits a certain size, you being the one sending BD emails, sitting in every meeting, showing up to every event - that’s not dedication anymore.
That’s a threat. Not only to you but also to the company.
I’ve seen it slowly destroy startups over time. The founder who was still the best salesperson at €4M ARR. The one who rewrote the engineer’s code at midnight because “it’s faster if I just do it.” The one who couldn't take a week off without everything falling apart.
You don’t just drown. The company drowns with you.
Here’s the thing though. In the early days you have no choice. There is no team. Every call, every email, every fire - that’s you. That’s how it should be.
But there’s a moment, somewhere around €500K-€1m ARR, where the thing that got you here starts killing you. You’re a generalist by necessity. But to scale, you need experts. People who are better than you in their departments.
Your job stops being the best at everything - and starts being the one who builds the team that is.
So here’s the framework I wish someone had given me at that moment: