The Honest Founder

The Honest Founder

Why you should quit 1:1s.

And do this instead.

Xaver Lehmann's avatar
Xaver Lehmann
Jan 22, 2026
∙ Paid

Welcome to another episode of The Honest Founder.

Every week, I share two types of articles:

  • Free article (Every Tuesday): Personal reflections and lessons from my founder journey. What I learned building two AI companies, selling one for $60M

  • Paid article (Every Thursday): With a paid subscription, you get access to all paywalled content, my complete set of frameworks, and deeper, more actionable pieces designed to help you apply these lessons in your own company.

Happy reading!

Xaver


There was a period in my first company where I was completely overwhelmed.

We were growing fast. I was overseeing multiple departments. And at some point, my calendar became unmanageable.

Every week, I had eight 1:1 meetings.

Each scheduled for an hour.

Most of them ran longer.

One full day every week was spent talking to individual people.

At the time, it felt responsible.

In hindsight, it was one of the biggest inefficiencies in my role as a CEO.

The illusion of control

Back then, I believed I needed to be close to everything.

Every topic.

Every decision.

Every problem.

The 1:1s gave me the illusion of control. I was listening, reacting, firefighting. But very little of it was moving the company forward.

So I made a radical decision.

I didn’t cut one or two meetings.

I cut all of them.

What I replaced them with:

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