The founder who was a sales rep

The deal closed. The founder thinks they are the best salesperson. They might actually be the bottleneck.

Here's what usually happens:

The sales team made a decision they weren't allowed to make. A discount. A trade-off. A call on where to hold firm.

So they did the only thing the process lets them do; they said, "let me get back to you." Went back to the founder. Went back to the customer. By then, the deal had cooled.

The founder jumped on a call. Made the decision live. It closed.

The message that is broadcasted is: Every deal needs the founder.

The reality is every exception needs them. Every conversation where someone has to actually decide something needs them.

That is a bottleneck with a good close rate.

The goal isn't to take him out of sales entirely.

Founders belong in early conversations: reading the market, learning what closes, shaping the pitch. Applying all that into the product that you are building is very valuable for a startup still trying to find PMF.

The goal is to stop making the founder’s presence the thing that makes it work.

Because until that changes, the founder has built a job and hired a team to watch him do it.