Happy Friday to everyone in Founder Mode,

Welcome back to Napkin Notes: the only startup newsletter that feels like fun when you read it. We’re 50% shark tank, 30% netflix and 20% tik tok.

And if you were living under a rock last week, you may have missed the 4 talented founders who pitched their AI startups.

Click below to hear their pitches and read their pitch decks.

📰 Special Message from Bubble

Our friends at Bubble are bringing together thousands of developers and founders at BubbleCon Oct 1–2 in NYC. Join in person or virtually to learn more about how to build and launch applications without writing code.

If you’re wondering if you can trust them, just remember that everything you see on Kernal Dealroom is built on Bubble. So we’re kinda big fans of them.

Learn more about the hype around building on Bubble by registering for a free virtual ticket to BubbleCon here.

🗞 Menu for Today

• 🗞 WTF is Founder Mode?

• 🍿 Small Recap of our August 29th Event

• 💡 How to land a VC check from Andrew Chen at a16z

• 👀 Memes of the week

🗞 Founder Mode Explained

Over the last couple days, folks like Brian Chesky, Paul Graham, Naval and more big name founders have been stirring up the pot around the term “founder mode”.

And TBH, we’re pretty jazzed to see it.

We’re building a community for founders that wanna go all in on their idea. So for those curious about where the term stems from, we did some digging for you.

In Paul Graham’s (Father of YC) words, he explains founder mode this way:

• There’s 2 ways to run a company:

  • founder mode and manager mode

  • Manager mode is well-known, taught in business schools

  • Founder mode is less understood, potentially more effective

• Characteristics of manager mode:

  • treats parts of the org chart as black boxes

  • Avoids "micromanaging"

  • Often described as "hire good people and give them room to do their jobs"

  • Can lead to hiring "professional fakers" who may damage the company

• Characteristics of founder mode:

  • Breaks the principle of CEO engaging only with direct reports

  • May involve "skip-level" meetings as the norm

  • Allows for more direct involvement across the organization

  • Example: Steve Jobs' annual retreat with 100 most important people at Apple

• Observations:

  • Founders often feel "gaslit" when told to run companies like managers

  • C-suite’s without founding experience may not understand how founders should run companies

  • C-suite executives can be skilled at "managing up"

• Future of founder mode:

  • Currently not well-documented or understood

  • May vary from company to company and change over time

  • Could lead to better company performance

  • Some successful founders may already be practicing aspects of it

• Predictions:

  • Founder mode will become better understood and documented

  • It will be more complicated but more effective than manager mode

  • Some founders previously seen as eccentric may be vindicated

  • The concept may be misused by those unable to delegate or non-founders trying to act like founders

Enough of Paul though. What do you think?

Reply and let us know if you think the return of Founder Mode should be shouted from the rooftops or if it’s overkill and a waste of time.

🍿 Meet 4 Startups That Raised $5M

🎈 Congrats Again to SymbAI for Best Pitch

Some other stats about the event:

• 💰 $5,110,000 of investor interest from the audience

• 🎟 864 RSVPs

• 🎤 4 killer pitches

• 💰 4 Amazing VCs

• 🎤 1 kick-ass MC, Haley Bryant

• 💭 And plenty of good banter in the comments section

Let’s just say, the Kernal group chat was firing on all cylinders last night. And the fact that we already have the next event planned is proof of that:

💸 Want a Check from Andrew Chen?

Andrew from A16z has been on a tear this week.

And he’s hungry to meet more founders.

Sounds up your alley? Apply here.

🥁 RSVP to our Next Pitch Event Sept 26th

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👀 Meme of the Week

Have an amazing weekend.

P.S. Liked the deep-dive? Forward the newsletter to a bestie.