The founder is very smart, but has shortcommings:
- Does not listen
- No empathy and no attempt to empathize
- Highjacks meetings and talks over everyone else
- Surrounds himself with "yes men" who rarely (never?) question his poor decisions
- Does not trust his employees (especially new ones)
- Seems to have no idea what he's doing outside engineering
- Tries to solve every problem, when there are others more equipped to solve them
- Doesn't use team wide communication tool (Slack) and unavailable to anyone lower than VP
- Only empowers company engineers / scientists, leaving everyone else to feel 2nd class
- Doesn't value what he doesn't understand (HR, customer service, marketing, design, product, relations, etc) yet acts like he knows it all or dismisses it outright
- Has no idea how to give feedback let alone positive feedback
- Has no idea why company values are important
- Doesn't adhere to legal or marketing communication strategies when Tweeting, putting the org in legal jeopardy
- Highly reactive to external pressures risking company strategy and focus
- Constantly changes project owners halfway through projects
- Spins up new projects expecting someone is available to lead them without hiring new people
- Romantically embraces startup culture which is often hectic, inefficient, poorly managed, overly stressful, causes burnout, and usually fails
- Although he is anti-corporate culture, his top down approach makes it feel like a corporation, just poorly managed
