a company will be most successful if the senior managers optimize for the company’s success (think of this as a global optimization) as opposed to th… - Ben Horowitz

When founders come in to pitch our firm — one as the CEO and the other as president — the conversation often goes like this: “Who is running the company?” “We are,” they both say. “Who makes the final decision?” “We do.” “How long do you expect to run that way?” “Forever.” “So you’ve decided to make it more difficult for every employee to get work done so that you don’t have to decide who is in charge, is that right?

So, the judgment that you have to make is (a) is this market really much bigger (more than an order of magnitude) than has been exploited to date? and (b) are we going to be number one? If the answer to either (a) or (b) is no, then you should consider selling. If the answers to both are yes, then selling would mean selling yourself and your employees short.

When you ask your managers, “What is our culture like?” they’re likely to give you a managed answer that tells you what they think you want to hear and doesn’t hint at what they think you absolutely do not want to hear. That’s why they’re called managers.