Dear Prince, You Are Not The Founder
Don’t get burnt by the ‘Act Like a Founder’ advice.
Startup VPs last less than two years on average.
Some don’t even make nine months before burnout, politics, or a founder’s “vision realignment” boots them out.
Thinking of jumping from corporate to startup? Know the game.
Startups love preaching “act like a founder.”
Noble. Inspiring. Total BS.
You’re not the prince. You’re not the founder.
In the 16th century, Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a guide to power:
How to seize it
How to hold it
How to wield it
And if you think your startup job comes with shared power, you’re already losing the game.
This week, I’ll show you:
✅ Why “acting like a founder” gets you replaced
✅ Why founders hoard power
✅ Why execution trumps strategy
✅ The mindset shift to become indispensable
✅ How to win without chasing the throne
Startups are not democracies
The biggest mistake ambitious operators make?
Thinking startups are meritocracies.
They’re dictatorships.
Because founders:
💡 Don’t share the throne.
💡 They consolidate power.
💡 They don’t want a rival
They want executors who move fast.
Miss that, and you’re outmaneuvered before lunch.
Founders grip power because they own the risk, dictate the vision, and play the long game.
Employees leave. Founders stay.
And when you’re stuck in startup chaos, decision paralysis can kill your momentum.
Startup fairytale #1:
Everyone should 'act like a founder'.
Hustle. Grind. Obsess.
As Machiavellian wrote:
“Power is not given. It is taken.”
And founders?
They own the risk. They’re the ones investors bet on.
They control the vision. Strategy isn’t a group effort. It’s dictated.
They play for the long game. Employees leave. Founders stay.
And in startups, trust more than titles determines who holds real influence.
Challenge that control? History says you lose.
🚨 Harvard research found 65% of startup failures stem from internal conflicts.
Too many wannabe rulers, not enough real execution.
This is why the best startup operators don’t fight for the throne.
They learn how to play the game.
Machiavelli warned too many princes results in chaos.
He famously wrote:
“A kingdom with too many rulers collapses.”
Startup operators join with grand titles such as Head of Growth, VP of Whatever. They assume they’ll shape the company, set the vision, lead strategy.
Instead, they learn strategy is locked down.
Get distracted by politics, and someone else takes your seat.
It happens in small startups and billion-dollar companies alike.
And when companies expand internationally, the politics, misalignment, and operational chaos only get worse.
Controls the story, control the kingdom
Look at WeWork.
Adam Neumann ran it like his own personal empire.
🚨 Bad decisions.
🚨 Wild spending.
🚨 Total collapse.
Some decisions were borderline delusional, and it all went down in a glorious flameout.
But when the dust settled? Neumann walked away rich.
Meanwhile, the “Heads of X” were left with worthless stock and crushed IPO dreams.
Why?
Because the founder always controls the narrative. The employees? Just collateral damage.
It happens everywhere, not just in billion-dollar startups. I learned this lesson the hard way.
The moment I realized I didn’t own strategy
I walked into a startup thinking I’d help steer the ship.
A month in, I found myself in a cramped meeting room, about to present the killer marketing strategy I’d spent all week working on.
Turns out, I was just another deckhand.
I had the experience. The strategy. The plan.
The founder’s reaction?
Total rejection. 👎
Because I wasn’t hired to set the vision. I was hired to execute someone else’s vision.
At first, I fought it. Why bring me in if I don’t own strategy?
But once I stopped fighting for control and started executing like hell, my influence skyrocketed. Go figure.
Machiavelli would approve. Because in power games, control goes to the one who moves the pieces best.
How I changed my execution style
Change is hard. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
But having bills to pay and not having a plan b is as good a motivator as any. This was the situation I found myself in.
In corporate, I had:
Big budgets, near-total autonomy
Long timelines (sometimes years)
Agencies handling the heavy creative lifting
In a startup:
Zero cushion, minimal support
Lightning-fast decisions
Scrappy go-to-market over polished campaigns
It forced me to redefine “execution”.
No more waiting for perfect data or elaborate playbooks. I learned to ship fast, adapt faster, and prioritize outcomes over appearances.
Plus, when you’re heads-down delivering, there’s no time for office politics.
Smart operators play the game, not the founder
Every startup has a wannabe emperor.
A VP who thinks they run product, marketing, and HR.
🚨 They never last long.
The smartest operators?
They don’t fight for strategy.
They master execution.
They make themselves indispensable.
They don’t argue about the vision. They make it happen. But startup CMOs? Most burn out in under a year.
And when you deliver results that keep the castle standing?
Suddenly, you hold real power.
While the founder juggles fundraising nightmares or borderline-insane product pivots, you can score quick wins, chase down key accounts, or ship features ahead of schedule.
And if you’re launching a new product, avoiding common launch failures can be the difference between success and total disaster.
Ironically, that’s when you start earning influence.
Your Machiavellian playbook for startup survival
Own What’s Yours: Strategy’s off-limits—focus on what you can control.
Accelerate Their Vision: Don’t resist, make it happen faster.
Results > Titles: No one cares about “Head of Vibes.” Deliver.
Empower Down: Let your team crush the day-to-day while you execute up.
This is how you win without fighting for the crown.
North star for startup leaders
🚫 Stop fighting for the throne.
✅ Start executing like hell.
Machiavelli warned:
"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."
Founders hold onto control because that’s what keeps the castle from crumbling.
You can fight them for the crown or be the weapon they can’t win without.
Less glamorous? Sure.
But infinitely more powerful.
And as Machiavelli might say:
Those who ignore the rightful ruler’s power often end up on the wrong side of the drawbridge.
So, dear prince. Stay in your lane. Dominate it.
Or watch your illusions of grandeur turn into a one-way trip across the drawbridge.
What do you think? 🤔
Reply and share your war story
Until next week—keep growing, no fairytales required.
—Martin, Chief Ranter at Uncharted
P.S. This week's soundtrack "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes
Tool of the week: Data Button
An AI dev that reasons and ships code fast. Your CTO without the coffee breath.
Book of the Week
The Score Takes Care of Itself – Bill Walsh
Process over chaos. Execution over control. Read it.
Well said…total BS
This is one of the realest takes on startup dynamics. Everyone wants to "act like a founder" until they realize founders don’t share power, they consolidate it. Harvard’s 65% startup failure rate due to internal conflicts should be a wake-up call. Thanks for another great piece, Martin.