Vice President Kamala Harris is the only presidential candidate inInstaller modeSays the billionaire investor Mark Cuban.
The “Shark Tank” star made the remark in an X post on Thursday, referencing the term coined by the Y Combinator cofounder. Paul Graham.
Graham published an essay on the subject on Sunday. In it, he contrasted the hands-on approach taken by founders with the delegative nature of managers.
“Hire good people and give them a place to do their jobs. It sounds great when it’s described that way, doesn’t it? Except in practice, judging by founder after founder’s report, this often means: hire professional fakers and Let them run the company into the ground,” Graham wrote in his essay.
@kamalaharris Founder mode is the only candidate
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 5, 2024
Graham’s essay did not specify which business leaders were in “founder mode,” although it did mention the cofounder and CEO of Airbnb. Brian Chesky and the late founder of Apple Steve Jobs.
Cuba himself weighed in on the topic on Tuesday, saying in an X post that founders need to be dedicated to their businesses.
“They need to be self-aware and find people who can provide the skills they don’t have, and not slow them down,” Cuban wrote.
“Where things go wrong is when you fall into the trap of treating every management hire as a silver bullet, then it’s over. If the founder or founding team is not the silver bullet, it will be a tough road ahead,” he added.
you are right Once you have a product market fit, the founder will use whatever they know they need to do. It’s a non-stop race to get planes in the air, they need to be self-aware and find people who can provide skills they don’t have, and also…
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 2, 2024
But while “founder mode” may be more closely associated with the worlds of tech and Silicon Valley, Cuban believes Harris exemplifies it.
The praise came after Cuban gave an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” during which he commented on Harris’s take on entrepreneurship.
“She’s talked more about entrepreneurs and helping them access investment and making it easier for people to invest in startups than any president I’ve ever heard talk about startups and entrepreneurs,” Cuban told CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin. “
“Kamala Harris is pro-business,” says @mcuban. “She’s talked more about entrepreneurs and helping them get access to investment than any president I’ve ever heard.” pic.twitter.com/I6b97cLzta
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) September 5, 2024
Cuban Initially supported President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign before shifting their support to Harris after she took over as the Democratic nominee.
During his interview with CNBC, Cuban said he is in regular contact with Harris’ team and is Offered to serve in her administration If he wins this November.
“I told his team, ‘Look, enter my name for the SEC,'” Cuban told Sorkin. “That needs to change.”
Cuban and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.
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