Brian Chesky Reveals the Key Differences Between Founders and Managers

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky knows firsthand what founders alone bring to the table — and what they lack.

In an interview on “The Diary of CEO” podcast, Chesky revealed the three crucial attributes he thinks founders have that managers don’t. He says they have a unique love for the business as a company’s “biological parent,” they have “permission” to make big changes, and they know their metaphorical business baby better than anyone.

“You can love something, but when you’re the biological parent of something, it came from you, it is you,” Chesky, who cofounded and built up Airbnb during the 2008 financial crisis, said. “There’s a deep passion and love.”

Unlike managers, who often join a company once it’s already built, founders have total control, or what Chesky calls “the permission.” Building on the parental metaphor, he compared the concept to how parents can’t tell other kids what to do, but can tell their own kids what to do. Whereas managers might not feel they have the latitude to rebrand a company, for example, founders likely do feel that authority, Chesky said.

Lastly, Chesky said a founder knows the roots of their company — their baby, in this case — in a way a manager simply doesn’t.

“You built it, so you know how to rebuild it,” he said. Founders know their company’s foundational nuts and bolts from before it was even fully formed— he said they understand “the alloys, where they were sourced from.”

Yet Chesky also revealed two big problems for founders. Most, he said, can’t scale up to run a huge company — and they bump up against the inevitable fact of their own mortality.

“Great companies usually want to live longer than humans do, and so therefore you end up with the inevitable challenge that Disney and Steve Jobs had,” he said. “Which is succession planning.”

Tech companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, have been shedding middle managers recently to cut out bureaucratic bloat, but experts previously told BI that the efforts could go too far. Entry-level job opportunities are also scant in the tech and finance worlds.

Airbnb is making big changes, though not related to its management structure. The company is launching Airbnb Services, which offers include private chefs and personal trainers, in an attempt to claw back customers from hotels.