Summary4 min read

Becker Business Podcast — “The 3 Phases of a Founder”

Host: Scott Becker
Date: May 29, 2026
Episode Focus: Understanding the evolutionary journey of founders and their role in building scalable companies.

Episode Overview

Scott Becker dedicates this episode to the concept he refers to as “The Three Phases of a Founder.” He unpacks the personal and organizational transformation founders undergo as their businesses grow—from personally handling every aspect, to building a team of leverage, to ultimately scaling by hiring leaders objectively better than the founder at their respective roles. Becker emphasizes that true company growth happens in the third phase, when the business ceases to depend solely on the founder.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Three Phases of a Founder

(00:57 - 02:56)

Phase 1: The “Do Everything” Founding Stage
- Founders are “the chief cook, the bottle washer,” covering every role.
- The company relies solely on the founder for all critical operations.
  
  “You're sort of the old how the old edge goes. You're the chief cook, the bottle washer. You're sort of doing a lot of everything.”
  — Scott Becker (01:07)
Phase 2: Building for Leverage (Early Team Building)
- Founders begin hiring help, “but those people aren’t necessarily better at doing what you did than yourself.”
- The founder gains some leverage as the team helps extend capacity, but the founder remains the operational bottleneck.
- True delegation is limited: “everything in one way or another stops and goes with you.”
  
  “In the second phase ... you haven't really built a team of superstars. You're still very limited. At the end of the day, everything in one way or another stops and goes with you. And that's no way to build a scalable business.”
  — Scott Becker (01:33)
Phase 3: Building a Team That Surpasses You
- The team is now comprised of people “better at the individual roles that you used to do than you are.”
- Business functions (growth, editorial, operations, etc.) are led by true experts and leaders, not just helpful hands.
- The founder is no longer the business’s “limiting step,” allowing for scalable, sustained growth.
  
  “The real place you want to be as a business ... is when you've gotten to a spot where the CEO is far better than you can ever do that job. The editor in chief far better than you could ever do that job. The Chief growth officer far better than you could do that job...”
  — Scott Becker (02:16)

2. Personal Anecdote: The Newsletter Bottleneck

(02:02 - 02:36)

Becker recounts personally signing off on every electronic company newsletter—“probably doing 15 to that”—which he thought “seems good from a control standpoint, but it's awful in terms of scalability.”
As long as the founder is involved at that level, “you’ve made yourself the limiting step.”

“I remember it was probably a decade ago, maybe less than that ... signing off in the morning on every single electronic newsletter that our company did ... and obviously this seems good from a control standpoint, but it's awful in terms of scalability and really growing a business.”
— Scott Becker (02:04)

3. The Ultimate Goal: A Truly Scalable, Founder-Independent Company

(02:37 - 02:56)

Sustainable business growth occurs when every vital function is managed by someone better-suited than the founder.
This shift changes the very nature of the company: “That’s when a business is no longer reliant on the founder. You’re no longer the limiting step on so many things. The business can really grow and thrive into something different.”

Notable Quotes

On the key stages:

“First is the phase where you as a founder are doing everything... The second phase is you start to hire people, but those people aren’t necessarily better... The third phase... everybody is better at the individual roles that you used to do than you are.”
— Scott Becker (01:00 - 02:15)
On eliminating the bottleneck:

“The real place you want to be as a business... is when you've gotten to a spot where the CEO is far better than you can ever do that job ... And that's when a business is no longer reliant on the founder. You're no longer the limiting step.”
— Scott Becker (02:16 - 02:56)

Timeline & Timestamps

00:57 — Start of main content & introduction of three phases
01:07 — Description of Phase 1 (doing everything yourself)
01:33 — Entry into Phase 2 (early hiring and leverage)
02:02 — Personal bottleneck anecdote (signing every newsletter)
02:16 — Phase 3 explained (building a superstar team)
02:56 — Conclusion and core message

Episode Tone

Scott Becker’s delivery is clear and instructional, often using self-deprecating humor and real-world examples to ground his points. The episode has an encouraging, practical tone designed for aspiring and current founders, emphasizing that while founder involvement is natural at first, scaling up requires letting go.

Summary Takeaway

For founders, true scale happens by evolving beyond being indispensable to the operation. Building a team of leaders—each better than the founder at their roles—frees the business from its initial limitations and enables exponential growth. As Becker succinctly puts it: “That's when a business is no longer reliant on the founder… can really grow and thrive into something different.”

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Transcript4 lines

[00:00]
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[00:57]
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This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today's discussion revolves around the three phases of a founder. We talk about this often in building businesses that there's there's really three phases, probably more. We think about it in three phases. First is the phase where you as a founder are doing everything. You're sort of the old how the old edge goes. You're the chief cook, the bottle washer. You're sort of doing a lot of everything. The second phase is you start to hire people, but those people aren't necessarily better at doing what you did than yourself, but they do extend you and leverage you. In the second phase, we've started to build a team, but you haven't really built a team of superstars. You're still very limited. You're still limited where at the end of the day everything in one way or another stops and goes with you. And that's no way to build a scalable business. The third phase of a founder is when you've built a team and everybody is better at the individual roles that used to do than you are. So you've got a chair of Department of Growth, you've got a chair of Growth, you've got a CEO, you've got a chief editor, you've got whatever it is the roles are in your own business who all can manage things and do their job better than you're able to do it. And this is when businesses can really take off and accelerate because you're no longer the limiting step. I remember it was probably a decade ago, maybe less than that race to sign off in the morning and every single electronic newsletter that our company did and at that point we were doing probably doing 15 to that. And obviously this seems good from a control standpoint, but it's awful in terms of scalability and really growing a business. You've made yourself the limiting step. So the real place you want to be as a business, the real the third phase, that third stage of a founder, is when you've gotten to a spot where the CEO is far better than you can ever do that job. The editor in chief far better than you could ever do that job. The Chief growth officer far better than you could do that job. All the different roles in the company are not filled out by department chairs, by leaders, by vice presidents, whatever the roles are that you have in your own company, by people that are better at doing those jobs than you could ever do them. And that's when a business is no longer reliant on the founder. You're no longer the limiting step on so many things. The business can really grow and thrive into something different. Thank you for listening to the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Thank you very, very much.
[03:14]
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