The Founder to Leader Podcast

You hired salespeople so you could step back from sales – so why do they still need you?

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we discuss a dilemma from a B2B founder who has been selling her product since day one. She’s good at it, closes most of their deals and has spent the past three years learning what works.

Six months ago, she hired two salespeople to help her scale sales, but neither is getting close to her numbers. They keep asking her for things like a playbook, scripts and a list of ideal customers, and getting everything that’s in her head down on paper feels like a huge task.

She wants them to be more independent and figure things out themselves – just like she did when she started her first sales job.

Now she’s starting to wonder if they’re actually the right hires. Should she expect them to figure it out – or is it her job to teach them how?

Joining the conversation:

• Rikke Winther Nørgaard (Founder, Aegir Insights)
• Selma Kadic-Maglajlic (Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School)
• Magnus Stawicki Blak (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader)
• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Program Manager, Founder to Leader)

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN

The Founder to Leader Podcast is supported by Copenhagen Business School and the Danish Industry Foundation.

Are you pleasing your investor or running your company?

Today's dilemma is from a first-time VC-backed founder who recently closed a €3M pre-seed round and no longer feels in charge of her own company.

Her lead investor gives her a lot of advice, some of it useful, but it now feels like her investors are driving the direction. Two examples: she hired two people she wasn't sure about and her product roadmap has taken a different turn than she originally planned, all because her investor recommended it.

She has the customer data, product context and daily reality, but when she considers pushing back, two fears stop her: losing their backing and being seen as uncoachable.

She feels like she's the child and her investor the adult. How does she get out of this?

Joining the conversation:

• Michael Karlsen (Founder, Onomondo)
• Sara Rywe (Investor, byFounders)
• Mia Jung (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader)
• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Program Manager, Founder to Leader)

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN

The Founder to Leader Podcast is supported by Copenhagen Business School and the Danish Industry Foundation.

Are you still the right CEO for your company?

Today's dilemma is from a VC-backed founder 9 months post-seed with a team of 15, who has come to a realization: he hates what his CEO role now requires.

All he wants is to throw himself back into the complex, undefined product challenges, but instead he's stuck in people management, hiring conversations and building processes.

He has no intention of leaving the company, but is considering stepping aside. What scares him most is admitting to his lead investor, who's been with them since pre-product, that he's the wrong person for the role because it feels like betraying the reason they invested in the first place.

Is stepping aside the right call or is there a way to redesign the role instead?

Joining the conversation:

- Michael Karlsen (Founder, Onomondo)
- Sara Rywe (Investor, byFounders)
- Mia Jung (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader)
- Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Program Manager, Founder to Leader)

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN

The Founder to Leader Podcast is supported by Copenhagen Business School and the Danish Industry Foundation.

Your lead investor seems to have lost interest in you – what should you do?

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we discuss a dilemma from a VC-backed founder whose seed round closed a year ago.

Lately, his lead investor has been slower to respond and even sent an associate to the last board meeting instead of the partner.

He keeps making up stories about what his investor is really thinking: one day he's convinced they've given up, the next he tells himself they're just busy with the rest of the portfolio.

He owes them an update soon. His company is growing, but at roughly half the pace they'd promised, and he can’t decide what to do.

Is it worth acknowledging the disengagement directly or just keep pretending he hasn’t noticed?

Joining the conversation:
- Michael Karlsen (Founder, Onomondo)
- Sara Rywe (Investor, byFounders)
- Mia Jung (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader)
- Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Program Manager, Founder to Leader)

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN

The Founder to Leader Podcast is supported by Copenhagen Business School and the Danish Industry Foundation.

Should employees be expected to hustle like founders?

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we discuss a dilemma from a startup employee (!) whose founders expect the same level of hustle from her that they put in themselves with the argument "we're all in this together."

But the shares she was promised when hired never seem to materialize and she has recently been called out for not putting in the same hours as the team, even though the quality of her work has never been questioned.

Is she right to be irritated or should she accept that this is startup life?

Joining the conversation: 

• Nicolai Arnholm-Nyström (Co-founder & COO, Frankly Insure) 

• Moritz Hartmann (Chief of Staff, Ento) 

• Nina Uller (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader) 

• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Programme Manager, Founder to Leader) 

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN 

Is overpromising just what scaling looks like?

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we discuss a dilemma from a first-time scientific founder whose startup is racing against well-funded competitors on the same kind of tech. He leads research; his co-founder leads commercials. They're running out of cash and his co-founder says they have to promise more than they can currently deliver to investors and customers.

He gets the logic, but panics every time he hears what they're saying externally because he doesn't know if they can actually deliver what they're selling on time.

Is he right to push back so they move slower but get it right?

Joining the conversation: 

• Marvin Holten (Co-founder & CTO, DIASENSE) 
• Signe Vikkelsø (Professor, Copenhagen Business School) 
• Mia Jung (Head of Leadership Development & Leadership Coach for Founder to Leader, Copenhagen Business School) 
• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Programme Manager, Founder to Leader) 

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN

Is dreading your founder's mood just part of startup life?

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we discuss a dilemma from a startup employee working for a passionate, temperamental founder whose emotional state shapes the entire company's culture. The founder's fundraising pressure has turned into outbursts that affect everyone around him and the employee has even had to mediate some of them.

He sees so many inspiring things in his founder as a leader, so is this just the reality of a startup with big ambitions, and if it isn't; what can he actually do?

Joining the conversation: 

• Moritz Hartmann (Chief of Staff, Ento) 
• Nicolai Arnholm-Nyström (Co-founder & COO, Frankly Insure) 
• Nina Uller (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader) 
• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Programme Manager, Founder to Leader) 

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN 

Is it really faster to do everything yourself rather than delegate? 

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we discuss a dilemma from a deep-tech founder with 15 employees who struggles to protect his own time. His investors, board, team and customers all want his input.

He keeps telling himself it's faster if he just does it himself - but he's exhausted, working till 2am most nights as the admin piles up and leaves no time for the strategic work he's actually good at (and enjoys). 

He realizes this isn’t sustainable long-term, so what's the first thing he should change?  

Joining the conversation: 

• Marvin Holten (Co-founder & CTO, DiaSense) 

• Signe Vikkelsø (Professor, Copenhagen Business School) 

• Mia Jung (Head of Leadership Development & Leadership Coach for Founder to Leader, Copenhagen Business School) 

• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Programme Manager, Founder to Leader) 

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN 

For the first time ever, our dilemma comes from a startup employee!

A senior hire with a management consulting background is being pushed by her founder to reinvent the company's product roadmap into "something impressive". When she pushes back, her founder tells her everyone should "step up beyond their role". Problem is, she doesn't know the vision and she's starting to suspect her founders don't either.

Is she being asked to do her founder's job?

Joining the conversation: 

• Moritz Hartmann (Chief of Staff, Ento) 
• Nicolai Arnholm-Nyström (Co-founder & COO, Frankly Insure) 
• Nina Uller (Leadership Coach, Founder to Leader) 
• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Programme Manager, Founder to Leader) 

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN 

What happens when you go from running the lab to running a company? 

In this episode of the Founder to Leader Podcast, we unpack a dilemma from a research-founder who built her company on a decade of research. Since closing her first round, she spends her weeks in investor meetings, board prep and hiring loops - and barely sets foot in the lab. Her CSO's updates look reasonable, but she feels out of control! Should she start showing up at the lab again, or is this just how it's supposed to be?

Joining the conversation: 

• Marvin Holten (Co-founder & CTO, DIASENSE) 

• Signe Vikkelsø (Professor, Copenhagen Business School) 

• Mia Jung (Head of Leadership Development & Leadership Coach for Founder to Leader, Copenhagen Business School) 

• Yohanna Gustafsson (Podcast Host & Programme Manager, Founder to Leader) 

🔍 Want an outside perspective on your own dilemma? Submit it anonymously here: https://forms.office.com/e/RSxf5BrxvN