Founders should code a little

Founders should code.

Not all the time.

Not never.

A little.

Coding is crack for technical CEOs. It feels like progress, it’s an easy dopamine hit.

Shipping a PR is clean, measurable. Sending cold emails or sitting in ambiguity? Not so much.

So I used to treat coding like junk food and cut it out completely. I only focused on GTM and product direction, the “real” CEO work.

And that worked… until it didn’t.

When you stop touching the product:

• You become the ideas guy, not the one who executes.
• You stop feeling the pain of complexity creeping up.
• You lose skin in the game.

Craftsmanship needs both perspective and proximity.

Now I code Fridays and weekends and take on-call rotations like everyone else.

It’s a super power to understand the stack from top to bottom. Know what customers want but never lose sight of the engine room.