Certainly there is a continuum there, but the decisions that a founder makes that are most likely to be critical for a startup's success, are the very ones that

Certainly there is a continuum there, but the decisions that a founder makes that are most likely to be critical for a startup's success, are the very ones that are most likely to be opposed by non-founders, because they will be the most unconventional. Typical startups fail. "how it used to pretty routinely be done" was kind of like what was called "adult supervision", as I recall, back in the late 90's. I don't find that the success rate of the late 90's startups (the dot-com bust) to be all that much better than the current boom (which, granted, is not totally bust yet but no doubt will).