One interesting thing about startups is that they’re often made intentionally inefficient in later funding rounds. It gets really weird when you go from a very

One interesting thing about startups is that they’re often made intentionally inefficient in later funding rounds. It gets really weird when you go from a very fast an lightweight team of contributors into a corporate structure that gets dictated by VCs. All of the sudden, you find yourself in meetings with layers of management. In the worst cases I’ve experienced, a bunch of non-technical people spend hours “brainstorming” how to solve problems that are trivial to resolve, because they do not have the depth to know that these things do not really require any discussion. In my opinion, meetings with non-technical managers should only be organized for strategic planning. All tactical meetings should be covered between contributors, as needed. If you can’t implement a solution, you really don’t have much to contribute in that discussion, and your presence is counterproductive for the company. And exactly as you say, the people who inject themselves into this part of the process are destroying the natural leadership that would emerge.