I think it actually is possible for startup founders to take the route you're talking about. Check out this talk by Lew Cirne (CEO of NewRelic): http://ecorner.

I think it actually is possible for startup founders to take the route you're talking about. Check out this talk by Lew Cirne (CEO of NewRelic): http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3367 http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3367 He basically talks about how much he loves programming and problem solving, so when the company grew, he just hired people to do the parts of the CEO role that he didn't want to do.