The Fire and the Breeze

Bridging the urgency gap between Founders and Employees. How to find balance and unlock more success.

One of the most profound disconnects in startups is the urgency gap between founders and employees. This comes up all the time when we work for demanding founders or advice them. And we think its time to really dial in what is going on.

And this is not the silly debate about "founder mode" and its snide criticism of professional employees—it's about recognizing a fundamental difference in motivation structures that affects general human psychology of participants who are trying to build a high growth company. Not grappling with this disconnect can make or break a company's success

For the founder, the company’s success is exitential

For founders, the company represents everything:

• Their life's work and identity

• Their shot at generational wealth

• Their reputation and legacy

When you've bet your entire future on a venture, everything is magnified. Every setback feels catastrophic; every delay seems existential. Every fight won is a personal victory

The statistics back this up: many founders work 80-100+ hours weekly, and 48% of entrepreneurs experience burnout, with an additional 32% facing depression and 56% experiencing decision fatigue.

This intensity isn't just perception—it's backed by hard economics. Research confirms that founders experience significantly greater variance in their earnings than similar employees. With greater risk should come greater return, which explains why founders push themselves and their companies so hard.

The reality for employees is less intense

For employees (even execs and exceptional pros), the motivation structure is fundamentally different:

• The company is important but rarely existential

• Their career can easilycontinue if this particular company fails (vs. the founder has to pick up the pieces)

• Their financial upside is typically capped at salary plus modest equity (it will rarely make you wealthy)

This isn't a character flaw—it's the natural consequence of different stakes. Most startup employees put in 40-70 hours per week, which is substantial but still significantly less than many founders. When an employee brings home the same salary regardless of whether a feature ships this week or next month, urgency naturally functions differently.

The equity gap further illustrates this difference. Early employees (hires 1-5) typically receive between 0.25%-3% equity, while hires 6-10 receive between 0.10%-1%. Compare this to founders who often retain 20-70% ownership, and the difference in financial motivation becomes clear.

The urgency gap can be frustrating to founders

These fundamental differences, which are rooted in human psychology and motivation sttructure, creates frustration on both sides:

Founders get frustrated when employees don't mirror their hair-on-fire urgency. They flinch when people make 2 year plans when they’re not even sure they have enough runway to make payroll for 12 months! They mistakenly assume employees should feel the same visceral pressure they do.

Employees make equally harmful assumptions. They see a structured company with salaries and assume stability. Even when they hear about bad performance, they kind of gloss over its real risk. 90% of startups fail, yet many employees don't realize their company might be weeks away from not making payroll. They don't see the existential knife-edge startups walk on daily. To be fair founders tend to NOT share in order not to demotivate the troops.

Bridging the urgency gap amicably

How can there be more detente? We’ve entered a period of high stress in the building of technology companies because of transformer based artificial intelligence, a key ingredient in the ongoing elevation of the technology level. Companies seeking profitability even as they try to navigate a technolgy transition are walking a delicate balance between their mission and keeping talent appropriately motivated.

Bridging the Gap: Advice for Founders

Based on research and successful startup practices, here's how founders can bridge the urgency gap:

1. Recognize the motivation gap is natural. Sure, find highly motivated crews, but realize that no matter how great your team is, they won't feel exactly what you feel. That's not a character flaw—it's a structural reality.

2. Make the stakes visible. Don't shelter employees from business reality. Bring the outside in by consistently connecting internal activity with external happenings and challenges. Share the funding runway, competitive threats, and make-or-break metrics. Context creates natural urgency.

3. Create proper incentives. If you need founder-like urgency, create founder-like stakes. The data shows that early-stage employees who receive below-market salaries should receive more equity as compensation. When employees have skin in the game, their priorities align more closely with yours. Tell the story of outsize rewards based on effort related outcomes.

4. Make good decisions for you and the employees. If your employees feel like a raw deal may happen, they won’t move urgently. They have to believe that while they’re working, you’re looking out for them. If you want to take money off the table in the funding round, give them an opportunity as well, etc.

4. Model sustainable urgency. Demonstrate that urgency isn't just frantic activity—it's ruthless prioritization. 83% of founders believe constant high pressure leads to team burnout, and 64% say it negatively impacts business performance - they are right. Lead by showing what matters most.

5. Take real breaks. Founder burnout often results from running on adrenaline for too long, leading to decreased effectiveness. Taking strategic breaks can actually accelerate progress by keeping you sharp when it matters most.

Bridging the Gap: Advice for Employees Working with Founders

1. Embrace the precariousness. The most valuable mindset shift is understanding your company might not exist in six months. That's not pessimism—it's startup reality. Its a bit disturbing but if you sit with it, it can be empowering - the company will still be here if you do the right things and hold your teams to high standards.

2. Plan in shorter horizons. Two-year plans are dangerous luxuries for startups. Work in quarters or months. Ship value now because "later" assumes survival.

3. Be urgency-driven, not perfection-driven. Progress beats perfection when survival is at stake. Default to action over analysis. Get most things 80% right. Find the short list of things that need to be 100% perfect. Know the difference.

4. Seek to understand the founder's view. Ask about financial runway, key milestones, and existential risks. Understanding these creates natural urgency without needing artificial pressure.

5. Recognize the equity trade-off. Startups or less established companies can’t really compete with liquid corporate salary packages unless they include a significant equity component. Your lower salary is balanced by potential future gains—if you don't believe in those gains, reconsider if startup life is right for you.

Creating a Culture of Productive Urgency

The best startups don't necessarily feel constantly frantic, but they do feel consistently urgent.

This means:

• Celebrating quick execution over perfect execution

• Maintaining focus on a small set of critical metrics

• Creating visibility into business health for everyone

• Regular, honest communication about company risks

• Rewarding behavior that shows appropriate urgency

The goal isn't to have everyone working in perpetual panic. 

Research has found that startup culture often includes an expectation that businesses can achieve excellent results while understaffed and under-resourced, but this increases anxiety and burnout risk. Instead, aim for a shared understanding of what matters, why it matters now, and how everyone's work connects to survival and success.

Equity rewards are super important

One powerful way to bridge the urgency gap is through thoughtful equity distribution. It's common for early hires to receive equity grants that reflect the level of risk they're taking by joining a company in its early days. The earlier the stage and greater the risk, the more equity makes sense.

Consider these factors when structuring equity to align urgency:

1. Experience level: What specialized skills are they bringing?

2. Opportunity cost: What are they giving up to join your startup?

3. Market rate salary gap: How far below market rate is their cash compensation?

4. Company stage: How proven is your business model and funding?

5. Role criticality: How central are they to company success?

When employees have meaningful ownership, they're more likely to feel the urgency that comes with it.

Conclusion: Finding the Balance

The urgency gap between founders and employees is real, backed by data, and a challenge for most startups. But it's not insurmountable.

The most successful companies create cultures where appropriate urgency flows naturally from context, alignment, and incentives—not from founder anxiety or artificial pressure.

By understanding both sides of the equation and implementing practical strategies to bridge the gap, founders can create environments where everyone works with purpose and intensity, while avoiding the burnout that kills so many promising ventures.

When employees understand the knife-edge reality of startups, and founders provide meaningful context and incentives, the urgency gap narrows.

The entire team operates with a common understanding: we're building something extraordinary, but its existence tomorrow depends on what we do today. 🚀

Thanks for reading! We love to hear from you. Please leave a comment and tell us about your experience dealing with the urgency gap. As a founder or an employee, what has worked for you and what hasn’t? And 2 additional things:

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2. Check out our book on building fast growing tech companies in the age of AI and beyond.