Keith Rabois on when to grow an employee into a leadership role

Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois answers this question in the clip below:

“The way to think about this is: every company has its own growth rate and every individual has their own growth rate.”

You can only keep individuals in their roles when the slope of their own personal learning curve is greater than the company’s growth rate.

He uses LinkedIn as an example of a linear company. When Keith joined the company, he was the 27th employee and 2.5 years later the company only had 57 employees.

Compare this to Square, where he joined as the 20th employee and 2.5 years later they had 250-300 employees.

It’s much easier to keep individuals in their roles at a company like LinkedIn than it is at a company like Square. But the individual’s learning curve will also be an important factor to consider.

Full video: Y Combinator “Lecture 14 - How to Operate (Keith Rabois)” (Nov 2014)