QUESTIONS FOUNDERS ASK
When should a founder hire a general manager?
By Ivanka Menken, Strategic Mentor·Updated
Ivanka Menken's view is that a founder should hire a general manager once the business can already run for 30 days without them in most areas, not as a way to escape being the bottleneck. Release areas to named leaders first, then make the hire in waves, opened only when a number you chose confirms it.
Why do founders hire a general manager too early?
Often because they hope the hire will take the pressure off without anything else changing. If every decision still routes through the founder, a general manager inherits the queue but not the authority, and the founder ends up managing the general manager as well as the business.
How do you know the business is ready?
Ask a blunt question: if you were unavailable for 30 days, what would break? Write the list down. Each item is a dependency on you. When the list is short and the remaining items are ones a general manager could own, the hire has somewhere to land.
What should you hand over before you hire?
- The informal roles you still hold, such as head of sales, head of hiring or final reviewer.
- Decisions your leaders are able to make but still bring to you.
- Any area where you redo work you delegated.
- Meetings that only run when you are in the room.
How do you make the hire without betting the business?
Hire in waves. Decide what the first wave must prove, name the metric that will show it and the reading that opens the next wave, and write both down before anyone starts. The number is yours to choose. The next wave opens when the number reaches it, not when the pressure does.
What changes for the founder after the hire?
Your job moves from doing and approving to setting direction and holding the general manager to clear commitments. That shift is often harder than the hire itself, because many founders have built their sense of self around being the one everyone needs.
How does Ivanka work on this?
Ivanka works on this inside her six-month mentoring, and for larger businesses through a year of Private Advisory.
What else do founders ask about this?
Is there a revenue level at which a founder needs a general manager?
Ivanka Menken does not use a revenue threshold, because the right moment depends on how much of the business still runs through the founder. The better test is whether the business could run for 30 days without you in most areas. If it could not, a general manager will inherit your bottleneck rather than remove it.
Should the general manager come from inside or outside the business?
Ivanka Menken starts by asking who already owns areas well and what they would need to own more. An internal leader knows the business and the team; an outside hire brings experience you may not have. Either way, the role needs real decision rights, written down, or it becomes a title without authority.
What if I hire a general manager and keep overriding them?
Then the hire will fail, and it will look like their failure. In Ivanka Menken's mentoring each area you release is a written commitment with no override for 14 days, checked at the next session. The same discipline applies to a general manager: decide what they own, then leave it with them.
Can Ivanka Menken help me decide whether to hire now or wait?
Yes. A single hiring decision is a good fit for Ivanka Menken's 90-minute Strategic Clarity Intensive or the Growth-vs-Financials Intensive, which ends with the first irreversible step and a review date. If the decision sits inside a longer handover from founder to team, her six-month mentoring holds you to it fortnight by fortnight.