If every decision comes back to the founder, you have not scaled

If every important decision still comes back to the founder, the business has grown. It has not scaled.

This is where a lot of successful founders get trapped. Their judgement built the company, so every new person learns to wait for that judgement.

More people get hired. More senior titles appear. But the founder is still approving pricing, recruitment, product choices and problems that should have been settled three levels down.

That is not control. It is a queue.

Do not start with a complicated operating model. Start by deciding which decisions no longer need the founder, and give somebody else the authority to make them properly.