Essentially an argument for professional management that is seen as critical for a high-growth startup's transition from its formative stages to what might be called a "real company."<p>It is easy to stumble along this path but the highest risk of doing so, in my experience, comes from a premature bringing in of serial executives (e.g., a "real CEO") who inject so much "process" that the company loses its vision and sinks of the weight of its own burn rate ("process kills" might be the epitaph for such companies). This, by the way, is why a far higher proportion of early-stage startups today will try to defer VC funding for as long as reasonably possible if their business model permits it. Call it short-sighted if you will, but I think most founders strongly prefer not to be on the receiving end of this sort of transitional conduct.<p>As usual from this author, many good insights about the key issues, whether or not one agrees with him on all particulars.