Jonathan Ross, who founded AI chipmaker Groq and led it as CEO for seven years before departing in December to join Nvidia full-time, has candidly reflected on the leadership missteps that slowed his company’s early progress. Speaking on a recent episode of the Founders podcast, Ross described himself as one of the world’s worst leaders when he started out. He explained that the toughest transition for any founder is moving beyond technical expertise into the very different skill of managing people — a shift he said cost Groq roughly three to four years of progress.
Hiring Missteps Slowed Growth
Ross pinpointed a specific pattern behind the delays: he hired employees who needed clear direction, then handed them significant autonomy without providing it. The mismatch caused projects to stall, since these hires were accustomed to explicit instructions that never came. To fix the issue, Ross reworked his hiring philosophy entirely, moving from evaluating candidates based on their strengths to actively searching for red flags that might disqualify them — a shift from nurturing talent to carefully selecting it from the outset.
Groq’s New Chapter Under Nvidia Deal
Groq, founded a decade ago to build language processing units that rival Nvidia’s GPUs, entered a $20 billion licensing and talent agreement with Nvidia in December. The deal let Ross and several senior engineers move to Nvidia while Groq continued operating independently under new CEO Adam Winter, a former company vice president.
Ross isn’t alone in admitting these growing pains. Figma’s Dylan Field and Asana’s Dustin Moskovitz have both spoken publicly about the unexpected difficulty of transitioning from founder to people manager, underscoring how common — and costly — this leadership gap can be across the startup world.