Start here — adjust the sliders to match your business.
The estimate updates instantly as you move them. Use the 4 controls below to reflect how your business actually operates.
Inputs
Move the sliders and buttons below to see how founder dependency changes the cost.
Annual Revenue
$3,000,000 / year
$250k$1m$3m$10m$25m
Hours per week you spend in operations
10 hrs
How often do decisions come back to you?
Occasional
How long could you step away before things slow down?
1 week
0d1d3d1w2w4w6w
How suppression builds
FocusDirection and priorities
→
FuelDemand and revenue
→
FlowExecution through the team
→
FreedomFounder capacity
Founder
↑
Escalation
↑
Decision
↑
Issue
When a decision has no clear owner or rules, it escalates upward until it reaches the founder. That pressure suppresses growth and squeezes founder freedom.
Readout
Estimated growth suppressed by escalation
$56,300
Move the sliders to see how founder dependency changes the cost over the next 90 days.
Annualised impact
$225,200
Projected annual suppression if the current structure holds.
Current pattern
Moderate
A simple read on how resilient the business is without founder intervention.
Operational stability
Moderate
LowModerateHigh
Your estimate shows the cost. The deep dive shows where the suppression is building inside the business.
View calculation logic
“Based on analysis of 25,000 founder situations.”
This estimate shows the potential impact of decisions escalating back to the founder.
Why Decisions Escalate Back to the Founder
Growth Gets Suppressed When Decisions Escalate
When decisions escalate back to the founder, work slows and growth gets suppressed.
The calculator estimates what that suppression could cost your business over the next 90 days.
This Pattern Appears in Most Founder-Led Companies
Across thousands of founder diagnostics, the same structural constraint appears again and again:
authority, decisions, and execution slowly migrate back to the founder.
5,000+
Diagnostics Run
87%
Show Escalating Decision Load
6 Weeks
Average Time to Stabilise the Constraint
Find the Bottleneck in Your Company and What it's Costing You