[dbish]

Maybe it depends on where in the company they are, but it seems to me that most successful founders are pretty optimistic. I know I wouldn’t want to work for a pessimist, but I agree that I wouldn’t want to be led by a completely unrealistic optimist. There needs to be some awareness of reality, but at the same time the vision and ‘reality distortion’ can help drive big successes and rally teams imho

[mypalmike]

Perhaps the reason successful founders are optimists is that most founders are optimists. Unsuccessful founders are generally optimists too.

[leppr]

(Over)optimistim in founders is adapted to the current environment where the competition is over who can raise the biggest mountain of cash. I predict other qualities will become more desirable as the 20 years bull market starts to fade.

[dbish]

I’d say Bezos, Larry & Sergey, Jobs, even Zuck seemed pretty highly optimistic in their early days and leadership styles, and that has nothing to do with the current funding climate.