You generally know when someone asks you to do something- am I more writing, or am I more editing? The editor is the best metaphor for your job.

Barrels are very difficult to find. But when you have them, give them lots of equity. Promote them, take them to dinner every week, because they are virtually irreplaceable because they are also very culturally specific. So a barrel at one company may not be a barrel at another company. One of the ways, the definition of a barrel is, they can take an idea from conception and take it all the way to shipping and bring people with them.

I'd actually argue forging a company is far more harder than forging a product

The next thing you do is allocate resources.

The job of an editor is to ensure a consistent voice.

Where there are low consequences and you have very low confidence in your own opinion, you should absolutely delegate.

Build a company that idiots could run because eventually they will.