Founder-dependent sales means the company’s revenue depends on one person’s relationships, judgment, and availability. The founder holds the customer relationships, sets pricing case by case, closes the significant deals, and intervenes when accounts have problems. Because the relationship history and pricing logic exist only in that person’s head and nowhere in writing, deals stall when they travel, new salespeople cannot close without them in the room, and growth is capped by how many customers one person can meaningfully know.