Founders have a fundamental role in customer discovery

Customer Discovery must be driven by the founders of a company. It is their vision that is driving the creation of products, and therefore it makes no sense to outsource it, even to early employees.

It is important to go out of the building (see manifesto in: Customer Development) both literally and figuratively.

And it is important that founders are the ones leading the process because only they have a vested interest in the outcome. Consultants or early employees may struggle (both because of incentives and responsibilities) to channel the appropriate information back.