EXTENDING LONGEVITY FOR FIRST-TIME CEOS (Shockwave Innovations)
“Do you want to be rich or the perpetual king/queen?” That’s a question an investor might ask a first-time founding CEO. What they’re trying to determine is if the founder mostly cares about remaining the CEO all the way to an exit, versus doing whatever is best for the company to reach the best financial outcome for shareholders.
Why Can’t the Answer be “Both”?
It absolutely can. And we can all quickly think of examples of big-name tech company CEO’s that started their startup while in college and led it all the way to IPO and billions in revenue. But I’m guessing the odds are less than 1% that a founding CEO remains in the role all the way to a billion-dollar exit.
The odds certainly are different for a founding CEO that is fresh out of college versus one that has 10-15 years of business experience, but just never serving as the CEO. There are lots and lots of things to learn and experience about business the first time, in order to be more effective subsequent times. You might have heard the phrase “learn it, see it, do it, teach it”. If you haven’t previously learned or ...
