Why Successful Founders Sometimes Need To Step Aside — And How To Do It

go through Mikhail Tarver

As I always say, building a successful company isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears—not to mention creativity and resilience.

However, the qualities and skills that enable founders to build a company and drive its early success can sometimes become obstacles to growing the business, creating bottlenecks that hinder progress. This suggests it may be time for the founder to step down.

Perhaps the most important example is Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin ——Not without some convincing evidence John Doerrpart – agree Eric Schmidt join in The company serves as CEO. Schmidt’s term is called “adult supervision,” and without him, Google wouldn’t be what it is today.

Find out the source of the problem

Unfortunately, many companies are not that proactive and they only start discussing this solution when they are criticized. While our default is often to blame external factors, the root of the problem is often much closer to home. As the saying goes – when you have one finger pointing back, there are three fingers pointing back at you.

It can be difficult for founders to admit their role in a company’s woes. After all, they were starting from scratch, and the founders often viewed themselves like the Sun King as the company, declaring “I am the country.” They will then believe that acting in their own interests is also acting in the interests of the company.

From “super pumping,” this Uber Drama, comes to mind. In the program, when Eric Holder Regulators visit Uber offices to investigate company founder Travis Kalanick The reply was: “We are the same person.”

But they were not the same and they will never be the same.

How to spot the winds of change

Change is a natural part of life. In a startup, we can determine when a phase ends. For example, if a founder is more focused on self-promotion than actual business development, it may indicate a lack of involvement.

In other cases, founders may feel burned out, bored, or simply not understand what the business needs now. Their leadership skills decline, and bringing in an outside CEO could improve the company’s prospects.

Another sign is that a company begins to drift aimlessly when its founders lack the business acumen to make key decisions. At this stage, the best option is to bring in outside leadership and find new roles for the founders.

The hardest part for many founders is that exit can feel like a failure.

We have to reframe this because this is not a failure, but a strategic move for the continued success of the business. Founders who take a step back while remaining in a strategic or advisory role often find that they can contribute more effectively.

Smooth transition: How can investors assist?

The key to a successful transition is a friendly process.

Ideally, founders should recognize the need for change in advance and work with investors and the board to find suitable replacements. If managed correctly, a company can become stronger than ever. On the other hand, a poorly managed transformation can lead to internal and external chaos.

Investors can help by recognizing founder burnout or dysfunction. A founder’s reluctance to resign or his inability to adapt to changing circumstances may be some signs. Once established, they can guide founders through the process and ensure a smooth transition. After all, the ultimate goal is to survive and thrive, and companies need to select the best people to lead the team to achieve these goals.

Mikhail Tarver Is the founder and managing partner of the following companies Tarver Capital PartnersIt is a venture capital fund headquartered in Delaware. It has more than 20 artificial intelligence startups in its investment portfolio, and 5 of them have successfully exited. He has 20 years of experience as a senior executive at financial groups and industrial companies, having completed more than 250 M&A and private equity transactions totaling $24 billion.

Illustration: Dom Guzman