I Shifted From Founder to CEO 20 Years Ago and Never Looked Back — Here's How to Successfully Make the Leap

Transitioning from a founder to CEO is simply a delicate dance. On nan 1 hand, founders person vision, passion and a heavy knowing of their business — aft all, they did create it.

But nan qualities that make a successful laminitis don't needfully construe to nan adjacent phase. History is littered pinch examples of entrepreneurs who held connected excessively tight, incapable aliases unwilling to relinquish power moreover aft it became clear it was time. Some particularly melodramatic examples from caller years see Uber's Travis Kalanick and WeWork's Adam Neumann, some of whom clung to powerfulness pinch misguided ferocity and were yet ousted.

What separates a successful founder-turned-CEO from a grounded one? As personification who remains nan caput of my company, Jotform, aft founding it astir 20 years ago, I've sewage immoderate penetration into what it takes to make nan leap.

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The benefits of bootstrapping

The information shows that founder-CEOs tin beryllium wildly successful. Among nan unicorns founded successful nan past 15 years, 65% person retained their original laminitis arsenic CEO, writes Ali Tamaseb successful his book Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups. Of those that were acquired aliases had an IPO valuation of much than $1 billion, 73% were founder-led astatine nan clip of acquisition.

But problems tin originate for founders who find themselves abruptly beholden to VCs. Exponential maturation and accelerated scaling often don't time off founders pinch nan clip they request to study to beryllium bully CEOs — and judge me, becoming a bully CEO doesn't hap overnight. For grounds of this, look nary further than nan catastrophic meltdown of Groupon laminitis Andrew Mason, an undeniably smart feline whose merchandise rocketed to fame (and astir unprecedented backing levels) faster than he was prepared to handle.

Bootstrapped founders person nan advantage of increasing slowly, which gives you overmuch much clip to study nan CEO ropes. In galore ways, bootstrapping tin beryllium seen arsenic a masterclass successful leadership. I was a coder erstwhile I started Jotform and had zero skills successful management, marketing, business, accounting, income — nan database goes on. But arsenic my institution grew, truthful did I. Having my hands successful truthful galore facets of Jotform's operations helped maine understand my ain weaknesses and what I needed successful a squad to thief it flourish.

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Staying connected vs. stepping back

Of course, immoderate founder, bootstrapped aliases not, tin neglect to go a bully CEO. In his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz argues that effective CEOs person to understand not only what to do, but really to get their companies to do those things. The 2nd portion tends to beryllium much challenging, particularly arsenic a business grows and its operations go much complex. After all, tasks for illustration streamlining operations, lowering costs and balancing nan guidance of employees, products and services carnivore small successful communal pinch nan skills required to motorboat a successful startup.

In a information study for Harvard Business Review, Bradley Hendricks, Travis Howell, and Christopher Bingham determined that while founder-CEO activity is associated pinch astir a 10% higher institution valuation astatine IPO, nan worth of having a laminitis astatine nan helm quickly deteriorates afterward. Furthermore, they recovered that nan worth added by a founder-CEO "essentially dwindles to zero" 3 years from nan clip nan firms spell public; aft that, they really detract worth from nan company.

The authors statement that these are only trends, and it's not difficult to conjure a database of founder-CEOs who person excelled. But I judge there's worth successful simply being alert of nan differences betwixt nan 2 roles. A caterpillar who emerges from a cocoon arsenic a butterfly can't expect to proceed surviving life arsenic a caterpillar, crawling astir plants and munching connected leaves. That conscionable isn't what butterflies do. Acknowledging that your day-to-day arsenic a CEO will look fundamentally different from your day-to-day arsenic a laminitis is measurement one.

Whether you should enactment connected aliases measurement backmost is simply a mobility only you tin reply for yourself. What aspects of nan CEO role really entreaty to you? Are you staying connected because you person nan desire and dedication to go a awesome CEO, aliases because you're convinced nary 1 other tin perchance lead nan institution successfully?

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Establish your priorities

Being a CEO doesn't mean you tin grip each facet of operations. Nor should you want to — not only is it impractical and a mediocre usage of your time, but undoubtedly, there's personification other who tin do it better.

Instead, measure what aspects of your business liking you most, and wherever you tin adhd nan astir value. Once you've established your high-level priorities and figured retired what you — and you unsocial — are champion suited to do, it's clip to delegate.

I work together pinch nan return of Rich Barton, co-founder and CEO of nan Zillow Group, who said that becoming a "leader of leaders," alternatively than simply a "leader of a team," takes a maturation mindset, humility and difficult work. In a accelerated maturation situation, responsibilities outgrow capabilities, and it's a CEO's occupation to admit this — moreover arsenic it applies to nan CEO domiciled itself.

"Leaders will request to beryllium up-leveled and supplemented pinch extracurricular talent," he says. "Founder/CEOs who are not capable to do this will yet beryllium up-leveled themselves."

It's besides basal to beryllium unfastened to proposal and feedback. Of course, your unchangeable of resources should see different CEOs, books and podcasts, but I deliberation it's besides valuable to talk to peers who tin subordinate to your challenges but besides connection you a different position to counterbalance your own.

There is nary one-size-fits-all attack to becoming a awesome CEO. But you do person to beryllium honorable pinch yourself astir whether it's a occupation you really want, and moreover, whether you want it for nan correct reasons. If you do, you person to hole to found your priorities, adopt a maturation mindset and situation yourself to do what's champion for your business.