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Reflections on Acquia following investment by Vista Equity Partners

on Tue, 09/24/2019 - 20:48

Today Acquia, the company I co-founded in 2007 with Dries Buytaert announced that a majority investment in the company had been acquired by Vista Equity Partners. This is a dramatic next step for the company and team, and I could not be more pleased.

I have always wanted to build a cornerstone company: one that would last long-term, become substantial, and well serve its customers, employees, partners and investors for decades. Acquia has become that company, and I am very, very proud to have been part of that journey.

As the company prepares for the next stage of growth with Vista as

Founding CEO succession

on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 04:30

In both my venture-backed companies I was founding CEO; but wasn't CEO forever. The data says this is quite typical. Noam Wasserman's book The Founder's Dilemmas, cites the following statistics out of 3,600+ startups surveyed (9,900 founders) over 10 years:

Percentage of startups still being led by the Founder-CEO
  Founding A-round B-round C-round D-round
On 3rd (or more ) CEO 0% 6% 9% 17% 23%
On 2nd CEO 0% 19% 29% 35% 38%
Founder still CEO 100% 75% 62% 48% 39%

If you're a founding CEO, what should you think about this?

Your child (company) will someday grow up and move away

on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 15:27

Every founder wants their company to be a success. In my book, founding CEOs carry an extra bit of mental or emotional burden for the success, since the buck stops there.

If you're lucky, you'll get to see it happen. But - then what? I experienced that this week.