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?