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The chances you won’t be the CEO at exit

When you finally exit or IPO, will you be the CEO or will someone else be running the company? It’s a great question so we dug into 105 IPO’s to figure it out.  Specifically, we looked at the CEO at the time of IPO/exit and compared it to the list of key founders to determine whether or not a founder was the CEO at exit.  The data says there is a 32% chance you won’t be the CEO.  1 in 3 is pretty high when you’re talking about such an important topic.  The information is below.

 

Should you be concerned about this? Not really.  The founders in these companies likely did extremely well and in these cases, the new CEO clearly did a great job as the company did ultimately exit via IPO.

As a founder, it’s important to recognize if the size and needs of the company outgrow your skillset as CEO.  If it does happen, finding someone that can run your business will be the smartest, most mature move you can make.  Staying in the position if you’re not the right person will at best stunt the potential of the business and at worst be fatal.

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