Comments on: I’ve seen the Promised Land. And I might not get there with you. http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/ Entrepreneurship and Conservation Tue, 29 May 2012 21:23:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Peter Slam http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2579 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:22:39 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2579 A little bit of common sense, please.

If you have problems with the founder and the guy is enough open-mind, maybe is better to put a coacher than to fire him. Too dangerous. And at the end of the day… is just one person, so is not an intelligent decision to fire her/him.

Also, remember that some of the biggest companies in the world are still leaded by the founders.

There is too much bloggers / vissioners / tompeters / super-investors and CEOs that they know what to do in every situation… but they don’t explain that they got much more failures than success. Very good auto.sellers. Very bad managers. Follow exactly what they advice, and you will kill your company.

Some people have lack of imagination and skills, and they have to follow books, or biblias or corans like a fanatics. This happens also in management.

When you face a situation in a company, don’t follow all what the books or experts are saying; use the common sense.

Unfortunately, common sense is the least common of the senses.

]]> By: ceomarshall http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2565 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:11:21 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2565 Agree with your post except that I think an experienced entrepreneur who recognizes his/her shortcomings can stay inside a company in a role other than CEO and continue to provide a very necessary perspective and skill set as the company grows to the next step. There are lots of examples of this working (and lots where it hasn’t) where I believe the main reasons for the success are that first the founder understands, accepts and wants to the company to continue thrive with him/her in the new role and second the incoming CEO respects, values and listens to the perspective of the original founder.

]]> By: Mark Essel http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2547 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:22:13 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2547 Call me kooky but I expect competitive web tech businesses to self disrupt their own markets to remain competitive. The gradients of network change are accelerating, and larger BigCo thinking won’t be able to adapt as quickly. Business evolution will favor the small and lean, where the wild eyed founders flourish.

]]> By: Andrew Doyle http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2544 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:09:56 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2544 Hi Steve,
I think your comment here is the golden tip,

‘Digging deeper you’ll most likely find that most of the founders who made it as big company execs surrounded themselves with a world-class executive staff that did the big company execution.’

Sure, remain as the CEO with all the vision and drive, but ensure you have a COO from a solid corp backgroud. Or, move up to the position of Chairman/President and allow the experienced team to take over CEO/COO roles.

Brin & Page have Schmidt, Gates had Ballmer, not sure who Ellison or Jobs had but I’m pretty sure there was someone.

The kind of team that you are looking for you replace you, I think these are people who should of been entrepreneurs in their younger life but for some reason got sucked into corp life and adapted well. When they get a position in transitional startup they will shine on both sides.

Take care,

Andy

]]> By: John Coady http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2540 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:07:41 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2540 I guess what happens to the entrepreneur’s shares when they are forced out depends on what they negotiated in their term sheet when they accepted the investors money. I’m sure their unvested portion and a good chunk of options will go to the newly hired CEO.

I don’t know if there is a standard term in a term sheet covering this but the entrepreneur and his or her lawyer should probably have something in the terms to cover their interests.

Here is a 4 part video about term sheets and how they are changing. At the end of part 3 they talk a little about forcing the entrepreneur out.

http://www.angelblog.net/Angel_Term_Sheet_Evolution_Part1.html

]]> By: Yuri Ammosov http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2539 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:24:05 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2539 It seems to me that we can name far more companies that rose to greatness with initial founders than companies that rose to greatness with hired CEO and fired founders. Cisco is only one example that comes to mind.

]]> By: chris http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2536 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:21:55 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2536 So what happens to a founder’s stake in the company when they are fired or pushed to a lesser role? Are they like everyone else where they lose their non-vested stock, or is there preferential treatment? What kind of positions within the company do founders normally take up?

]]> By: Stephan Wehner http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2533 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:20:42 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2533 I think the number of “exceptions, [...] who grew into large company executives while retaining founder instincts” is much larger than you make believe.

I also think it would be better to point to examples in favour of your hypothesis, i.e. companies were the wrong kind of leadership caused the trouble.

Stephan

]]> By: Les McKeown http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2532 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:05:16 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2532 Great post, Steve.

I think it’s important that when a company comes through the Transition phase (something which I call Whitewater), that it doesn’t lose the creativity and innovation brought by the founder and rely completely on systems and processes. When this happens the organization can run the risk of becoming arthritic and brittle. A large company doesn’t have to be bureaucratic and it is possible for one to behave more like a start-up. For this to happen there has to be a fine balance between the creativity and vision of the founder and the systems and processes needed to steer a large organization.

Thanks, again Steve,

Les

]]> By: Dave Rodenbaugh http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2530 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:53:59 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2530 Great stuff Steve…I’ve seen this cycle over and over. I think some key indicators of success or failure has to do with the founder’s ability to recognize whether they’re able to move through transition and into more steady-state roles.

The problem is, I think many founders are not as introspective as you and believe they CAN actually make all those transitions, or they turn down offers of buyout for either greed or ego reasons…

Should be a required conversation for all founders and VCs to have pre-funding, IMO.

]]> By: Aviah Laor http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2528 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:43:27 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2528 BTW, that specific transition stage took 40 years. In the desert.

]]> By: Aviah Laor http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2527 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:40:16 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2527 “Founder instinct” is really great term. Can any company keep innovate, disrupt and take risks without it? There are two promised lands actually: product land and financial land. If the founder got at least one, it’s OK (e.g. M&A).
But removed from steering the boat only to see it sunk by somebody else, without any compensations, that’s tragic.
Fred Wilson has a great post on this subject, arguing that if the companies succeeds to keep the founder (or visa versa) , they are much better: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/01/the-founder-factor.html,
And the notable comment by JLM:
Leaders do the right things.
Managers do things right.

]]> By: DK http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2526 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:10:46 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2526 Thanks for providing a positive blueprint for managing founder transition through the company growth. Success stories of founders going the distance are out there. One thing is to be sure: those who believe it cannot be done will not be the ones to do it.

]]> By: Alan Wilensky http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2525 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:22:18 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2525 Risk Taker. Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker. Each role has a right time at the corporate tiller.

]]> By: Top Posts — WordPress.com http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2523 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:12:36 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2523 [...] I’ve seen the Promised Land. And I might not get there with you. …I’ve been to the mountaintop and I’ve seen the Promised Land. And I might not get there with you… Martin [...] [...]

]]> By: Alan Commike http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2522 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:58:49 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2522 Any insight on how to tell when these transitions should begin?

]]> By: Tony Jacobson http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2521 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:05:47 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2521 Do large companies *have to* function in a bureaucratic manner? Is there a way for a large company to function more like a start-up? Or maintain much of the qualities from a start-up in the corporate culture?

]]> By: SKMurphy » Two Images of Startups http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2519 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:51:07 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2519 [...] Blank offers a framework for evaluating startup leadership requirements in “I‘ve seen the Promised Land and I might not get here with you” that addresses all of situations my friend describe: hurdles, the pack, and the end of the [...]

]]> By: steveblank http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2518 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:03:17 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2518 Jordan,
Most founders don’t make to the large company stage – either because their boards removed them before they got the chance or because they didn’t have the skills. The trauma is that most founders naturally believe that they _should_ continue as the CEO, regardless of company size. I know I did.

Finally, later in my career I realized that I was great at the “Scalable Startup” phase and actually hated the bureaucracy of a large company. At E.piphany my partner Ben and I decided – even before we got funded – that we were going to bring in a big company CEO if we were successful. And we found the perfect guy.

That said, it’s fascinating to observe that the largest and most innovative tech companies are still run by their founders. I believe that these guys are the rare founders who kept their entrepreneurial skills yet grew enough in their personal and emotional maturity to manage the corporate maze. (Contrast Jobs versus Wozniak today. They were peers 30 years ago. Which one has moved on?)

Digging deeper you’ll most likely find that most of the founders who made it as big company execs surrounded themselves with a world-class executive staff that did the big company execution.

steve

]]> By: John Funari http://steveblank.com/2010/01/21/i%e2%80%99ve-seen-the-promised-land-and-i-might-not-get-there-with-you/#comment-2517 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:52:04 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=4761#comment-2517 I agree with the premise here, especially around the stages of transition. However, I’m not sold on the idea of removing the founding CEO because you are entering a different phase. Think of all the great companies over the last century and many of them have an inventor or CEO who takes it from nothing to that of greatness. Can you imagine a board removing one of these individuals after the scalable startup phase: Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Mark Benioff, Michael Dell. Outside of tech, think about Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, etc.. You can probably name a list refuting the argument but I believe vision, passion, determination, and leadership are the most critical qualities for the CEO regardless of the phase.

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