Jonathan Lerner of Smedvig Ventures discusses the critical journey from founder to CEO: the challenges of this transition, the importance of early and open conversations about CEO succession, and how speaking more openly about CEO succession can help founders be happier and help investors enjoy higher returns.

“It's a really big transition from founder to CEO. We need to talk about it more as an industry.  It is not a failure to not make it; it is merely, I guess, a statement of what you are great at and what you're not great at.

Once we get to that point, we'll have far happier founders and investors;  we'll have more successful businesses as well, so that the returns will ultimately be better.”

This podcast is hosted by Evgeny Shadchnev, an ex-CEO, author and founder coach specialising in CEO succession. Find out more about his work at evgeny.coach.

Startup CEO Succession: a Founder's Guide to Leadership Transition is out now. Get your copy on Amazon.

00:00 Introduction

01:35 What got you here won't get you there

03:23 CEO transition from VC's point of view  

10:11 When to start delegating

15:52 Backing founders, not evaluating CEOs

18:10 When is a startup ready for a new CEO?

21:11 Founders starting a succession conversation

27:25 Investors starting a succession conversation

29:49 Legal aspects of asking a CEO to leave

32:30 Wisdom of discussing it early

36:32 Transitioning to a non-CEO role

40:59 Rebalancing the cap table

43:09 Aligning a fundraise with a CEO succession

48:54 Internal vs external candidates

50:59 "It always happens too late"

52:31 Raising it at the board level

53:51 Balancing different responsibilities

56:18 The cost of not being close to the business

59:06 What helps founders grow into CEOs

01:02:18 Shifting the conversation as a community

01:04:17 The importance of building trust

01:06:38 Summary of the conversation

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