Founder transition

There are a number of good posts about founder transition in light of the recent changes at Friendster and Plaxo. If you are an entrepreneur, I suggest reading Ross Mayfield's words of wisdom on this topic. What makes it so interesting is that Ross is a founder, was replaced at a prior company, and is back again as CEO of another company, Socialtext. As Ross says,

Not a day goes by where I don't brace myself for this change. As a CEO and Founder of an early stage company, I know new stages will come. I constantly question myself if I'm the best person for the job, because the company is more than just me. Its a source of livelihood, investor return and customer bliss -- all of which improve over time. I am really darn good at this stage of the company and have proven it in the past. I hope to test my capabilities at latter stages, but also recognize that the day may come where regardless of my ability to lead, manage and deliver -- environmental forces may call for the new.

As a VC, we always like to have an open and honest discussion pre-investment about what the entrepreneur expects from us, and what we expect from the founding team. When discussing the idea of transition and building the right team, we learn alot about the founders and what drives them. This does not necessarily mean we will replace the founder with a new CEO, but it is a great way to understand what motivates the founder and how committed they are to creating a successful company, not a one-man show. Some simply want to be CEO come hell or high water-we take a pass on those opportunities. Some tell us what we want to hear, but their body language tells us otherwise-they tense up and there is no positive feeling behind their words. Others like Ross tell us what we want to hear and internalize it. They know the drill and want to be given the opportunity to run the show and prove that they can do the job but at the same time understand that change may happen. These are the founders in which we like to invest.