Founders=soul of a company

When you think about Steve Jobs, you have to think about so many other companies where Founders have been pushed out. I have to believe it happens more often than not and it's unfortunate. Without entrepreneurs, the technology scene just doesn't happen. Innovation dies, Silicon Valley dies. But one prominent venture capitalist famously said "it's never too early to fire a Founder." Is that right?

I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and help them through the wrenching transitions in hiring new CEOs to "scale the company". And there are some interesting patterns. Here are a few:

1. The idea people have a tough time prioritizing and communicating. Entrepreneurs are idea people. They don't operate on the more methodical wavelengths that their backers want them to, so you find tension here, when a deal doesn't happen with a strategic, the engineering milestones slip, whatever it is. The symptoms are many and varied.

2. They keep thinking that even though they took someone's money, it's still "their company." This mindset is a killer. And you see this more often than not, unfortunately. It's the kiss of death.

3. When it works, it's because the Founder has been well treated and people are constructive. The message should be "aren't your talents better utilized doing X, Y and Z (product vision, new technology development, long range strategy, etc.)?" Vs "dude, you aren't getting it done. We're bringing someone else in, get out of the way or you're out of the company." That can destroy so much value and so many VC's are clumsy with this transition. They don't even realize that even if the entrepreneur stays, he or she will never trust them again and they've just destroyed the morale of the heart and soul of a company.

I could go on and on here. But the point I'm trying to make is that entrepreneurs need firm coaching but with some empathy to understand what is really going on when they give up control, and to embrace the situation positively in gearing up to bring new management on board to complement their efforts, vs "diminish their roles." In Jobs' case, let's be honest. He was a big SOB early and often, a primadonna of the highest order, etc. So he had to go off and screw up NeXt to grow up before being worthy of running Apple. It didn't help that the Board blew it in hiring two losers in a row who knew absolutely nothing about consumer electronics (a soda pop guy and a chip guy??? What were they thinking!?).

What's the lesson here? There are a lot of lessons. But the bottom line in my view is to try and hang onto entrepreneurs, utilize their talents and work through transitions constructively, even if it takes more effort and time than you want it to, or you lose the soul of a company.