Beyond the Founding Team | A Leadership Playbook for Growth: CEOs

Explore More Leadership Roles

Less than a third of companies replace the founding CEO. Among those that have, the transition happens around the time of major funding.

Having a background in growth is paramount to previous large cap CEO experience; in fact, 75% of new scale-up CEOs were first-time chief executives.

Who succeeds Founders?

The profile of executives who replace Founder CEOs:

^{Source: 2022 RRA Growth Co Analysis, n = 16 CEOs}

Discover more CEO leadership insights

Meet our Growth CEO Experts

Authors

• Robert Alexander is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Technology Knowledge team. He is based in New York City.
• Agnes Greaves co-leads the firm’s Core & Growth Technology practice globally and the Consumer Digital & Media practice in Europe. She is based in London.
• Tuck Rickards heads the firm’s San Francisco office and co-leads the Core & Growth Technology practice. He is based in San Francisco.

Methodology and Notes

• Analysis of 40 tech/tech-enabled companies that were founded since 2005 and IPO’d 2017-2021, were largest by region according to valuation at time of deal, and achieved ≥20% revenue growth rate over the three-year period prior to IPO
• Industry verticals included: fintech, healthtech, automotive/transportation, eCommerce/marketplace, software/cloud
• Analysis includes only the appointment of non-founder executives
• Major funding rounds: approximate point in time at which each company reached series C/later stage funding
• APAC excluded from study due to data accessibility
• Sources: Pitchbook, Board Ex