Should you Avoid Working for First-Time Founders?

The data says no...

Recently a CMO told me she was looking for new roles at mid-stage startups with professional CMOs instead of a first-time founder. She had recently been burned.

It’s hard for CMOs to work for first-time founders. Usually, they don’t understand marketing. They can be immature emotionally and inexperienced. It’s possible this is the first company where they have EVER WORKED. They can be micromanagers. They can be maniacle. They can be stingy. They can drive people to say they would never work for one again.

But I think that’s a mistake.

Especially for pre-IPO startups, a founder still in place can be a marker of a more successful company. Generally companies bring in a “professional CEO” when they have gone through some serious issues where the founder / CEO was failing.

Plus, there are just a ton of founder-led companies. Limiting yourself might opt you out of some really great opportunities.

I suggested this friend establish qualifiers of some of the qualities she didn't like about the first-time founder instead of the whole category. I won’t work for psychopaths. I won’t work for self-absorbed a**h*les. I won’t work for someone that doesn’t respect marketers one iota. I won’t work for someone who doesn’t understand business. There are some reasonable boundaries you could create without eliminating all first-time founders.

Also, founder-led companies have been shown to perform better than non-founder-led companies. This is in part because of their sense of purpose, their deep obsession and their owners’ mindset. Sometimes professional CEOs are more like mercenaries.

I've been there. I have had my fair share of founder issues. I worked for Larry Ellison - one of the longest and most-successful founder-leaders. I worked for the Atlassian founders, who have never worked at any company outside of Atlassian. EVER. I have worked with many, many different first time founders. Some have been difficult, but many are also open-minded, kind, strategic and driven to learn and grow.

Just because you had a very painful sting doesn’t mean you have to give up on the whole category.

If the company is performing well, it’s more likely you’ll perform well, and those two things together make it easier to get along with the founder…