Giving Up Control Is the Hardest (and Best) Thing I’ve Done as a Founder

Summary

What handing the operations of my company to a new president is teaching me, and three questions to ask before you go work for one. Stepping back from day-to-day operations is reshaping how I think about founder control, and the research on founder-led companies backs up why that handoff tends to pay off.

Earlier this month I announced that Jenn Steele joined Heinz Marketing as our President and COO. The announcement covered the true and easy part. She is exceptional, and her running the business frees me up for the work I should be doing: content, community and more time with marketing leaders.

And here’s the part I said at our all hands that never made the announcement email.

Bringing Jenn in is a chance to stop doing the things I am not good at.

The last couple years have been a challenge. I could blame the market all day long and be fully justified. But some of it is also me. I’ve come to believe I don’t know how to lead this company operationally to the next level, and we needed someone who does.

That was hard to admit, let alone tell the team. Adjusting to it is a whole other challenge. And I’ve watched a lot of founders never get there at all.

I’ve been on the other side of this one

When I left Microsoft I went to a founder-led startup, thinking I was going somewhere I’d get to lead marketing strategically. What that founder actually wanted was someone who would do what he asked. A glorified order taker.

At the time it was maddening but with some perspective I understand it. The business was his identity, and nearly everything he had was tied up in it (something I appreciated exactly zero percent while I was the one being managed that closely). Every decision that went a different direction than his instincts felt to him like we were putting his money, his legacy and his future at risk.

It took private equity coming in, and some of that money coming off the table for him personally, before he could let the team do the things that ultimately grew the business.

Eighteen years into running Heinz Marketing, which mostly means I’ve had time to watch a lot of this up close, I keep seeing versions of that story in the market. Founders who won’t let their team lead or give up control of the work. And I’ve done my own version of it too. I’ve held onto work I’m not good at for no better reason than that I was the one who had always done it.

You get comfortable doing work you hate

When you start a company it’s just you. You do everything, sometimes for years. You get semi-comfortable doing work you don’t enjoy because there is nobody else to do it.

That habit doesn’t leave when the company grows. Handing the keys to someone you trust is still uncomfortable, and candidly a little scary. Though there are clearly exceptions, I’d argue many founders holding on this tight are just scared.

What letting go actually looks like

At our weekly L10 recently (we run on EOS), one of the issues on the list was a new account profitability model Jenn has been building with our head of client services.

A year ago I would have had to be in the middle of that conversation. It’s critical work, and work I never enjoyed.

This time Jenn ran it and I mostly listened. Afterward she told me she really enjoys that kind of work. Thank goodness.

That’s the trade. There are things I contribute that nobody else here can, namely my ideas, my relationships and being in front of people. And there are things that are critical to growing this business that I have never been good at or energized by. Stepping out of that second category is still a little scary, and still the right call.

What’s making it work so far

I’m only a few weeks in, so take this as early learning rather than a playbook:

Agree on the fundamentals first.

Values, purpose and where we are trying to go. When we’re aligned there I can trust the decisions that follow without sitting in the room for them.

Let the metrics do the talking.

Real data on what’s working and what isn’t means I don’t have to be in every conversation to know where we stand.

Overcommunicate about involvement.

Where do I need to be in the room? Where does Jenn want me there? And where, candidly, does she want me to butt out? We talk about all three out loud, on purpose.

What do you actually want?

If you’re a founder, step back and ask honestly whether you need complete control, or whether you’ve just assumed control is the only route to the vision and the financial outcome you want.

There’s research on this that is hard to argue with. Noam Wasserman studied 6,130 American startups and found that founders who still controlled the board or the CEO seat were running measurably less valuable companies. Each additional level of founder control cost 17 to 22 percent of the company’s valuation, and the effect got stronger once a company passed three years old. Those are venture-backed startups and I’ve never taken outside money, so the mechanics don’t map cleanly onto a firm like mine. The direction still does.

For me the answer got clear. What I want is to grow this business and deliver better on our purpose, which is to positively impact careers and lives by enabling work that matters. And to get there, I need other people running more of this business, and running it better than I would.

If you work for a founder, you aren’t going to change them

I assume most people reading this aren’t founders. But a lot of you work for one (or may soon). A recent CMO Coffee Talk session spent an entire hour on how to work with founders, and it was equal parts constructive and cathartic.

You aren’t going to change your founder, but you can understand them. Once I understood what my old boss actually had at stake, I could meet him where he was, and we got considerably better at working together.

Three questions worth asking founders before you take the job:

“What are your strengths and weaknesses as a leader?”

You’re testing self-awareness more than you’re grading the answer. A founder who micromanages and knows it is someone you can call on it later, while one who can’t name a single weakness is telling you something else.

“What do you see as your role going forward?”

Listen for whether they have actually thought about what they’re handing over, and to whom.

“What do you want from the leaders coming in to own things you’ve always owned?”

This one is critical. Accountability is the hardest thing for a founder to hand over, and you want to hear them talk about giving it up before you sign anything.

One more thing to listen for. At a conference recently I watched a founder on stage say that his company is 25 years old, that he is both the CEO and the CFO, and that nobody else in the world could successfully be the CFO of his business.

Twenty-five years in and still the only person on earth who could possibly do that job. If you hear a version of that in an interview, believe it. And run the other way.

Still learning

I don’t have this fully figured out yet. I’m doing it in real time, thankfully with a new partner who is patient with me and isn’t shy about telling me when to step back. Some weeks that’s a relief and some weeks it stings.

What I am sure of is that holding onto the parts of the job I was never good at was costing this company a lot more than my pride is worth.

This post originally appeared on Matt Heinz’s Substack.