>One thing this article leaves out is a deeper analysis of why the conventional wisdom is to replace a founder with a professional when there are so many famous counterexamples. It could be that at a certain stage in a company's growth investors prefer to be more risk-averse and will give up a potential grand slam in order to get a two-run double, or something. (And by extension the OP is willing to take larger risks than the average VC.) Or that there are hidden social dynamics at play.
I think one of the reasons that this conventional wisdom is becoming less common is that 'technology startup' is more likely to mean a company with a product and customers now than in the past when it frequently meant a company that had brought a new technology to the commercialisation stage.
In companies of the latter type, it can make sense to move the founding CEO to a CTO role because that has been their actual role in the development phase anyway. Their skillset may not match well with running a company with marketing and sales departments and getting the product sold.
Companies of the former type, like Facebook, are different because by the time they get real traction, they are already dealing with customers and are out there in the market. They have those skillsets by definition because they're already doing that.
I think one of the reasons that this conventional wisdom is becoming less common is that 'technology startup' is more likely to mean a company with a product and customers now than in the past when it frequently meant a company that had brought a new technology to the commercialisation stage.
In companies of the latter type, it can make sense to move the founding CEO to a CTO role because that has been their actual role in the development phase anyway. Their skillset may not match well with running a company with marketing and sales departments and getting the product sold.
Companies of the former type, like Facebook, are different because by the time they get real traction, they are already dealing with customers and are out there in the market. They have those skillsets by definition because they're already doing that.