创业公司共同创始人转型的3个路径

    最近，我一直在思考初创公司那些隐身幕后的创始人们。反映CEO创始人以及他们伴随公司一起成长的报道已经有很多了。但关于幕后共同创始人的报道却很少。以我的经验，这样的共同创始人比比皆是，这些作为公司二号人物的幕后伙伴从公司创立伊始就开始与CEO创始人并肩战斗。

    最近，我一直在思考这个问题，可能是因为我与我投资组合中几家公司的幕后创始人多有会面。我们的谈话内容包含一些共同的主题。幕后创始人最初承担的职责往往与CEO创始人形成互补。他可能会掌管一个职能部门，比如产品或工程，或者，他拥有更广泛的运营职权，挂着COO头衔。通常，一家只有5个人的公司不需要什么COO。但对于幕后创始人，这是一个颇为让人受用的笼统头衔，比“杂务副总裁”或“万事大总管高级副总裁”听起来强——虽然后者对他职权的定义其实更为准确。

    幕后创始人面临的挑战是随着初创企业走出“丛林”（非常早期阶段，结构混乱，尚未实现产品与市场的匹配），进入“土路”（组织有所成熟，初步确立产品与市场的匹配），通常会从外部招聘一些职能型高管来负责部门工作。这些高管自然会分走幕后创始人的一部分职权。

    举例来说，在我投资组合中的一家公司，幕后创始人最初负责行政、财务、运营、产品和工程。基本上是除了销售和市场推广之外的一切工作。但后来，这家公司聘请一名运营副总裁。接着，又聘请了一名财务副总裁。最后，聘请了一名工程副总裁。突然之间，在将这些职责一一成功转交给外部高管后，幕后创始人随后就失业了。

    公司董事会和投资者高度关注如何让CEO创始人成功——围绕他打造高管团队，甚至聘用COO/总裁弥补其技能的不足，帮助公司扩大规模。或者，以谷歌(Google）为例，它聘请了埃里克•施密特，一位可以指引公司成长和规模化的外部CEO。在这种情况下，每个人都关注这个变化对创始人的影响——他将承担何种职权，如何处理这一转变。董事会很少特别关注幕后创始人的职权、发展与成长。

    我认为，忽视幕后创始人是一种短视的行为。通常，他们高度忠诚于公司以及CEO创始人、有价值的董事会、公司的企业文化和使命的成功。

    通常情况下，我认为幕后创始人在初创企业中的角色演变中有下列几种方式或类型：

1.成为职能部门负责人。幕后创始人在创立伊始可能是“杂务副总裁”，但要明确日后预计负责的职能领域。这样，他可以着重发展这个领域的技能，同时在恰当的时机开始切入这个角色。产品管理是常见的职能领域，因为幕后创始人通常更贴近客户和解决业务问题。而且，这个职位不涉及管理数十乃至数百员工，后者往往更适合经验丰富的职能型运营管理者。另一个职能领域是业务开发，原因类似，因为它涉及让公司获得合作生态体系的接纳，需要有产品知识和市场营销技能。

    I've been thinking a lot lately about the unsung hero of many startups: The other founder. A lot has been written about the founder/CEO and his growth and evolution as a company grows. But little is written about the (nearly omnipresent in my experience) co-founder -- the No. 2, behind-the-scenes partner who teams with the founder/CEO from the very beginning to build the company.

    I've probably been thinking about this topic a lot lately because I've been meeting with the other founder at a few of my portfolio companies. The conversations we've been having have a consistent set of themes. The other founder usually begins with a particular range of responsibilities that complement the founder. He may run a function, such as product or engineering, or they have a broader operational role and carry a COO title. Typically, a five-person company doesn't need a COO, but it's a useful catch-all title for the other founder because it sounds better than "vice president of miscellaneous" or "SVP of whatever falls through the cracks," -- which are more accurate descriptions of their role.

    The challenge for the other founder is that as a startup evolves from "the jungle" (super-early stages, chaotic organization, prior to achieving product-market fit) to the "dirt road" (developing some organizational maturity and initial product-market fit), senior functional executives often get hired from the outside to take over departments. These executives naturally encroach on the other founder's responsibilities.

    For example, at one of my portfolio companies, the other founder looked after administration, finance, operations, product, and engineering. Basically, everything but sales and marketing. But then the company hired a VP of operations. And then a VP of finance. And finally a VP of engineering. And suddenly, after transitioning each function successfully to an outside senior executive one at a time, the other founder had successively worked himself out of a job.

    The board and investors are super-focused on making the founder/CEO successful -- building an executive team around him, perhaps even a COO/president to complement his skill-set and help the company scale. Or, as in the case of Google's (GOOG) hiring of Eric Schmidt, an outside CEO who can guide growth and scale. In these situations, everyone is focused on the impact on the founder -- what his role will be, how he handles the transition. Very little board attention is typically focused on the role, evolution, and growth of the other founder.

    I would submit that ignoring the other founder is short-sighted. Typically they are intensely loyal to the company and the founder/CEO, valuable sounding boards, and champions of the company culture and mission.

    Here are a few approaches or archetypes that I typically see as the role of the other founder evolves over the life of a startup:

1. Become a functional owner. The other founder may be "VP of miscellaneous" in the beginning days, but be explicit about which functional area he should expect to own over time. That way, he can develop the skills in that area in a focused fashion and slot in appropriately when the time is right. Product management is a popular functional area, as the other founder is typically close to the customer and business problem being solved. Further, the role doesn't involve managing tens or hundreds of employees, a skill that is typically better suited for experienced functional operators. Another one is business development for similar reasons, and because it involves selling the company into an ecosystem of partnerships, requiring a blend of product knowledge and marketing skills.