????任何一家初創公司的CEO都會面臨一種進退兩難的狀況：他帶領公司成功之日，可能便是自己被炒之時。傳統觀點認為，只要公司開始增長，創始人便應該讓位給公司運營經驗更豐富的職業經理人。

????從統計學上來說，這種觀點確實很有道理。哈佛商學院（Harvard Business School）的諾姆?沃瑟曼花了十年時間，研究創始人對一家公司的影響。他先后研究了460家美國初創企業，結果發現，創始人兼CEO繼續擔任決策者的公司，市值通常都低于外聘CEO進行管理的公司。簡單來說，發明一款新產品或新服務所需要的能力與管理一家公司所需要的能力截然不同，而兩者兼備的人可謂鳳毛麟角。

????不過，這只是普遍的規律。如果投資者要尋找那些可能大獲成功的人，明智的做法就是將賭注押在創始人身上。縱觀歷史，最成功公司的領導者都是激情飽滿的創始人。《財富》雜志（Fortune）每年評選出的“年度商業人物”（Businessperson of the Year）——比如亞馬遜公司（Amazon）的杰夫?貝佐斯和網飛公司（Netflix）的里德?黑斯廷斯等——都是公司創始人，大多數提名者也同樣如此。許多公司創始人在業內都已成為標志性人物，比如沃爾瑪公司（Wal-Mart）的山姆?沃爾頓、哈普傳播公司（Harpo Productions）的奧普拉?溫弗瑞、耐克公司（Nike）的菲里?奈特，當然最著名的還要數蘋果公司（Apple）脾氣乖戾的超級天才史蒂夫?喬布斯。雖然并非所有創始人都能像喬布斯一樣成功，但凡是成功水平能與蘋果公司媲美的公司，幾乎都由創始人負責經營。

????部分初創公司投資人也注意到了這一點。從數碼天空科技公司（Digital Sky Technologies）的尤里?米爾納到安德森?霍洛維茨，許多投資者的投資策略，按照米爾納的說法便是“力挺創始人”。創業者基金（Founders Fund）在100多家公司投資約10億美元，卻從未解聘過一名創始人。彼得?泰爾任該基金聯合創始人。類似保羅?格雷厄姆Y Combinator等創業孵化器在接受新初創企業時，不僅會考量初創企業經營理念的質量，還會評判公司團隊的能力與激情。當然，對于其中有些具備良好經營狀況的公司來說，如果投資者承諾支持公司創始人，交易達成的可能性會更高。不過，正如雷德?霍夫曼近期在關于這個話題的一篇文章中所寫：“（科技投資者）最近流行的一種觀點是，最優秀的創業者在公司整個增長周期內均可勝任CEO。”深諳初創企業的雷德?霍夫曼自己也是公司的創始人。

????為什么要將寶押在創始人身上？因為他們能創造出新鮮事物。例如，行業先驅者湯尼?法德爾重新思考了控制室內溫度的方法，設計出一款與iPod外觀類似的恒溫器Nest。安亞?弗納爾德對于培育和提供健康食品的供應鏈進行反思，通過食品公司Belcampo為我們批量提供草料喂養的肉類。凡是支持創始人的投資者都認為，雖然有時候，你需要指導一位夢想家如何成為一名強勢的公司經營者，但要想將一位商人培養成一名夢想者卻幾乎沒有任何可能。

????而且，創業者對自己的產品也有道德上的權威。耶魯大學管理學院（Yale School of Management）教授杰弗里?索南菲爾德說：“創始人擁有足夠的信譽對公司進行徹底改造，而不會失去舊文化擁護者的支持與信任。”一家富有創新精神的公司必須經常做出重大決策。有時候，公司必須行動迅速，及時測試新業務，即便這樣做會使公司的主營業務受損。而創始人往往是執行這些大膽舉措的最佳人選，因為對于更遠大的公司愿景，他們比其他人更清楚。以網飛公司為例。里德?黑斯廷斯創建網飛之后，公司推出用紅色信封向用戶郵寄DVD的業務，擠垮了百視達公司（Blockbuster）。之后在2007年，黑斯廷斯又推出了流媒體服務，最終顛覆了公司的核心業務。雖然目前網飛前途未卜，但正是在匆忙之中做出的決定性的、富有前瞻性的舉措，才使網飛在一次巨大的技術變革中生存下來。

????或許最重要的原因在于，創始人兼任CEO能從長遠出發考慮公司的發展。雖然CEO的平均任期通常只有八年時間，但創始人兼CEO往往將公司作為自己終生的事業，希望用新的產品或服務改變整個世界，打造屬于自己的傳奇。正如另外一位行業先驅者本?霍洛維茨在一篇關于公司創始人的開創性論文中寫道：“他們在感情上的投入超過了他們持有的股份。”比如，杰夫?貝佐斯在1994年創建的在線書店亞馬遜（Amazon）。雖然公司于1997年上市，但貝佐斯一直堅持一種不同尋常的商業模式，這種模式要在四五年時間內才會逐漸展現出來。分析師和投資者對此怨聲載道。然而，互聯網泡沫破裂后，亞馬遜反而開始盈利。之后貝佐斯一直擔任公司的領導者，帶領著亞馬遜尋找更多機遇。

????雖然《財富》雜志先鋒人物的職業起步不久，他們的公司才只有不到五年的時間，但他們都承諾要保持對公司的長期領導，因此，許多創始人，如大眾融資平臺Kickstarter的CEO佩里?陳或房屋對租服務公司Airbnb的CEO布萊恩?切斯基，均發誓絕不出售公司。

????大多數創始人兼CEO之所以失敗，是因為大多數初創企業未能成功。即便成功者也會發現成功稍縱即逝：許多杰出的創始人都錯失良機，眼睜睜看著公司走下坡路，比如黑莓（BlackBerry）創始人邁克爾?拉扎里迪斯和雅虎（Yahoo）創始人楊致遠等。亨利?福特和亞詩?蘭黛這些卓絕的人物不僅能看透世界的現狀，更能預見世界的未來，而且能創建一家公司引領人類朝著他們預見的未來發展。當然，能達到那樣高度的人少之又少。在21世紀，當歷史召喚他們出現的時候，他們必將成就新的創業傳奇。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????The paradox faced by the CEO of any startup is that if he makes the business succeed, he will probably be fired. Conventional wisdom holds that once a business begins to grow, a founder ought to be replaced by a professional manager -- someone who has had experience building a company.

????Statistically speaking, this makes sense. Harvard Business School professor Noam Wasserman has spent the past decade studying the impact a founder has on a company. In a study of 460 American startups, he found that on average those in which founding CEOs remained the top decision-makers were less valuable than those managed by outside CEOs. Simply put, the skills needed to invent a new product or service are different from those needed to manage a business, and few people possess both.

????But that's the rule on average. If you're looking for people to hit it big, you'd be smart to bet on founders. Throughout history, the most successful companies have been led by their passionate creators. Nearly every person Fortune has ever named Businessperson of the Year -- people like Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Netflix's Reed Hastings -- has been a founder, and so have most of the nominees. Industry's most iconic business figures include founders like Wal-Mart's (WMT) Sam Walton, Harpo Productions' Oprah Winfrey, Nike's (NKE) Phil Knight, and perhaps most famously, Apple's cantankerous genius, Steve Jobs. While not every founder will be as efficacious as Jobs, nearly every company that has come close to Apple-like levels of success is run by a founder.

????Some startup investors have taken note of this. Investors from Digital Sky Technologies' Yuri Milner to Andreessen Horowitz have built their investment strategies on "sticking with the founders," as Milner has said. The Founders Fund, which includes Peter Thiel as co-founder, has invested $1 billion in more than 100 companies without ever firing a founder. Incubators like Paul Graham's Y Combinator accept new startups based not just on the quality of their ideas, but also on the skills and enthusiasm of the teams that pitch them. Sure, some of it is good marketing: An investor is more likely to get in on a deal if he promises to support the company's founder. But, as startup whisperer Reid Hoffman -- a founder himself -- wrote in a recent essay on the topic, "The new received wisdom [among tech investors] is that the best entrepreneurs can stay CEO through the entire growth cycle of the company."

????Why bet on founders? They dream up new things. Trailblazer Tony Fadell rethought the method for controlling home temperatures with Nest, a thermostat that looks more like an iPod. Anya Fernald rethought the supply chain for cultivating and delivering healthy food, bringing us grass-fed meat at scale at Belcampo. Those who back founders will argue that while you can sometimes teach a dreamer to be a strong business operator, you can rarely teach a businessman to dream.

????These entrepreneurs also have a moral authority over their products. "Founders have the credibility to reinvent their business without losing the support and trust of the old-culture loyalists," says Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. An innovative company must make decisive bets. At times, it must act quickly to pilot a new business, even if it cuts into the main business. Founders are often best positioned to make these bold moves because they understand the larger vision for the company better than anyone else. For example, when Reed Hastings founded Netflix (NFLX), the company put Blockbuster out of business by delivering its red-enveloped DVDs by mail. Then, in 2007, Hastings began a streaming service that eventually disrupted his core business. Though the fate of Netflix in today's market remains unclear, this hasty and decisive forward-thinking move positioned Netflix to weather a massive technology shift.

????Perhaps most important, founding CEOs take the long view. While CEOs hold their job on average for just eight years, founding CEOs often aim to run their companies for life and to build a legacy for themselves while changing the world with a new product or service. As Ben Horowitz, another trailblazer, writes in his seminal essay on founders, "Their emotional commitment exceeds their equity stake." Consider the online bookstore that Jeff Bezos started in 1994, Amazon (AMZN). Though the company went public in 1997, Bezos followed an unusual business model that unfolded slowly over the course of four or five years. Analysts and investors complained. But even as the dotcom bubble burst, Amazon became profitable, and Bezos has continued to pilot the company into ever-expanding opportunities.

????Although Fortune's Trailblazers are early in their careers -- their companies are all less than five years old -- they possess a commitment to long-term leadership that cause many, like Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen or Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, to vow never to sell the company.

????Most founding CEOs will fail, simply because most startup ventures fail. Those who do find success may discover that it is fleeting: Many brilliant founders will, like BlackBerry's (BBRY) Michael Lazaridis or Yahoo's (YHOO) Jerry Yang, miss a turn in the market and see their business decline. But there will be a few Henry Fords and Estée Lauders, men and women who see the world not for what it is but for what it can become, and build a company to move us all in that direction. When the future historians of the 21st century call these folks out, it's a good bet they will be founders.