What makes the founders of the most successful companies leave their leadership?
There comes a point in the life of any successful entrepreneur when they have to hand over control to someone else. Currently, there are many examples that we can talk about, however, these companies are the ones that have surprised. Why do these founders of technology companies leave control of their creations in other hands?
Despite the ups and downs in the industry, creators are no longer even involved with what is happening in their companies, in fact they are not CEOs anymore. These founders of the most recognized technology companies who are no longer the CEOs of their “babies”.
Founders of technology companies who left their leadership
We present to you 6 cases of founders of technology companies who left their position as CEOs after growing their company.
1.Amazon
We can’t talk about Amazon without mentioning Jeff Bezos. He is one of the most influential people in the technology industry, being the founder of Amazon. In addition, this character continues to appear on the list of millionaires, only the position in which he finds himself changes.
Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1995 and in just one year of operations, it already had one million users. So, for 1998 the income went from 15.7 million dollars to 610 million dollars. A quantum leap. Therefore, in 1999, the magazine Time He named him “Person of the Year.”
However, Bezos did not settle for Amazon and in 2013 he acquired the newspaper The Washington Post. By 2016, he sold more than a million shares of his company, which was equivalent to 756.7 billion dollars. Later, he invested that money in the space company blue origin.
On the other hand, Jeff Bezos is known for supporting various philanthropic causes, and through his “Bezos Earth Fund” foundation, he helps fight climate change. In addition, he promised to give away most of his fortune while he was alive.
However, according to AFP, his wealth is still due to the value of Amazon shares. Consequently, in 2022 Bezos lost more than 86,000 million dollars, as the shares fell by 49 percent.
The founder stepped down as CEO of Amazon on July 5, 2022, leaving the position to Andy Jassy.
2.Google
Google was born from a university school project. The founders of the tech giant are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had an idea based on organizing and distributing a large amount of information on the web, that is, the internet search engine. This first version was released in 1996 and was owned by Stanford called BackRub.
But, in 1998 they registered the domain of Google com and open their first offices. In 1999 they obtained an investment of 25 million dollars and opened the current headquarters of Googleplex. Therefore, already in 2001, Google appears available in 26 languages.
Then, we already know the story: Google turned into a monster. However, after 21 years in which Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked together, in December 2019 they left their positions as CEO of the company.
Both issued a letter upon resignation, which read “Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and one president.” Instead they left sundar pichaiwho is the head of the company since then.
In addition, they commented in the letter that both remain committed to the companies for the long term and that they will continue as members of the board, as the largest individual shareholders and co-founders.
Although Google has had its rough times, the founders are still some of the richest people in the world.
3.Instagram
2010 was the year that Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger They founded the most popular photo-sharing app: Instagram.
Before Instagram, Systrom was working on another app called burnbn, which worked similar to the final version: to share photos and locations. Then he met Krieger and the rest is history.
Officially, Instagram was launched to the public on October 6, 2010 and to this day it is quite a success. Fun fact, the first celebrity to join was Snoop Dog and he was almost in charge of making the app go viral. As? The rapper posted the same photo on Instagram and Twitter, where he had 2.5 million followers.
In eight years at the helm of the company, Instagram went through different changes, from the arrival of the stories, the competition with Snapchat and the failed attempt at Instagram TV.
In 2018 Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger sold and left the company to Facebook, now Meta, for $1 billion in cash plus shares to Mark Zuckerberg.
4.Microsoft
It is one of the most recognized technology companies for almost 50 years. It was the year of 1975 when Paul Allen and Bill Gates, two young people with a passion for technology, come together to believe that personal computing can be the future. On April 4 of that year, the two young people created a small company called Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The vision was to change the way we worked and have a computer in every desk and home. Therefore, through the years, they achieved very important milestones in the company. For example, in 1978 they established their first sales office abroad, Japan, plus a year later, they moved from Albuquerque to Washington. But, in 1985, Microsoft launches Windows 1.0 on the market.
However, the most important event in the company and world history was the launch in 1995 of the first version of internet explorer.
After 25 years at the helm of Microsoft, in January 2000, Bill Gates appoints Steve Ballmer president and CEO of the company. That was the moment in which the founder gradually distanced himself from the organization. However, Ballmer would not remain in charge forever, in 2014 he was appointed to Satya Nadella new CEO.
Gates has been named one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by the magazine Time.
Currently, Bill Gates is dedicated to philanthropy through the foundation that I think with his ex-wife Melinda Gates. Furthermore, he has said that he plans to donate all of his fortune to the foundation and stop being among the richest people in the world. On the other hand, Paul Allen passed away in 2018 from cancer.
5.TikTok
The popular content app was created by bytedancecompany founded by Zhang Yiming. His vision was to drive relevant content for each user using recommendations generated by artificial intelligence.
So, in September 2016, ByteDance launched the short video sharing app: douyin. But, just three months after coming to light, it reached 100 million users in China. However, in 2017, with a name change, it is shown to the world as TikTok. This application has been one of the newest and most successful globally speaking.
Although the history of TikTok is not very extensive, given the short time it has been on the market, it can be noted that in the same year, the parent company ByteDance bought musical.ly For one thousand million of dollars. Both merge in August 2018.
In less than two years, in record time, driven by the pandemic, TikTok surpassed two billion downloads on iOS and Android. Currently it is still one of the favorite apps of millennials and centennials.
But in May 2021, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance, leaving in his place Shou Zi Chew.
6. Twitter
In March 2006, it was when Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams They created Twitter. Dorsey was appointed as CEO because the idea for the app was born from him. As a curious fact, he was the one who made the first tweet with a message that said “Just setting my twtrr” (“Adjusting my twrr” in Spanish).
Regarding the origin of the name of the app, it refers to the sound of a bird which is also its distinctive symbol. Also, the name means “a brief burst of inconsequential information, bird chirps.”
In addition to Twitter, Dorsey founded in 2009 blocksa financial services company with clients such as Square, Cash App and Tidal.
Just two years later, in 2008, Jack moved from being CEO to serving as Chairman of Twitter’s board of directors. So, since then he has been back and forth between both positions.
By 2009, the platform had a remarkable expansion from 5 to 71 million users in just one year.
However, on November 29, 2021, Dorsey announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter and handed over the position to Parag Agrawalto dedicate himself solely to Block.
With almost 20 years of this social network on our cell phones, currently Elon Musk is the CEO of the company, after a lot of drama, a trial, mass resignations, the firing of top executives and even problems with rent. The purchase was for 44 billion dollars and his future is a bit uncertain.
They devised, created, grew and were the founders of the most important companies today, but they did not stay in command. Is that the recipe for success?
Mariel Otero Journalist passionate about fashion, the world of beauty and the source of lifestyle. Lover of stories worth telling, series, movies and sagas. Cheesy and closet geek.