Removing the CEO

Let’s not beat around the bush. This is about the Nov 3rd election. Here’s a couple posts on firing that were not written with the election in mind:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;a16z.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;05&#x2F;24&#x2F;on-firing-why-when-how&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;a16z.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;05&#x2F;24&#x2F;on-firing-why-when-how&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;a16z.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;08&#x2F;24&#x2F;preparing-to-fire-an-executive&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;a16z.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;08&#x2F;24&#x2F;preparing-to-fire-an-executive&#x2F;</a>

The article suggests that the VC is in an infallible position and the CEO maybe the one who is failing at his job. A common trope is founders getting fired, stepping aside for some socially acceptable reason, which brings their fantastic journey to an end.<p>Here&#x27;s a fun thought exercise: When is the VC the problem and not the founders? How do you even go about firing a VC? Have you ever read VC&#x27;s &quot;fantastic journey&quot; blog post?

I wonder who this is about

&gt; It is an even harder decision to make when you don’t have an obvious replacement, or when you are not 100% confident that the obvious replacement will be an improvement over the current CEO.<p>When the stakes are high and the cost of keeping current leadership are potentially harmful to a dangerous degree and the only possible replacement isn&#x27;t an obvious choice (as is the case with the obvious allusion to the US presidency) then this is true.<p>In reality, do VCs really go so far as to make the call to replace someone with someone else who has the potential to be equally bad? Isn&#x27;t the risk of two consecutively bad CEOs worse than taking a little longer to find a reasonable replacement?

It would interesting to see some data on CEOs that were fired, at what stage and the eventual outcome for the company. My guess is that firing a founder-CEO before the Series B stage rarely leads to a positive long-term outcome.

Is the timing of this post meaningful? Could it be pointing at someone in particular?

This is like those social media status updates after someone is heart broken.<p>&quot;You give your heart to someone and they break it&quot;<p>we are all now supposed to figure out there has been a falling out of some sort, with some CEO somewhere.<p>who is he? what did he do?

Boards hesitate to remove CEOs but CEOs don&#x27;t hesitate to remove employees. Elite culture requires social niceties and soft treatment while everyone else gets scored, disciplined, and underpaid.