Damjana Nurković (Cambridge Innovation Ecosystem) — 'Only around 20% of venture-backed founders are still CEO three years after their IPO'

Damjana Nurković CIIC, ACIM — Strategic Marketing & Business Development in the Cambridge Innovation Ecosystem — recaps Eric's Mishcon de Reya Cambridge conversation, seizing on the Harvard Law School finding Eric cites: only ~20% of venture-backed founders are still CEO three years after their IPO. Frames Novo Nordisk as the counter-example of a company designed to resist financial gravity.

“One statistic from the book has stuck with me: Harvard Law School research he cites found that only around 20% of venture-backed founders are still #CEO three years after their #IPO. The very success they created pushes them out — and often pushes the mission out with them. He calls the force behind it financial gravity: the quiet, constant pressure on every successful company to prioritise short-term gain over the purpose it was built for. And unless something in the company's design actively resists it, it always wins.” — Damjana Nurković on LinkedIn