Why Shark Tank judge Anupam Mittal thinks CEOs stepping down from their own startups is not a failure

Anupam Mittal, an entrepreneur and popular Shark Tank judge, defended the departure of founders and senior executives, saying it was a sign of ‘maturity’ and that it was ‘not a failure’.

Mittal, in a LinkedIn post, noted that the long-standing idea that a founder must also remain the CEO is no longer valid and many Indian founders have followed this belief for years.

Mittal’s remarks came shortly after Deepinder Goyal stepped down as Managing Director and CEO of Eternal, the parent company of food delivery platform Zomato and flash commerce firm Blinkit.

Founder and CEO of People Group said that startups today are growing faster than founders can grow as executives. He added that systems operating with a team of 10 people often fail at 100, while systems operating with 100 employees may fail at 1,000.

“Most founders are great from 0 to 1 and 1 to 10. But beyond a certain growth curve, companies need different skills,” he said.

Mittal also noted that it is common in global markets for founders to step aside and allow professional CEOs to take over. He said such a practice is ‘encouraged’ because the company benefits from it, it preserves the founder’s upside and in many cases shareholders are better off.

“In India, we dramatize this as ‘getting fired’, ‘failure’ or even ‘scam’. Most of the time it is none of these,” he said, adding that making oneself replaceable should be one of the key goals of every founder.

Mittal also noted that founders’ stand-alone approach has helped companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft become enduring industry leaders. He also emphasized that this often reflects the founder’s choice to prioritize what is best for the company.

Earlier this week, Deepinder Goyal quit his job to pursue new ideas that he had been interested in for a long time.

Explaining why he resigned as CEO, Deepinder Goyal, in his letter to shareholders, stated that he had recently felt attracted to a number of new ideas that involved risks and experiments and were only possible outside the company.

His resignation also came at a time when there was intense public debate about temporary jobs and working conditions.

Goyal, who has been vocal on social media in recent weeks while defending the business model of Zomato and its subsidiary Blinkit, faced backlash after delivery workers’ unions called for a nationwide strike on December 25 and 31, demanding better wages, social security and safer working conditions.