vital

Title: Strategies for Successful General Partner Succession

Gettyimages 468160559
Nearly 10 years ago, in April 2015, I published a blog called “Confronting the ‘S’ word: Dealing with general partner succession.” As the founder and managing partner of Vintage, I wanted to ensure that Vintage would survive after I retire. Succession management is more critical now than ever before. [The succession process] requires an open and genuine dialogue between the senior retiring and incoming management teams. Implementing the succession process early: A fund management team needs to start the process and implement the mechanisms at least five to seven years before the current leadership team transitions out. It is common for the founding or the current managing partner to start phasing out in their late 50s or early 60s.

The Optimal Time to Employ a CFO

Gettyimages 182894992
But when is the right time to hire a CFO, and is a full-time CFO even necessary in this age of C-level-as-a-service? It is common for founders to think narrowly about accounting when considering whether to hire a CFO. It is common for founders to think narrowly about accounting when considering whether to hire a CFO. Startup coach and CFO Evgeny Popov said that hiring a CFO was a no-brainer, akin to finding a CTO for your tech company. “Unfortunately, hiring a CFO is not an obvious move for founders because most founders come from the product or tech worlds and don’t see the CFO as vital to growth.”