Bad investors and a dysfunctional board can destroy a company. When late-stage investors push to fire the CEO, they often do so to install a puppet CEO who will give them greater control over the board. This allows them to prioritize financial decisions that serve their own interests, often at the expense of other shareholders, such as early employees, whom they disregard.

This in the response made me cringe a little:

> I wanted to continue with what was working and with what our partners had signed on to distribute.

How does he know it was working? He says it so matter of factly.

And that’s what this big-mad comes down to.

You make a fair point. I would have liked him to elaborate more on the potential acquisition that was declined.

However, he mentioned they just raised $60 million. If his approach wasn’t working, why would anyone invest that amount? And if the plan was to fire him, given that his vote was required, wouldn’t it have been more transparent to say upfront: “If you reject the acquisition and opt for this $60 million investment instead, we’re going to fire you”?

How does he know? He was the CEO. I'm guessing that he had access to the company's metrics.

Metrics alone don't tell you if a strategy is working in the long term. It was no doubt a highly informed opinion, but still an opinion.

> every good ship can get a new captain and sail on. If not, the problem isn't the sailors it's the captain (who set the ship before the fall).

You're seriously claiming a bad leader can't destroy a company/organization/project/country?

You're arguing a different point. The old CEO claims it's his absence that caused the failure, not the presence of the new CEO. You're arguing that it's the presence of the new CEO that caused the failure. GP is pointing out that if the absence of the old CEO is what caused the company to fail as the old CEO claims, and not the actions of the new CEO, then it wasn't in good shape to start with.

Ah. That's a bit more sane for sure. Although with some big caveats. A founder can be crucial for a long time, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a tradeoff. You don't want to spend time operationalizing the business before it's stable for example. That's just a waste of time. The board very well could be mistaken on which stage the business is in.

Glad someone got it.

Doesn't make a ton of sense though. A bad captain can steer into the coastline and kill everyone.

> "this is exactly what happened"

In a direct reply to the thread. Well, it is confirming the original thread.

> every good ship can get a new captain and sail on

If the new captain is good. But a bad captian can sink any ship, unless the crew is willing and able to mutinee to prevent it.

Start-ups by nature are not good ships.