One of the main draws of entrepreneurship is that you get to be your own boss. But in reality, especially if your company is successful, you rarely work for yourself. Your boss becomes your board members, shareholders and investors and that means you may at one point be fired from the company you created.
However, various circumstances sometimes lead to the founder CEO being rehired once more. We took a look at five examples.
(1) Steve Jobs Apple
Under Jobs’ leadership, Apple rose to prominence in the late 1970s, producing the first widely popular PC. However, many suggested that Jobs wasill-suited to run a large business and he ended up being ousted from Apple in a 1985 power struggle with John Sculley a former Pepsico marketer Jobs hired to manage Apple.
Of course, Sculley himself was forced out ofApple in 1993 over a dispute about licensing Macintosh’s software to other PC makers. The board was in favour of letting computer makers use Apple’s software, but Sculley was opposed. After Sculley was fired, Apple licensed its software which turned out to be a mistake. The company was posting losses while, in the meantime, Jobs had gone on to create computer company NeXT.
Apple finally rehired Jobs in 1997 when it realised NeXT’s operating system had all the features it needed to compete once more the two companies struck a deal to integrate and Jobs ended up taking the helm once more.
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(2) Sean Rad Tinder
In 2014 Rad found himself being let go due toA very public sexual harassment claim from co-founder and former VP of marketing Whitney Wolfe. Shefiled a lawsuit against Tinder, alleging that former lover CMO Justin Mateen had removed her title as co-founder because of her gender and that he had publicly called her a slut and a whore.
Rad, who was said to have ignored Wolfe’s complaints, was also named in the suit for telling Wolfe that she would accept the decision or be fired. Chris Payne, a former executive at eBay and Microsoft, stepped in to take over Tinder, butAfteronly five months of losing his old position, Rad returned as CEO of Tinder.
According to Matt Cohler, a board member at Tinder: It was only for a few months but it quickly became clear that Payne wasnt going to become a long-term fit. Everyone came to this realisation and all agreed it wouldnt work out. Given that, we thought we might as well take action on this sooner than later and reinstate Rad.
(3) Mark Pincus Zynga
Less than two years after taking over the job as CEO of Zynga, Don Mattrick’s tenure came to an abrupt end when he was replacedby the familiar face of the company’s co-founder, and former CEO, Mark Pincus. It was suggested thatPincus’ reign was controversial, which is why he quickly found himself no longer carrying the title of CEO.
For example, whenthe company began preparing for its IPO in 2010 he decided that too many shares had been given out. Hedemanded that those employees give back their share, or they would be fired.
While Pincus was removed as CEO though, he kept his chairman title. But when Mattrick didn’t successfully increase the profitability of the firm, the company looked to its previous CEO once more for a solution. In a statement at the time, Pincus said:?”Now that we are a mobile first company, it’s time to renew our focus on our founding mission to connect the world through games and our vision to make play and social games a mass market activity. I am returning to the company to accelerate innovation and strengthen our focus on our core areas.”
Read on to find out more about the founders of Twitter and Etsy.
(4) Jack Dorsey
When Twitter was set up, Dorsey was named its CEO. However, many claimed the company wasn’t stable under his care. In Nick Bilton’s book “Hatching Twitter,” it was suggested that Dorsey mademathematical errors while keeping track of expenses and was highly ambitious in the fact that he wanted to be a fashion designer, took night classes and did art. Co-founder Evan Williams eventually sat down with Dorsey and said: “You can either be a dressmaker or the CEO of Twitter. But you can’t be both.”
Bilton claimed that Dorsey’s management of Twitter became so problematic that he was fired. The Twitter board’s change of heart came when CEO Dick Costolo stepped down in 2015, and Dorsey became interim CEO as the board searched for a replacement. However, board member Peter Currie explained that as interim CEO, Dorsey “was not just meeting but surpassing expectations.”?
Dorsey is “without a doubt one of the most successful entrepreneurs in tech today” who has “built two great companies from the ground up,” Currie added. As such, the company decided to stick with Dorsey as its CEO.
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(5) Rob Kalin
The young founder of Etsydemoted himself from CEO to CCO in 2008 after tensions mounted over his lack of management skills. But in 2009, as Etsy pursued growth even if it meant loosing a few customers, Kalin persuaded the board to reappoint him as CEO.
It didn’t take them long to change their minds, however, and Kalin soon found himself relinquishing the title again. While Kalin was considered a visionary who co-founded and helped create a profitable company, analysts claimed the switch was a clear sign that Kalin was deemed not to be the best person to lead the company as it started to encounter growing pains.
Replacing him was CTO Chad Dickerson, who wrote that his focus would be the Etsy network: Im going to prioritise the needs of the Etsy community in the broadest sense Etsys sellers, how we work with each other within the company, our local communities, and everyone whose lives we touch.
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