Peter Thiel on the difference between the best founders and “professional CEOs”
In his book Zero To One, which is approaching its 10-year anniversary, Thiel wrote:
“We need founders. If anything, we should be more tolerant of founders who seem strange or extreme. We need unusual individuals to lead companies beyond mere incrementalism.”
And while he doesn’t believe there’s a simple magic formula for what a founder looks like, Thiel observes:
“A lot of the great companies that have been built over the last two decades were founded by people where it was somehow deeply connected to their identity - their life’s project.”
He contrasts this to Silicon Valley in the 1990s when lots of founders were replaced with professional CEOs. Thiel believes it made a big difference when it became more common for founders run the companies.
He gives the example of a 22 year old Mark Zuckerberg turning down a billion dollar acquisition from Yahoo:
“If you had a professional CEO, it would have just been: ‘I can’t believe they’re offering us a billion dollars. I’m going to try not to be too eager. We better take the money and run.’”
Video Source: The Aspen Institute