Passing the Baton: A Start-up CEO Transition Done Right: My Thoughts as Chief People Officer at Stash

The CEO transition is an enormous milestone and opportunity for a company of any size: It can be a catalyst for growth, a moment to supercharge employee engagement, and an immediate way to bring in fresh thinking and propel an organization into a new era. When done right, a CEO transition unlocks the next level of an organization's potential.

I’ve been in this business for nearly three decades, and what we’ve just achieved at Stash has been the most seamless CEO transition I’ve ever seen, both because of the people involved and because of the forward focus of Stash’s top leadership. Here are a few key learnings that I’d like to share.?

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Early in 2022, I fell head-over-heels for Stash, a fintech company with a mission to help everyday Americans invest and save, which deeply aligns with what I stand for. The whole team exuded authenticity. When I spoke with founder and CEO Brandon Krieg, our hour-long meetings went far beyond the allotted time. Our partnership formed in those hours, and I agreed to leave my role as Chief People Officer at Zoom to become Brandon’s People partner, with the goal of leading Stash through its next stage of massive growth.?

Imagine my shock when a few weeks after I joined, Brandon expressed to me a version of Marshall Goldsmith’s “What Got Us Here Won’t Get Us There.” He had decided that a new CEO was needed to guide Stash into the future.?

My first reaction was sadness – I was mourning the loss of our already powerhouse partnership. Yet, after a good night’s sleep, I realized that this is exactly what I had wished for in some of my prior roles: a founder who had strong self-awareness and the insight to know the right time for new energy and perspective in order to achieve massive scale and realize the company’s full potential. I understood – this is what great leadership looks like.?

Brandon reinforced my confidence in him by telling me, “We won’t pick anyone you don’t endorse—we are doing this together.” We locked arms at that moment, committed to the essential partnership that is at the core of every great company – the CEO and their Chief People Leader.??

Founder-Led Succession Planning Versus Board-led CEO Transition

Why is it so much better when it’s the CEO’s idea?

“There is a lot of talk about the importance of a company being founder-led. Ultimately I believe that’s severely limited and a single point of failure… I believe it’s critical that a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.” – Jack Dorsey, founder, and former CEO of Twitter

In my experience, the company founder should be the one spearheading the effort to appoint a new leader. Apple learned this the hard way – the first time, the board pushed Steve Jobs out and things did not go well; the second time, he personally hired and helped groom his replacement, Tim Cook.?

Unfortunately, founders often look at their companies as symbols of their own success, even as an extension of their own personality. Letting go of the reins can feel like a type of death – something to be avoided at all costs. Anyone broaching the topic of succession, whether a chief people officer, an investor or a board member, can thus be wrongly interpreted as hostile or even an enemy. Even though succession planning should be a natural conversation for the longevity of any business, it is avoided for fear of being perceived as desirous of the CEO’s departure.? On the other hand, when the CEO arrives at this conclusion themselves, it puts others in a position to support the decision and partner with them to take the next steps.?

In Stash’s case, once Brandon made the decision, he brought in others, including board members, C-suite leaders like myself and our CFO, as well as his co-founder, to kick off the process of selecting a successor. Fortunately, we didn’t have to constantly revisit the decision, as I’ve seen in other situations; rather, we just moved into action mode. And after a few months, we were able to attract a top-notch CEO, Liza Landsman, who joined Stash yesterday https://lp.stash.com/news/introducing-liza-landsman-as-stash-ceo/. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her. We are very lucky to have such a visionary leader to help us take the next step in our company’s trajectory.

And stay tuned for my next article when I’ll talk about how we structured the search process and what we’re doing to make sure this all-important transition is a huge success.