Early this month, news aggregation startup InShorts cofounder Azhar Iqubal shifted from the role of CEO to chairman as cofounder Deepit Purkayastha donned the chief executive’s hat, while at Mygate, Vijay Arisetty became chairman when cofounder Abhishek Kumar was appointed CEO.
At Third Wave Coffee, founder Sushant Goel transitioned to a board role after former KFC India head Rajat Luthra was roped in as chief executive, effective April 1.
“The journey of starting up and getting the company at a certain scale is very different from taking it to the next level,” said a venture investor with a global firm. “These changes are ultimately healthy in the sense that these startups are reaching a particular level.”
Trend likely to Accelerate
22:58, 20 Apr -“A professional CEO coming in is something that should be celebrated,” said the venture investor. Top-level changes have also been seen at warehouse automation firm GreyOrange, ecommerce firm Dealshare, logistics startup Porter and dairy products brand Epigamia.
Industry executives point to a variety of reasons driving the cleanup at the top but are united in saying the “trend is likely to only accelerate.” In a survey of Indian startup founders by InnoVen Capital earlier this year, 76% said they see a professional CEO running their company, up from 70% last year.
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Ashish Sharma, managing partner of the Temasek-backed InnoVen, said, “Most founders know how to take the company from zero to one. Some founders are able to take it from one to ten…but only a few founders are successful in navigating the ten to hundred journeys, as scaling up requires a different skill set.”
Ecosystem in churn
With funding in the technology and startup world drying up over the last 12-18 months, companies have been under investor pressure to chase profitability, burn less cash and grow sustainably. The top deck reshuffle in several cases has been a result of that, industry insiders said.
“This trend is a clear-cut callout that in the ecosystem, there is heavy stress on the path to profitability and a very serious relook,” said Anshuman Das, cofounder and CEO of staffing firm Longhouse Consulting. In January this year, in what was an investor-led restructuring at the Alpha Wave Global and WestBridge Capital-backed Dealshare, Kamaldeep Singh was elevated to the CEO role.
Cofounders Sourjyendu Medda, Vineet Rao and Sankar Bora quit the company over three months. Several others planning to go public are also bringing in professional executives to lead the charge.
“Studies in the US show only one in four startups going public have the original founder as a CEO,” said the venture investor cited above.