How to Unlock Value in Founder-Investor Partnerships
Take these steps to move from trepidation to trust. by Samantha Hellauer, Sanja Kos, Julie Vermoote and BJ Wright
Summary.
Founder-led companies hold immense potential for growth in private equity–backed environments. The psychological DNA of many founder-leaders—characterized by self-reliance, creativity, and deep emotional investment in their businesses—sets them apart from traditional CEOs, whose acquired expertise and pattern-recognition skills are more suited to incremental growth. Given the attractive upside, private equity firms are increasingly doing deals involving founder-led companies: The proportion of such transactions jumped from 54% in 2020 to 62% in 2023, according to PitchBook, with the dollar value of founder-involved deals increasing from 31% to 44%.