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Key Takeaways A business isn’t truly scalable until it can operate without its founder present.
Succession planning is about systems and access, not trust, loyalty or family ties.
I can usually tell when a founder has never thought about succession. It’s when they can explain their pricing model, their hiring plan, and their next product sprint. But they take time to answer this question: If you could not show up tomorrow, who could step in and keep your company running?
In recent years, the trend that has surprised me most is not who founders pick as successors, but rather that so many have no plan at all. This is especially common among young founders or those with no partners. That tells me something about how modern entrepreneurs think about legacy and control. They still picture control as a person, not a structure.
As long as they are alive and reachable, they assume the business is safe.
That assumption is a huge risk.
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