Succession questions every founder should answer early

Continuity is designed long before it is needed.

Succession is usually treated as an event: a retirement, a sale, an unexpected absence. In practice it is a design problem, and the best time to solve it is while the people who built the business are still fully at the helm.

A sound succession design answers who decides, who operates and who owns, and it answers each separately. Those three roles often sit with one founder. Separating them on paper, years before they separate in life, is what allows a company to change hands without losing its course.

Questions worth answering now

• If you stepped away for six months, who would make which decisions?
• Which relationships, credentials and knowledge live only with you today?
• What should never change about the business, and who is charged with protecting it?

Within our portfolio, governance and succession are reviewed on a regular cycle rather than at moments of pressure. The aim is simple: whatever we hold should be able to outlast any single person, including us.

This article is general perspective from Deep Current Holdings and is not legal, tax or investment advice.