Why You Don’t Have To Worry About Owning Less Than 50% Of Your Startup

“I have a dilemma,” “Oscar”, the CEO of a startup that I’m working with said to me Friday.

“Right now, my percentage ownership is around 70% of the company. I’d like to take some money off the table, so my family is financially set.

“The problem is that I will likely drop below 50% ownership if I sell right now. Then, I’ll lose control of the company.”

I smiled.

“Why are you smiling?” Oscar asked me.

“I’m smiling because you’re in a great place. Let me get this straight. You want to sell some stock now, so you’ll never have to worry about money again.

“But the problem is that you’re worried that you could be booted out as CEO. Do I have this right?”

“Yeah. That’s exactly my problem. I’m really torn about what to do.”

You don’t have to worry about losing control if you sell shares of your company.

The reality is you never really had control of your company. I know, you had the majority ownership, and you’d win any vote to keep yourself CEO.

However, that’s a false belief because your belief that you had control was only in your mind. The reality…