Founder led companies outperform the rest

Five charts to start your day

Good morning – here are your five chart for the day.

Running a business is a real challenge, especially if it is the first business you have ever run. However, if it is your own business then you have a vested emotional and commercial interest in making it succeed. I've been in this situation myself and I have to say that I've never been more determined or productive in my life. When the stakes are high for yourself personally, you will do anything to overcome them. You will move mountains. You will perform miracles of personal endurance. You will live life to the fullest.

That's what this first chart today is about and if you are an entrepreneur you will relate to the story being told. Just take a look.

CHART 1 • Founder led companies outperform the rest

The numbers are staggering. Founder-led companies in the S&P 500 are generating 3.1 times better returns than their professionally managed peers. But here's what really caught my eye… it's not just about performance.

These companies are innovation machines, producing 31% more patents, and those patents are significantly more valuable. Fortune's latest count shows just 24 founder-CEOs remain in the Fortune 500, a mere 4.8% of the index. Yet this tiny cohort commands outsized influence, generating $862.9 billion in revenue last year. The average market cap of a founder-led company now sits at $316.6 billion, dwarfing the $92.1 billion average for non-founder firms.

Think Jensen Huang at Nvidia, who transformed a gaming graphics company into an AI powerhouse worth over $130 billion in revenue. Or Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, pulling in $164.5 billion. These aren't just CEOs – they're founders with skin in the game, making multi-year bets that professional managers would never dare attempt.

Source: Investing Visuals

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