Global research institute with the mission of enhancing economic growth and advancing inclusive prosperity
All in Founder Centrism
The most controversial component of our investment strategy is our preference for founding CEOs.
The macro reason – that’s the way most of the great technology companies have been built.
We’ve always been a founder-led company, and that’s allowed us to focus and have a long-term view.
We would not want to see a big foreign company come in and take this asset from the Canadian tech ecosystem.
Nearly a quarter of the global market capitalization of dual-class stocks is in the high-growth tech sector.
And even though only one in five initial public offerings in 2017 were dual-class they outperformed all IPOs by about 500 basis points
There are many opinions on the merits of founders continuing to run their businesses into public ownership. Surprisingly, there has been limited analysis to underpin those opinions. We set out to bring some evidence to the subject.
When the inherent advantages of concentrated equity ownership converge with robust business fundamentals, competitive agility amplifies, productive output surges, and exponential value accrues.
Most of the great tech firms — Oracle, Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and so many others — had founder CEOs, often for a long time.
Ottawa-tech darling Shopify Inc. has filed papers for a $100-million IPO in Toronto and New York in which the public will be offered Class A shares that come with one vote per share, while company founders and insiders will receive Class B shares, which come with 10 votes a share.
In rejecting these established theories in favour of an organizing ‘principle of fair treatment’, Canadian corporate law reflects elements of Warren Buffett’s novel approach to corporate governance.