> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://vaughan.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A high-growth startup founder steps out of the CEO role and you wont believe what happens next! - URL: https://vaughan.ai/blog/a-high-growth-startup-founder-steps-out-of-the-ceo-role-and-you-wont-believe-what-happens-next/ - Published: 2016-03-18T20:46:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-07T23:21:05.000Z - Author: Vaughan Fergusson - Tags: Startup, Entrepreneurship, CEO, #medium-import ![](https://vaughan.ai/content/images/2026/11/b73955937be9.png) A few weeks ago [I stepped out of the CEO role](https://vaughan.ai/blog/the-biggest-hiring-decision-i-ve-made-as-the-founder-vend/) at [Vend](http://www.vendhq.com/?ref=vaughan.ai). Alex (CFO & Head of Strategy) and I mixed things up a bit. He jumped into the Acting CEO hat and I stepped out of the CEO role to take on the Founder & Chief Product Officer hat. What happened? Well, it’s been really interesting and a lot of people have been curious as to what happened next. Well we got on with it and the world didn’t end. My biggest fear was organ rejection of such a change by the team mostly but also investors and the board. It was up to Alex and I to make sure it wasn’t weird. Firstly (IMHO) hugely successful. Well so far and I am not sure what the short term metric exactly is to measure success but I think it is this. Other than the first week where we both worked side by side on the last things we had both been tag-teaming on, we have since been steaming ahead with our new hats on and both felt comfort in the fact that the other is fully capable to run with their hat. We trust each other to get what we need to do done and make Vend succeed. We talk daily and check in with a “you cool? I’m all good” otherwise we have shit to do. Secondly both Alex and I are visibly excited and energised by this, and therefore so are the team. Alex gets to flex his organisational leadership muscles. I can’t remember the last time I woke up in the morning and thought about product and had a day mostly uninterrupted day to talk about product. 80% focussed on product and customers and 20% everything else. It’s great and there is an added bonus of actually managing to turn off once I get home to play with the girls. This is that work life balance thing people talk about. Not that I never thought about product a lot but having focus is hugely powerful. Context shifting from one thing to the next is extremely expensive. Never underestimate this. If you are moving between 10 different problems in a day you are probably not being effective on any of them. Next I feel it’s going well because the dynamic of the the exec team is good. I am proud of how incredibly tightly the teams at Vend work. We all talk every single day even though we are spread over 4 or 5 timezones (depending on who’s travelling). We live on Slack so our visibility on what is going on is incredibly high. We all trust each other to tell us what is going on and so this has meant nothing much has changed day to day other than the areas of focus for Alex and myself. We literally stepped into the new roles and then a few days later it was business as usual. We talked through how the change would impact anyone and then got on with it and it was good. It goes to show how investing in a tight knit team pays off. Outside of Vend when I catch up with people interested in the change I’ve been asked countless times now if this means I have a lot of free time on my hands. I wish. It was like some people were really asking if I have actually left or am in the process of leaving the business to which I heartily laugh at them. Once I stop laughing and most of the awkwardness caused by it passes I explain that all it means is instead of trying to cram 300% of the things I had to do into a day, now I just have to cram in 120–150%. And most importantly it’s the stuff I’m passionate about. So no. I am loving what we do at Vend, I haven’t gone anywhere, no sitting on the beach unfortunately. There is just too much for us to do. If you’re a customer or Partner of Vend then keep an eye out for some cool stuff coming your way soon. Our culture at Vend is a no BS one so chances are everything is as it seems 99.9 times out of 100. Lastly the other comment or observation made by many is that they know too many CEO’s who won’t step out of the role when they probably should. Perhaps they feel they need to stay in it for one BS reason or another or ego, or mostly that they think they would be letting someone down. If you think you need to stay in a role because of moral obligation or pride then it’s the wrong reason. Don’t be afraid of changing things. If it feels like the right thing then it is. And chances are the world won’t end.