The Founder
The founder is a talented scientist, engineer or other professional usually in a technical discipline with significant experience in an academic or research environment who owns intellectual property and requires investment capital to develop his or her concepts. Founders are usually exceptionally intelligent, have a highly focused and sometimes narrow vision for their intellectual property or product they wish to develop. Often they exhibit strong authorship of product development and can be rigid when interacting with non-technical stakeholders including the CEO.
Conflict often occurs between the CEO and the Founder because the two stakeholders are unable to reach agreement as to how the business should be managed. This is not unusual considering the two executives have vastly divergent views and very different experiences both starting and growing technology companies. When these two strong personalities clash, disruptions occur throughout the organization creating a debilitating drain on valuable time, energy and resources.