The Load vs Work Framework
Jason Lemkin (EchoSign/Adobe, SaaStr Fund) is making the case for hiring ex-founder executives in 2027, with a specific distinction: work is tasks you can hand off. Load is the accountability, the final call, the thing that keeps you up when the quarter is sideways.
Most VPs, even strong ones, handle work. They run pipeline reviews, own launches, build comp plans. The load still sits with the CEO: runway anxiety, tie-breaking exec disagreements, being the only person who cannot have a bad week.
Lemkin's thesis: get 1 to 3 ex-founders (ideally former CEOs who reached a few million ARR, sold, or fought hard and did not make it) onto your leadership team. They bring pattern recognition you cannot train: they have owned a full P&L, hired and fired people they loved, operated without a playbook, and think like owners because they were.
The Burnt Founder Problem
Here is the catch: some ex-founders interview well, have the judgment and stories, but do not have the tank anymore. Years of carrying everything leave a mark. Lemkin is direct about his own experience: more than a decade post-EchoSign, his reserves are not what they were. He still runs SaaStr, two funds, ships product daily. But his capacity to absorb one more crisis, one more key person quitting on a Friday, is lower.
If you are hiring an ex-founder for a role where you need someone to carry real load for 3 to 4 years, ask directly:
- How long since you stepped away, and what did you do between?
- What did your last 12 months as CEO feel like?
- What do you want your next 3 years to look like, day to day?
- Do you want to own a number again, or help others own theirs?
The honest ones will tell you.
Six Signs Someone Is Carrying Load
- You have stopped checking their work. Six months in, their calls look like yours, or better.
- They make 51/49 decisions without you and own them when wrong.
- They tell you no. They push back hard when you are about to make a mistake.
- They run a fire without you: customer escalation, key exec leaving, bad quarter. They handle it and brief you after.
- Your board trusts them directly, comfortable talking without you in the room.
- You can take 2 weeks off, something goes wrong, and they handle it.
If no one on your team hits most of these, that is what to fix in 2027.
ANZ Context
This maps to ANZ scale-ups approaching meaningful ARR. The ex-founder talent pool here is smaller than US markets, but the thesis holds: one or two experienced operators who have carried a business end to end (founder or otherwise) add strategic capacity across product, sales, hiring, and customer relationships. Not just functional execution.
Lemkin's advice: put this at the top of your 2027 plan. Ahead of the next product launch, the next sales hire, the new region. Bring on 1 or 2 execs who can take load off you. Then actually hand it to them. Founders often make the hire and never let go of the real decisions, the real accountability, the real worry. If you do that, you have hired another great VP and you are still carrying everything yourself.
What This Means for Sales Leadership
For CROs and VPs: if you came up through quota-carrying roles, you already know how to do the work. The question is whether you can carry the load. Can you own the number when the market shifts? Make the call when two directors disagree? Run the fire when the CEO is in back-to-back board meetings?
That is the skill gap between manager and executive. It is also why comp steps up meaningfully at VP level: you are not just managing a team, you are carrying accountability that does not delegate.
For 2027 hiring: if you are the founder/CEO looking for a CRO or VP Sales, ask the load questions. If you are the candidate, be honest about your tank. The role might be advisory, strategic, or player-coach. All valid. Just do not take a job that requires carrying load for 4 years if you do not have it in you right now.