Challenge the 'hire slow' mantra. Hiring is an intuitive guess, so act quickly. Once a person is in the organization, their performance is a known fact, not a guess. This clarity allows for faster decisions—both in removing underperformers and, crucially, in accelerating the promotion of superstars ahead of standard review cycles.

PE sponsors can accelerate value creation by telling new CEOs that some new executive hires are expected to fail. This pre-approval removes the CEO's fear of appearing to have failed themselves, encouraging them to make necessary talent changes faster and more decisively.

The most common failure mode for a founder-CEO isn't a lack of competence, but a crisis of confidence. This leads to hesitation on critical decisions, especially firing an underperforming executive. The excuses for delaying are merely symptoms of this confidence gap.

Terminating an employee shouldn't be viewed solely as a negative outcome. Often, a lack of success is due to a mismatch in chemistry, timing, or culture. Parting ways can be a necessary catalyst that enables the individual to find a different environment where their skills allow them to thrive, benefiting both parties in the long run.

Firing decisions should be a function of both incompetence and business constraint. Not all underperformers are equal priorities. Some are like a "trash can on fire in the driveway"—a problem, but not the company's main bottleneck. Focus firing efforts on roles that are the direct constraint to growth.

Teopo Capital prioritizes rigorous post-hire evaluation. They believe the true assessment of a candidate's fit and capability occurs on the job. The greatest risk is not making the wrong hire, but failing to act swiftly when they underperform, making quick termination crucial for risk management.

Unlike a line manager who can train direct reports in a specific function, a CEO hires experts for roles they themselves cannot perform (e.g., CFO). A CEO's time spent trying to 'develop' an underperforming executive is a misallocation of their unique responsibilities, which are setting direction and making top-level decisions.

A senior hire was instrumental in getting Snowflake's CRO promoted. Eighteen months later, that same person was found to be 'cancerous to the organization.' The CRO had to fire them and go on an 'apology tour,' a painful but necessary act of leadership to protect the company culture.

To clarify difficult talent decisions, ask yourself: "Would I enthusiastically rehire this person for this same role today?" This binary question, used at Stripe, bypasses emotional ambiguity and provides a clear signal. A "no" doesn't mean immediate termination, but it mandates that some corrective action must be taken.