The Founder Trap: When You Become the Lid on Your Own Company
You started it. You grew it. Now it can’t grow because of you. It’s not a failure – it’s a pattern that hits the best founders. John Franklin Wiley has lived this as a CEO and helped dozens of owners break free of it as a strategist. In this candid, story-driven talk, John unpacks why founder dependency is the #1 value killer in small and mid-size companies – and what it actually takes to build something that can run, grow, and eventually sell without you in every chair.
Your audience will walk away with:
• The three signs a founder has become the bottleneck
• Why “delegation” alone doesn’t fix it
• What buyer-ready leadership infrastructure actually looks like Practical, personal, and jargon-free.
Built for entrepreneur groups, peer advisory roundtables, and business associations.
No charge, no honorarium, no mileage costs. This guest speaker is free to groups in Phoenix!
John Wiley, CEPA
CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley
Business SpeakerJohn Franklin Wiley was on the streets at 15, aboard a nuclear submarine by 20, and building a national nonprofit...
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