Joel co-founded Cache IQ in June 2010 and acquired the assets of a failed startup. With Joel as CEO the company re-engineered the product to provide an intelligent storage acceleration product to the market. In November 2012 the company was acquired by NetApp providing a 7X return to investors over an 18-month investment period.

The CEO Tightrope

No CEO can find a point of balance and then stand still – that’s not even possible on a tightrope. The expectation is that the business must always move forward.

The American CEO walks a tightrope daily…many times blindfold and without a net. The job of balancing the often-competing interests of a company’s constituents is so challenging that the average lifespan of a newly minted CEO is around five years. Why is it that individuals who have been wildly successful at every other position in their career often fail when they get to the CEO chair?