Leadership SMB (51-200 employees)

Co-Founder at SMB

OCEAN+ profile for Co-Founders: complementarity with the Founder, joint building, and the ability to sustain the partnership under high tension.

In SMBs, the leader navigates the tension between the founder and professionalization

Emotional resilience is key to sustaining transformation without losing momentum

The successful leader knows when to lead from above and when to lead alongside

Generic profile Startup (1-50 employees) Enterprise (201-1000 employees) Global (1001+ employees)

Ideal OCEAN+ Profile

Ideal range

Openness

83 100

At SMBs (51-200 employees), strategic vision and openness to organizational change

Conscientiousness

57 75

At SMBs (51-200 employees), discipline in execution and team accountability

Extraversion

70 87

At SMBs (51-200 employees), the ability to inspire and communicate clear direction

Agreeableness

52 69

At SMBs (51-200 employees), the balance between tough decisions and empathy for the team

Emotional Stability

78 94

At SMBs (51-200 employees), stability under pressure from results and stakeholders

Structure & Rhythm

33 55

At SMBs (51-200 employees), building trust and team culture

Strengths and Red Flags

Strengths

Skill complementarity with the Founder that covers blind spots
Building the partnership as a lasting relationship of trust
Professionalizing the company without destroying the culture and agility that made it successful
Managing the transition from founder-centralized decisions to institutional processes

Red Flags

Implicit competition with the Founder that generates destructive power conflicts
Inability to have difficult conversations about the relationship or the direction of the business
Imposes corporate management practices the SMB doesn't need or can't support
Conflict with the founder over decision-making space and autonomy

Interview Questions

How did you choose your co-founder? What were you looking for in terms of complementarity, and how did you structure the partnership in terms of roles and equity?

Evaluates: Openness and Structure & Rhythm — can they work with undefined roles and processes without needing certainty?

Tell me about the biggest disagreement you had with your co-founder. How did you resolve it, and what did you learn about how the partnership functions under pressure?

Evaluates: Agreeableness and Emotional Stability

How did you professionalize an area without destroying the culture that made it work?

Evaluates: Balance between structure and organizational agility

How did you manage tension between your decisions and the founder's?

Evaluates: Agreeableness and Extraversion with powerful stakeholders