Founding or starting a company is a big deal. It takes a lot of guts, as well as planning to start and run a new company. Usually, the founder of a company is its CEO as well. As time passes or the company gets bigger, the CEOs change. Either someone from the founder’s family takes over the role of the CEO, or the management appoints a new CEO (from inside or outside of the company). In this article, we’ll take a look at the top ten California companies where the founder is the CEO.
Top ten California companies where the founder is the CEO
For our list of the top ten California companies where the founder is the CEO, we have selected companies that are at least ten years old. We have ranked these ten companies on the basis of their revenue. Following are the top ten California companies where the founder is the CEO:
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Lyft
Logan Green is the founder and CEO of Lyft. Founded in 2007, it is an online social rideshare community platform. The company provides users access to bikes and scooters for shorter rides, as well as for first-mile and last-mile legs of multimodal trips. It is headquartered in San Francisco. The shares of the company are up over 85% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up over 24%.
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Workday
Aneel Bhusri is the founder and CEO of Workday. Founded in 2005, this company develops enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. It basically offers financial management, human capital management and analytics applications. It is headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif. The shares of the company are up over 28% in the past one year, and YTD, they are down about 1%.
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First Republic Bank
James H. Herbert II is the founder and CEO of First Republic Bank. Founded in 1985, this bank offers private and business banking, wealth management and real estate lending services. It operates through two segments – Commercial Banking and Wealth Management. It has its headquarters in San Francisco. The shares of the company are up over 70% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up more than 25%.
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Square
Jack Dorsey is the founder and CEO of Square. Founded in 2009, this company offers payment processing solutions. Moreover, its services ensure next-day payment settlement, digital receipts, data security and more. It is headquartered in San Francisco. The shares of the company are up over 120% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up more than 9%.
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Skechers USA
Robert Greenberg is the founder and CEO of Skechers USA. Founded in 1992, it designs, develops, and markets lifestyle footwear for men, women and kids. The company operates through Domestic Wholesale, International Wholesale, and Direct-to-Consumer segments. It is headquartered in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The shares of the company are up over 62% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up more than 36%.
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NVIDIA
Jen Hsun Huang is the founder and CEO of NVIDIA. Founded in 1993, it designs and makes computer graphics processors, chipsets, and related multimedia software. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. The shares of the company are up over 100% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up more than 45%.
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Salesforce
Marc Russell Benioff is the founder and CEO of Salesforce. Founded in 1999, it designs and develops cloud-based enterprise software, such as sales force automation, community management and more, for CRM (customer relationship management). It is headquartered in San Francisco. The shares of the company are up over 28% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up more than 8%.
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Netflix
Reed Hastings is the founder and CEO of Netflix. Founded in 1997, it is a streaming entertainment service company. The company offers a subscription service to stream movies, TV shows, and more, over the Internet. It has its headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif. The shares of the company are up over 10% in the past one year, and YTD, they are down more than 5%.
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Tesla
Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla. Founded in 2003, it is the most popular electric vehicle maker. Tesla designs, develops, makes and markets electric vehicles, energy generation and storage systems. It has its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. The shares of the company are up over 230% in the past one year, and YTD, they are down more than 6%.
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Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Facebook. Founded in 2004, it is the biggest social networking company on the planet. The company allows users to share images, posts, opinions and more, with friends and family. It has its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The shares of the company are up over 44% in the past one year, and YTD, they are up more than 24%.
