Founder-led businesses tend to possess a unique advantage; they can think longer term.
Since the founder doesn’t need to manage the business in order to hit short-term compensation targets, they instead can be more willing to invest in longer duration, higher upside projects.
For long-term investors, this kind of alignment is ideal.
Here are the 10 best performing stocks that are still led by their founders today:
1. NVIDIA
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem.
Though their business of designing 3D graphics cards was initially geared towards the video game market, the ability for chips to process tasks in parallel instead of in sequence has found far more applications today, most notably in AI training.
Jensen Huang is still the CEO of Nvidia today and retains a 3.5% stake in the company.
Total Return: +382,046%
2. Axon Enterprise
Axon was founded in 1993 by Rick Smith and went public in 2001. The company was named TASER until 2017, as the business model has shifted predominantly to a software business for law enforcement agencies.
Smith is still the CEO today and retains 3.9% ownership of the company.
Total Return: +136,353%
3. Constellation Software
Constellation Software was founded in 1995 by former VC Mark Leonard.
The serial acquirer of vertical market software companies has a unique culture of insider investment led by Leonard himself who still owns 2% of the company.
Total Return: +36,577%
4. Pro Medicus
Sam Hupert co-founded the Australian healthcare informatics company in 1983 when he was just 28 years old.
Hupert, who is now 70 years old, still runs Pro Medicus and owns 23% of the company.
Total Return: +33,528%
5. MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre was founded in 1999 by Marcos Galperin while he was pursuing an MBA at Stanford.
Galperin is still the CEO of the sprawling Latin American e-commerce giant and retains 7% ownership through his trust.
Total Return: +8,808%
6. CoStar Group
The commercial real estate marketplace was founded by Andrew (Andy) Florance in 1987.
The software giant has grown to dominate the commercial real estate market. Florance still runs the company as CEO and owns 0.4% of the company.
Total Return: +8,593%
7. Monolithic Power Systems
Monolithic Power is the leading provider of power management circuits, and was founded in 1997 by Michael Hsing.
Hsing is now 65 years old but still operates as CEO. Hsing retains 2% ownership of the company.
Total Return: +8,047%
8. Salesforce
Marc Benioff was one of the pioneers of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry. He co-founded Salesforce in 1999 and has been its CEO ever since.
Despite regular sales of stock, Benioff still owns 2.3% of the company today.
Total Return: +6,051%
9. Capital One Financial
CapitalOne was founded in 1988 by Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris with the simple concept of using statistical analysis to create customized credit card offers for different cohorts of customers.
Today, Capital One is the 11th largest bank in America by assets and Fairbank still runs the company as CEO. Fairbank still owns just over 1% of the shares, making him the largest individual shareholder.
Total Return: +5,211%
10. Fortinet
Fortinet was co-founded in 2000 by two brothers Ken Xie and Michael Xie.
Ken Xie still serves as the CEO of the cybersecurity giant, while Michael serves as the CTO.
Combined, the two brothers own more than 15% of the company.
Total Return: +6,095%
