The founder to executive transition: what changed in my head

In 2015, I founded Ctrl+Play with the mission of democratizing technology education for children and teenagers. Eight years later, after the acquisition by CNA Group, I found myself in a completely different position: from startup founder to executive at one of Brazil’s largest education networks.

This transition wasn’t just a title change. It was a mental reprogramming that took months.

The key that changes everything

The most profound change wasn’t in what I did, but in the reason why I did it.

As a founder, I woke up every day doing exactly what I wanted to do. Every meeting, every decision, every project. I had chosen it. The company was an extension of my choices.

As an executive, I started doing many of the same things, the way I myself had built them. But now it was because I had to do them.

It seems subtle. It took me six months to accommodate this difference in my head.

It was strange. The work was practically the same. The team was the same. The challenges were familiar. But this small change, from wanting to having to, made an enormous difference in my daily life.

Time stopped being mine

At Ctrl+Play, I already knew how to orchestrate. I had my routines with the team, well-defined cadences, and everything flowed. I wasn’t a chaotic founder. I had built systems and processes that worked.

The difference came from somewhere else: as an executive, I started following an agenda that’s above mine.

Before, I set the rhythm. Now, I often need to adapt to a rhythm I didn’t choose. A strategic group meeting enters the agenda and my cadence with the team changes. A corporate priority emerges and my plans adjust.

For someone who adopts routine as a way to simplify life (and I’m like that), this was a huge challenge. I learned that the consistency I was seeking needed to exist at another level: not in the agenda itself, but in how I adapt when it changes.

What I brought from the founder mindset

Not everything needed to change. Some things I learned while entrepreneuring became differentiators.

Think for the company, always. The phrase “not my area” doesn’t even cross my mind. Thanks to entrepreneurship, I learned to look at the whole. It doesn’t matter who the owner is. We need to value the larger organization that sustains us. This instinct to care for the collective, not just your box, helps break silos and find better solutions.

Play the long game. I always think about definitive actions that help in the long term, to reap the compounding effect. Of course, without failing to meet short and medium-term needs. Balancing these horizons is perhaps the biggest challenge of management.

Comfort with ambiguity. Large organizations tend to seek processes for everything. But innovation happens in the gray space, where rules don’t yet exist. Knowing how to navigate this ambiguity remains valuable.

What I had to unlearn

My voice as the final word. I always pushed my team to be critical and question me. I never liked “yes sir” collaborators. I prefer the questioners who bring relevant points. Even so, like it or not, I was the owner. And my voice ended up prevailing at times, even when I didn’t want it to. Now it’s different. My opinion is one among many at the table. This requires an adjustment. Not of ego, but of posture. Contributing without having the last word.

Impatience with politics. I saw organizational politics as a waste of time. I understood that, in complex systems, alignment is work, not overhead. The hallway conversations, informal check-ins, subtle negotiations: all of this is part of the real work.

The familiar loneliness. As a founder, I was alone at the top of something I built. As an executive, I’m in the middle of something much bigger. The first loneliness was about responsibility. The second is about influence. You need to lead without total control, convince without absolute authority.

What I’m still learning

This transition has no finish line. I still make mistakes. I still fall into old patterns. I still need to watch myself.

But what changed was awareness. I know the game is different, that the rules are different, that what brought me here is not what will take me forward.

And perhaps that’s the biggest lesson: the ability to adapt, not just once, but continuously, is more important than any specific skill. The founder who became an executive needs, in a way, to found a new version of themselves.

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If you’re going through a similar transition, I’d love to exchange ideas. Find me on LinkedIn.