#2 is also risky as the investors often tend to ditch the early leadership Significantly less true now than it used to be. And significantly less common in eng

#2 is also risky as the investors often tend to ditch the early leadership Significantly less true now than it used to be. And significantly less common in engineering than in other disciplines. A detailed knowledge of the codebase is an incredibly valuable skill for a technical leader. An outsider will take years (if ever they ever do) to build up the knowledge that someone there from the beginning already has.