Peter Fenton is a distinguished venture capitalist who has been a perennial member of the Forbes Midas List since 2007, earning the number 2 spot in 2015.

Founders are the gravitational center around which the entire entrepreneurial world rotates. There’s a magic to founders—a spark that cannot be replicated or engineered. Their bravery to take that first step, moved by a relentless obsession with an idea and an audacious refusal to accept the status quo, enables them to create something entirely new from pure imagination.

The generative traits that make founders exceptional also make their journey uniquely challenging. The traditional leadership templates just don’t apply. Founders, by their nature, are “spiky.” They often excel disproportionately in vision, while other areas—execution or people management— may lag. And that’s okay. As Peter Drucker said, “Wherever there are highs, there must be lows; wherever there are peaks, there must be valleys.”

This tension—manifesting the unbridled power of a founder’s vision with the realities of scaling—defines the role we play at Benchmark, our service to founders. Service means recognizing when founders need support, advocating for their vision, and, when necessary, helping them navigate the complexities of leadership. Too often the stresses of leading through scale oxidize the energy systems of a founder, compromising their—and by extension their company’s—purpose, undermining the totality of what might be possible. More founders are lost to exhaustion and to loss of confidence than to boldness and grandeur. Our commitment to the inexhaustible purpose that motivates the founder motivates everything we do.

I first met Rich Hagberg early in my career, during my time on the board of Lithium. Lithium was at that critical inflection point where the founder’s ability to scale the business needed transformation. Another board member, Richard Yanowitch, recommended Rich as someone who could help. I’ll admit: I was a skeptic of coaching in its traditional form of outside-in platitudes. Too often the homogenized advice of the expert “coach” only erodes the towering peaks of vision and ambition into worndown rolling hills of domesticated mediocrity. Rich shattered this view of coaching for me. He met founders where they were—free of any mold or cast. He engaged the raw data, the artifacts of their leadership, in rigorous and systematic ways. This allowed him to amplify their strengths and navigate their challenges without stripping away their core. I was happy to introduce him to Tien, a peculiar kind of inexhaustible visionary founder in need of his own transformation.

Two aphorisms illuminate the success of the Rich/Tien partnership. My partner Bob Kagle urged investing in “learn it alls” not “know it alls.” Tien embodied this, diving into his work with Rich arms outstretched, eager to absorb everything. His openness allowed him to confront his own demons with full vulnerability and understand their impact on the company. The second comes from Accel cofounder Arthur Patterson: “We’re only as good as our handlers.” For coaching to succeed, there must be vulnerability and trust. If you doubt your coach is fully committed to your success, the relationship is doomed. Tien gave Rich his complete trust, and Rich honored it with his best work.

This book, Founders, Keepers, represents the culmination of decades of insight and hard-won lessons. Rich’s approach reflects the uniqueness of founders and the importance of embracing rather than flattening their spikes. It acknowledges the paradox of the founder: their strengths are often their weaknesses, their vision is their greatest gift, and their growth as leaders is a continuous process. It also provides something I believe to be invaluable: a road map for founders to navigate the evolution from visionary to leader without losing the magic that makes them who they are.

To the founders reading this: Know that you are not alone in the unique challenges you face. The very qualities that set you apart can also isolate you. This book is a testament to the belief that your vision matters, and with the right tools and support, you can lead your company to greatness while staying true to yourself. You can learn how to defuse the time bomb.

For those who invest in and support founders: Let this book be a reminder of the privilege we have to work with such exceptional people. Our job is not to change them but to serve them, to nurture their vision, and to help them thrive. There is no greater reward than seeing a founder take their dream and turn it into a reality that impacts the world.

Rich and Tien have crafted something extraordinary here. Founders, Keepers is not just a book; it’s a celebration of what makes founders special and a guide for how to protect and empower that uniqueness. To every founder out there: God bless, Godspeed, and go change the world.