Founders & Families

Driving growth and impact in founder-led and family-owned businesses

How We Can Help

We help Founders in every stage of their scale-up journey, from Unicorn to Decacorn and beyond. We partner on Four critical themes:

Scaling up in new segments, business models, or international markets
Getting value from large enterprise partnerships
Investor & IPO value creation narrative & readiness
Organizational & leadership capability building

We help Family-owned businesses unlock performance, promote stewardship and build legacies. We enable multi-generational families with:

Unlocking performance and accelerating growth
Succession management and intergenerational transition
Family and board governance
Next generation development
Organization and top team enablement

On this page: Our Approach | Interviews | Leaders | Insights

Our approach

Deep Capability with Extensive Data and Tools

Our deep toolkit with data, expertise and assets spanning across founder journeys, family and business matters is constantly adapting to the transforming world.

Our FOB Maturity Index provides rapid benchmarking of key characteristics and business performance across the mindsets and actions associated with outperforming family-owned businesses. The Transition Readiness Index benchmarks FOB readiness for CEO transition, taking into account the unique context for individual businesses.

Global Network and External Partnerships

With 200+ founder CEOs now working at McKinsey and 600+ partners serving family-owned businesses, we combine real-life experience with global best practices and tailored local strategies to deliver greater, faster and enduring impact. Our partnerships with Harvard Business School, Founders Forum, Boardwave, and others bring cutting-edge insights and community.

High angle view of male and female entrepreneurs working at tech start-up office

Family Businesses Span the Generational Spectrum — So Does McKinsey

Many FOB challenges stem from the meeting of senior and younger stakeholders — we speak well to both; after all, they mirror our own organization.

Featured interviews

Michael Dell, wearing a blue suit jacket and smiling in an office filled with natural sunlight.

Direct from Michael Dell: Leadership Lessons and the Future of AI

Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, weighs in on business transformation, what’s next for AI, and how his leadership style has changed over 40 years.

Interview

Paving the road for AI agents: Interview with Factory CEO Matan Grinberg

April 10, 2026 -

Factory CEO and cofounder Matan Grinberg discusses why scaling AI in software engineering depends less on flashy demos and more...

Interview

Meesho: Making e-commerce everyone’s business

October 12, 2026 -

Scaling an e-commerce start-up in India’s dispersed markets is challenging, but innovation, patience, and passionately...

Leading by example: How Aditya Puri took HDFC Bank to the top

Aditya Puri, retired founder-CEO of HDFC Bank, discusses his “first among equals” leadership style that helped him get HDFC to...

Voices of CEO excellence: Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman

The chairman, CEO, and cofounder of the global investment management firm traces his journey as a business leader, financial...

Creating a European AI unicorn: Interview with Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI

Arthur Mensch, CEO and cofounder of Paris-based Mistral AI, discusses his company’s large language models, its open-source...

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‘The business of creating desire’: An interview with the CEO of LVMH Fashion Group

Pierre-Yves Roussel oversees some of fashion’s best-known luxury brands. Here, he shares his views on creativity, brand...

Featured Insights

Article

Will you fly—or freeze? How founders can build enduring companies beyond $10 billion

July 17, 2026 -

Many founder-led companies freeze at the $1 billion to $10 billion valuation stage. Those that scale reinvent their business, people—and themselves—at five key inflection points.