An updated edition of the Sept. 4, 2026, article.
Founders often play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction, corporate culture and long-term growth prospects of the businesses they establish. Their deep-rooted commitment and entrepreneurial vision often encourage them to embrace calculated risks, navigate challenges and explore opportunities that conventional management teams might overlook. As their leadership philosophies become embedded in business operations, founder-led companies can develop distinct competitive advantages that support sustainable growth. Currently, approximately 11% of large-cap U.S. companies are founder-led.
Despite accounting for less than 5% of the S&P 500, founder-led businesses wield considerable influence over the broader market. Visionary entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates have reshaped industries and built globally recognized enterprises. Companies such as NVIDIA NVDA, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Tesla, Alphabet and Netflix demonstrate the lasting impact of entrepreneurial leadership and innovation. Together, these businesses represent nearly 15% of the S&P 500's market capitalization, with technology companies accounting for a significant portion.
Founder-driven businesses often emerge from innovative concepts designed to capitalize on technological advancements and evolving consumer needs. During their formative years, entrepreneurs frequently encounter investor skepticism and financing challenges, prompting them to rely on personal resources before securing external funding. As these enterprises mature, founders often retain substantial ownership stakes, aligning their financial interests with those of shareholders and encouraging a long-term approach to value creation.
However, founder-led companies also face certain challenges. Founders may be reluctant to delegate responsibilities or relinquish control over key decisions, potentially limiting operational flexibility and organizational expansion. While their direct involvement can preserve the company's original vision, excessive dependence on founder leadership may restrict access to specialized expertise and hinder scalability. Nevertheless, founder-led businesses have historically demonstrated impressive investment performance. According to a Motley Fool report, publicly traded companies managed by their founders delivered average annual returns of 25% over the past decade, outperforming the S&P 500's 14% return during the same period.
Our Founder-Run Companies Screen makes it easy to identify high-potential stocks. Currently, stocks like NVIDIA Corporation, Dell Technologies DELL, Shopify SHOP, Salesforce CRM and BlackRock Inc. BLK look appealing.
Ready to uncover more transformative thematic investment ideas? Explore 37 cutting-edge investment themes with Zacks Thematic Screens and discover your next big opportunity.
5 Founder-Run Companies to Add to Your Portfolio
NVIDIA, with a market capitalization of approximately $5.2 trillion, is a global leader in visual computing and the pioneer of the graphics processing unit (GPU). NVIDIA, once best known for its dominance in PC graphics, has successfully expanded into artificial intelligence-driven technologies powering high-performance computing, gaming, and immersive virtual environments.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang believes accelerated computing and generative AI are transforming industries worldwide, creating significant growth opportunities beyond the technology sector. The company has capitalized on this shift to establish multiple billion-dollar businesses across gaming, healthcare, automotive and robotics. NVIDIA continues to witness robust demand for accelerated computing as hyperscalers, AI cloud providers, enterprises and sovereign customers invest in building AI factories. While Blackwell Ultra is driving near-term growth, the Vera Rubin platform is expected to expand NVIDIA’s capabilities across GPUs, CPUs, networking and software.
NVIDIA’s data center business remains a major growth catalyst, benefiting from the rapid adoption of cloud computing and AI infrastructure. Leading cloud service providers, including Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, are aggressively expanding their data center capacities to support growing AI workloads. These investments are fueling sustained demand for NVIDIA’s advanced GPUs and accelerated computing solutions, strengthening its position in the AI infrastructure market.
NVDA currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Dell Technologies, with a market capitalization of approximately $307.6 billion, is a global leader in servers, storage systems, and personal computers. Founded by Michael Dell, the company is well-positioned to benefit from renewed demand tied to the ongoing PC refresh cycle.
Dell Technologies provides enterprise customers with comprehensive infrastructure solutions across on-premise, cloud and edge environments. Its advanced storage solutions, including PowerProtect Data Domain and PowerScale, integrate AI-powered ransomware detection to strengthen cybersecurity and operational resilience. The company is also capitalizing on growing demand for AI-optimized servers and data center infrastructure as enterprises increasingly invest in AI training and inference capabilities.
This Zacks Rank #1 company continues to benefit from robust AI infrastructure spending as enterprises expand capacity and upgrade data centers. Its diversified portfolio, spanning AI servers, traditional computing, storage and commercial PCs, creates multiple growth opportunities and supports market share gains. Dell’s expanding AI server portfolio, backed by strategic collaborations with NVIDIA and AMD, further reinforces its competitive position in the rapidly evolving AI infrastructure market. Strong cash flow generation and prudent capital allocation underscore its solid financial health and long-term growth prospects.
Management raised fiscal 2027 revenue outlook by $25 billion to $192 billion, plus or minus $2 billion, and lifted non-GAAP earnings guidance to $25.50 per share, plus or minus 25 cents.
Shopify, with a market capitalization of roughly $218.3 billion, is a leading global commerce platform that helps in starting, scaling, marketing, and running a business of any size. Its platform and services are engineered for simplicity and reliability, while delivering a better shopping experience for customers everywhere.
Founded in 2006 by Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake, Shopify has millions of merchants from more than 175 countries. Shopify’s growth case remains supported by broad merchant gains, deeper payments adoption and expansion across online, offline and B2B channels. AI tools are becoming a larger part of merchant discovery and operations, while Catalog, Sidekick and agentic integrations extend Shopify into emerging commerce surfaces. Shopify is using its commerce data and infrastructure to improve discovery, conversion and merchant productivity.
Shopify continues to add merchants while expanding the ways they sell and get paid. It is widening the surfaces where merchants can be discovered and transact while keeping product data, checkout and payments connected to its platform. Shopify also added an agentic section in Admin so merchants can manage AI channels and track performance from one interface. It supports builders through connectors to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Replit and other tools.
Merchant expansion, AI-led commerce, international localization, broader distribution and disciplined cash generation support this Zacks Rank #1 company’s long-term growth and operating leverage potential.
Salesforce, with a market capitalization of roughly $190.4 billion, is the global leader in customer relationship management software and a major force in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enterprise applications market. Salesforce enables businesses across industries to enhance customer engagement through its advanced CRM, artificial intelligence, data analytics and cloud-based solutions. The company is expanding beyond traditional CRM into AI-driven automation, data integration and workplace collaboration, with its Agentforce platform gaining significant momentum.
Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez, Salesforce has established a dominant position in the global CRM market. Its leadership as the world's top CRM provider for 11 consecutive years highlights sustained demand for its cloud offerings and strong competitive advantages.
This Zacks Rank #2 company continues to benefit from accelerating enterprise digital transformation and growing adoption of generative AI solutions. Salesforce is strengthening its AI capabilities through continuous innovation, strategic acquisitions and partnerships. Collaborations with Amazon and Alphabet are supporting its global cloud expansion, while investments in emerging technologies and start-ups are enhancing its product portfolio. These initiatives are expected to reinforce its CRM leadership, drive revenue growth and strengthen its long-term market position.
BlackRock, with a market capitalization of roughly $188.1 billion, offers products that span the risk spectrum, including active, enhanced and index strategies through a variety of structures that include separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares, ETFs and other pooled investment vehicles.
Founded in 1988 by eight co-founders, it has Larry Fink serving as chairman and CEO. BlackRock, one of the world’s leading asset managers, had $15.49 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of Sept. 30, 2026. Its substantial AUM base, diversified product offerings, strategic acquisitions and expanding private markets capabilities position it well for sustained growth.
This Zacks Rank #2 company’s iShares ETF franchise remains a key growth catalyst, benefiting from strong market positioning, scale advantages and rising demand for passive investment products. Continued investments in ETF offerings and increased focus on active equity strategies are expected to drive AUM growth and market share gains. BlackRock is also strengthening its presence in higher-margin alternative investments, including infrastructure, private credit and energy transition assets. Its expanding private markets platform offers significant earnings potential, supported by a $400 billion fundraising target through 2030.
Strategic acquisitions of GIP, HPS and Preqin further enhance BlackRock’s capabilities across private markets, data and technology. These initiatives, alongside growth in ETFs, active equities and alternatives, are expected to bolster revenues, diversify earnings streams and reinforce its competitive position.
Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double"
From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.
This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.
Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Salesforce, Inc. (CRM): Free Stock Analysis Report
BlackRock (BLK): Free Stock Analysis Report
Dell Technologies Inc. (DELL): Free Stock Analysis Report
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Shopify Inc. (SHOP): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).