Top Founder-Run Company Stocks That Are Safe Long-Term Plays

An updated edition of the April 30, 2025, article.

Founders cultivate and make a company from scratch. They have profound passion, a steadfast vision, and tireless dedication for their ventures. Their willingness to take risks often surpasses that of traditional managers, as they embrace unconventional ideas, champion innovation, and make bold decisions to drive success. As a result, these businesses often become true reflections of their founders’ core values, ideals and long-term ambitions.

Founder-run companies represent less than 5% of the S&P 500 index. But that does not make their contribution any less. Everyone is aware of the success stories of visionary founder-owners like Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who have redefined industries, creating trillion-dollar companies that continue to thrive. Some of today’s prominent founder-run companies are NVIDIA Corporation NVDA, Amazon AMZN, Meta META,  Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A), (BRK.B) and Netflix NFLX. Founder-led companies represent nearly 15% of the total index’s market capitalization, with technology companies taking the lead.

As these companies are born out of a unique idea, they often involve technological innovation. These companies are built from scratch in a way that they can navigate challenges to stay sustainable over the long term.   

Initially, others may not relate to a founder’s belief, making it difficult to source funds for the project. The founder often ends up putting personal wealth and savings into such bootstrap companies. If successful, they attract angel investors or raise funds. But it's always the founder-owner whose stake and risk are the highest.   

Moreover, founder-owners often struggle to delegate responsibilities, driven by skepticism about whether others can truly match their level of commitment or understanding. Thus, they tend to assume multiple senior roles and frequently struggle to identify a capable successor. However, excelling across all areas is rarely feasible. This hesitation to delegate can restrict the infusion of professional expertise, potentially impeding the company’s ability to scale effectively or respond swiftly to changing market dynamics.

Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that founder-led companies tend to perform better over time.  Per Harvard Business Review Study, founder-led companies had a market-adjusted return of 12% over three years against a return of negative 26% for companies that hired a professional CEO. Our Founder-Run Companies Screen further makes it easy to identify high-potential stocks. Currently, stocks like Netflix, AppLovin Corporation APP and Dell Technologies Inc. DELL look appealing. 

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3 Founder-Run Companies to Add to Your Portfolio

Netflix, with a market capitalization of $387.7 billion, is considered a pioneer in the streaming space. The company evolved from a small DVD rental provider to a dominant streaming service provider, courtesy of its wide-ranging content portfolio and strong international footprint.  Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. co-founded Netflix with Marc Randolph in 1997 and is the executive chairman of the company.

Netflix has been spending aggressively on building its portfolio of original shows. This is helping the company sustain its leading position despite the launch of services like Disney+ and Apple TV+, as well as existing services like Amazon Prime Video. NFLX carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The company’s focus on streaming regional content has been leading to international growth. Netflix is diversifying its content portfolio and working on projects across India, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, France, Turkey and the entire Middle East. The company has launched low-priced mobile plans in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Moreover, the upcoming lower-priced ad tier is expected to further drive growth in these price-sensitive regions. 

Netflix’s 2025 priorities include improving its core business with more series and films to offer an enhanced product experience, growth of its ads business, and newer initiatives such as live programming and games. It believes these initiatives should help it sustain healthy growth and thus projects 2025 revenues between $43.5 billion and $44.5 billion and an operating margin of 29%.

AppLovin, with a market capitalization of $129.7 billion, has solidified its leadership in mobile advertising, powered by its next-gen AI engine, Axon 2. Adam Foroughi co-founded AppLovin with John Krystynak and Andrew Karamin in 2012 and is the executive chairman of the company.

AppLovin’s AXON machine learning engine has played a pivotal role in driving the growth of its software platform, enabling developers to optimize both user acquisition and monetization efforts. As the mobile advertising landscape shifts toward data-driven, performance-oriented solutions, AppLovin is strategically positioned to capture greater market share, particularly through its increasing emphasis on scalable, AI-enabled technologies. Its vertically integrated model, which combines cutting-edge ad tech with owned content, provides a competitive advantage in data utilization and user engagement optimization.

AppLovin’s transition to a software-centric model has led to improved margins and strengthened its financial performance, backed by solid free cash flow and effective capital management. The company’s decision to divest lower-performing gaming assets and focus on its high-growth ad tech platform positions it to further enhance profitability and deliver stronger returns on invested capital.

AppLovin is capitalizing on AI to drive direct, scalable monetization in mobile advertising, a strategy that is paying off. It sports a Zacks Rank #1.

Dell Technologies, with a market capitalization of $75.5 billion, is a leading provider of servers, storage and PCs. Boasting one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies, Dell was founded by    Michael Saul Dell and is expected to benefit from recovering demand driven by the PC-refresh cycle. 

Dell addresses the evolving needs of on-premises, cloud, and edge environments by enabling organizations to manage and secure workloads effectively through advanced storage solutions such as PowerProtect Data Domain and PowerScale. These systems are further strengthened by AI-powered ransomware detection, enhancing data protection and operational resilience.

This Zacks Rank #2 company is also benefiting from strong demand for AI servers, driven by ongoing digital transformation and heightened interest in generative AI applications.  AI-focused server launches and collaboration with key players like NVIDIA and AMD further enhance its competitiveness in the AI infrastructure space. Dell's strong cash flow, as well as disciplined capital allocation, reflects its solid performance.

Dell Technologies’ innovative portfolio, expanding partner base and growing AI footprint are major growth drivers. Thus, for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, revenues are expected to be between $22.5 billion and $23.5 billion, with the mid-point of $23 billion suggesting 3% year-over-year growth. Non-GAAP earnings are expected to be $1.65 per share (+/- 10 cents), indicating 25% growth at the midpoint.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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