A 71-year-old tech startup CEO explains why he's still working 24 years after 'retiring' for the first time
Shaun McConnonShaun McConnon, CEO of BitSight.Shaun McConnon is a 71-year-old five-time tech startup CEO.
Today he's the chief executive of BitSight, a company that assesses the security posture of a corporation from the outside and assigns it a numeric score, known as a Security Rating, which is similar to a credit rating. This is a role he took on after retiring, or almost retiring, a few times.
"I cannot stand to be watching the greatest information revolution in history from the sidelines," McConnon tells Business Insider. "I have to be in it, a part of it."
McConnon retired in 1992, "but I was bored and much too young to retire," he says. So in 1994, he got back in the game and entered the tech startup world.
In 2012, when he was invited to meet with Nagarjuna Venna and Stephen Boyer, the cofounders of BitSight Technologies, it was with the intent that he would become an advisor "because everyone was expecting me to sit out in retirement," McConnon explains.
"After several meetings and intense conversations, I told them no, I would not be their advisor," he recalls. "I wanted to be their CEO."
"I am just drawn to these game-changing opportunities, and when I see the chance to help shape an industry and change the way organizations are doing business, I can't walk away or just offer advice."
Plus, he says, "my wife doesn't want me around the house all the time … so, here I am doing it one more time at BitSight."
McConnon explains that he has a commitment to his investors to stay a minimum of two more years as CEO - "or until the wheels fall off of my walker," he jokes. "I'm a bad golfer and my hobby is starting high tech companies, so I'll just keep doing it until don't feel I'm continuing to contribute added value.
"I've been in high tech for 47 years," he continues. "I hope to make it to 50 years or more. I love the industry, the people, and my investors - and I'm having a lot of fun. So, there will never be a good or right time to retire. I'll just fade away."