# Referral executive sponsor departure checklist | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/when-the-executive-sponsor-leaves-during-review
Last updated: 2026-11-05

First establish who left. If the CEO who authorized the conversation leaves, that yes does not pass to anyone else: whoever holds the CEO office next, interim or permanent, decides whether the company continues. If an internal sponsor leaves and the CEO stays, the CEO names a successor and the work carries on from the company's own record. Either way, the company updates SourceX itself, nothing leaves with the departing person, and a decline by new leadership closes the row for good.

It is written for a VC operating partner or platform lead who helped start a data licensing conversation between a portfolio or network company and SourceX. Program facts are taken from SourceX's who-qualifies page and its terms (Version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04), read on 26 October 2026; the checklist is this page's own and the successions are Illustrative.

## The founder question, and the next step you are asking for

A sponsor is the executive inside the company who carried the idea: often a COO or CFO who owns the records, sometimes the founder-CEO. The program gives the CEO the authority to open a licensing discussion and sign for the company, and it says an introduction kept from the decision maker is usually not a fit. The fund's relationship supplies neither piece: a board seat lets the fund speak in board meetings, not say yes for the company, and it grants no permission to carry on after the person who said yes has gone.

So the next step is one question, put once to whoever now leads the company: do you want to continue the conversation with SourceX, and if so, who owns it on your side? Three kinds of answer can come back.

| Position | Who usually expresses it | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|
| Personal interest | The departing sponsor, a founder who is not the CEO, a keen manager | Nothing beyond asking the CEO |
| Authorized sponsorship | The CEO, who names who will own it | Continue, with a dated note of what was approved |
| Voluntary decline | The CEO, or the successor the board appointed | Close the row; no further asks through anyone |

## Who left decides what survives

The departed person's role decides whether the earlier yes still exists.

| Who left | Who holds authority now | What survives the departure | Your first move |
|---|---|---|---|
| The CEO who said yes | The next holder of the CEO office, interim or permanent | The company's records and any application it filed, but not the yes | Wait until the office is filled, then ask the new CEO once |
| An internal sponsor, CEO stays | The CEO, unchanged | The CEO's yes and the company's file | Ask the CEO to name a successor sponsor |
| The records owner or systems lead | The CEO, unchanged | The yes; the records stay with the company | Ask who answers records questions now |
| A founder who is not the CEO | The CEO, unchanged | Only what the CEO approved | Nothing; their personal interest leaves with them |

Who holds the CEO office after a departure is a matter of the company's own governance, not of the fund's view. Delaware's General Corporation Law is one example: officers serve as the bylaws prescribe or the board decides, each until a successor is elected and qualified or until resignation or removal, and a vacancy in any office is filled as the bylaws provide, or by the board where the bylaws are silent. For a Delaware company, then, the person to ask is whoever the bylaws or the board have put in the office, often an interim CEO. Other states and countries have their own rules, and the company's counsel knows them. After an acquisition the picture shifts again: the acquirer's CEO decides for the business.

## The sponsor succession handoff checklist

Twelve checks, in the order they usually arise. Most belong to the company; your job is to keep from getting ahead of it.

| # | Check | Who does it | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confirm the departure with the company itself, not from board materials or rumor | You, with the CEO or board chair | The company has told you or announced it |
| 2 | Pause any message that names or relies on the departed sponsor | You | Nothing goes out in their name |
| 3 | Find the dated introduction record and the company's application status | You and the company | You know whether it is introduced, applied or under review |
| 4 | Do not press the company to apply in order to protect credit | You | You accept that the window may close |
| 5 | Put one question to the current CEO: continue, and who owns it? | You or the relationship owner | A written yes or no |
| 6 | On a yes, the CEO names a successor sponsor with time to answer records questions | The CEO | A named person |
| 7 | The company updates its contact with SourceX itself | The company | SourceX hears it from the company |
| 8 | The dated permission note moves to a company-owned place | The company | It no longer lives only in the departed person's mailbox |
| 9 | The successor receives only the context the CEO approved | You | Nothing from board materials changes hands |
| 10 | No company records left with the departing person | The company | Their access is closed under the company's own offboarding |
| 11 | A departing sponsor who wants to raise licensing at a new employer starts from zero | The departed person and their new CEO | A separate screen of a different company |
| 12 | On a no, the row closes with the date and the reason | You | No later ask through the former sponsor |

Rows 3, 4 and 7 depend on where the introduction stood on the day of the departure, and the terms speak to each stage.

| Stage at departure | What the terms say | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Introduced, no application yet | Of all valid introductions, the one made first within the 90-day attribution window takes the credit, which attaches when the company submits a verified application; continuing contact protection does not extend the window | A long succession can run past the window. That is a risk to your credit, never a reason to hurry the company |
| Application submitted, SourceX reviewing | SourceX may communicate directly with a referred company without affecting valid attribution | The company updates its own contact; you do not need to sit in the middle |
| Agreement signed, or later | The company's own signed agreements govern; a lead, meeting or signature alone earns no payable reward | Nothing for you to hand over |

Rows 8 and 10 rest on ordinary offboarding. NIST's personnel termination control in SP 800-53 has organizations disable a departing person's system access within a defined period, revoke their credentials, retrieve organizational property and keep access to the information the person controlled. A permission note that lived only in the departed sponsor's inbox may be unreachable the day they leave. The earlier choice, sponsor first or CEO first, has its own comparison: [routing an introduction through a sponsor or to the CEO](/compare/introduce-through-sponsor-or-directly-to-ceo).

## Personal enthusiasm leaves with the person; company authority stays with the office

Departing sponsors who still care raise the hardest moments. A COO who championed the idea may offer to "keep it moving from outside", or to make the same introduction at their next employer. From outside, the former sponsor has no authority over the company and no right to its records; the new sponsor speaks for it. At a new employer the idea starts again: a different company, its own CEO, its own checks, and nothing carried over from the old employer's systems. That new company faces the full entry test on its own: 50 or more full-time employees at its peak, a documented operating history, the rights to license its records and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 70% of the data is in English. Whether a former employee can introduce a former employer is answered separately in [the former-employee question](/questions/can-a-former-employee-introduce-a-former-employer).

Keep this distinct from a different departure: the introducer leaving. If the person at your fund who made the introduction moves on, who owns the referral is covered in [a partner changes employers](/guides/a-partner-changes-employers-who-owns-the-active-referral). What happens to an introduction already under review when its partner leaves the program is not answered in the terms, and SourceX has not published a rule for it.

## Three successions, one ending in a decline (Illustrative)

Illustrative. Generic companies and invented facts; no outcome is implied.

**A. The sponsor leaves, the CEO stays.** A 260-person freight audit firm's COO, who had championed the idea, resigns five weeks after the recorded introduction and before any application. The founder-CEO still wants the conversation and names the controller, who owns the audit records, as the new sponsor. The company moves the permission note into its shared drive and applies on day 58.

**B. The CEO steps down during review.** The founder-CEO of a 180-person dental billing company steps down while SourceX is reviewing its application. The board appoints an interim CEO under its bylaws. The operating partner waits a month, then asks the interim once; the interim wants to continue and emails SourceX with the company's new contact.

**C. New leadership declines.** The CEO of a 410-person facilities services group is replaced after the company applied, and the new CEO says data licensing is not in this year's plan. The operating partner closes the row with the date and reason. When the former CEO offers to "keep pushing", the answer is no: nobody goes around the person who now decides.

| Case | Who left | Stage at departure | Decision | Checklist rows that mattered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | COO sponsor | Introduced, no application | CEO continues with a new sponsor | 5, 6, 8, 9 |
| B | Founder-CEO | Under SourceX review | Interim CEO continues | 1, 5, 7 |
| C | CEO | Applied | New CEO declines | 5, 12 |

## Write down what was approved, and pass on only that

Keep one dated note of what the CEO approved: the date, the company, the CEO's name, what you may say about the company (its name, the CEO's preferred contact route and a one-line description of record types and years), anything the CEO asked to keep private, and the named sponsor, with a new line and date whenever the sponsor changes.

Leave out what you know from the boardroom. Knowledge of a company's systems from board packs or information rights is a reason to ask the CEO, never material to hand to a successor or to SourceX. A new CEO's own early review of systems and records is outlined in [adding a data review to a new CEO's first 100 days](/guides/new-ceo-first-100-days-plan), and the operating-partner side of the program in [the overview for private equity operating partners](/for/private-equity-operating-partners).

## Risks and limits of this checklist

- **Authority follows bylaws and law.** The Delaware rule above is one example; a company under another law, in a formal process or with a deadlocked board may need more than a CEO's word.
- **The window can lapse.** The 90-day attribution window does not extend because contact protection continues, so a slow succession can cost credit. The checklist accepts that.
- **Demand can move during a pause.** SourceX applies the criteria of the specific program and checks relevance to current data needs in review; a company that fit before a long succession may not fit the program running after it, and one that does not fit one program may fit another later.
- **Offboarding can strand context.** Closed accounts take their mailboxes with them, which is why row 8 exists.
- **Asking a new CEO costs goodwill.** A first-month leader has other priorities, and no data on how new CEOs respond to an inherited licensing conversation has been published.
- **Nothing here is measured.** SourceX has not published how often sponsors leave mid-review or what follows, and this page estimates neither.

**Methods note.** The checklist applies SourceX's terms (Version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04) and who-qualifies page, section 142 of Delaware's General Corporation Law and NIST SP 800-53 Revision 5 control PS-4, all checked on 2026-10-26, together with the program's settled rule that the CEO authorizes. It does not measure how often departures happen, how reviews end or what any company earns, and the three successions are invented.

## Next step

> **Refer a company. No cap on rewards.** Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

When the current CEO confirms the company wants to continue and names its sponsor, make sure the introducer has [registered for a partner link](/register), recheck the company against [who qualifies](/who-qualifies), and read the attribution rules in the [program terms](/terms) before anyone else contacts the company. More playbooks are in the [guides hub](/guides).

Handling a sponsor change is referral work. Whether SourceX itself merits investment belongs in another file entirely, and investor materials for that question can be requested from the [SourceX investor overview](https://sourcex.si/investors).

This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://refer.sourcex.si/who-qualifies
- https://delcode.delaware.gov/title8/Title8.pdf
- https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Projects/risk-management/800-53%20Downloads/800-53r5/SP_800-53_v5_1-derived-OSCAL.pdf
- https://sourcex.si/investors