Founder knows best. On Wall Street, everyone's looking for an edge. Ironically, the elusive advantage that everyone from portfolio managers to private investors are seeking might not be so thoroughly hidden: many of the world's best stocks are led by founder-CEOs. A 2009 paper in The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis found that even after controlling for factors like firm characteristics and industry affiliation, companies run by founder-CEOs outperformed by 4.4 percent annually between 1993 and 2002. Even casual investors will notice this checks out anecdotally in more recent years too, with many of the world's most valuable companies guided by founders. Seven of today's best CEOs fit that description. Reed Hastings, Netflix (ticker: NFLX ) One of the most lauded founder-CEOs in Silicon Valley, Hastings has taken longtime Netflix shareholders on a bumpy ride.