The 2023 death of SunTracker's co-founder highlighted an often overlooked issues of succession planning in small business management. Founded in 2011 by Ian Ashdown and Wallace Scott, SunTracker Technology Inc. held multiple lightening design patents. These co-founders both believed daily communication and documentation of their projects was enough to cover this issue, as reflected in the statement “I believe daily communication is the best succession planning any company may want as everyone stays well informed” (Personal Communication, 2025). They were more concerned about aligning employee skills with the organizational structure and protecting intellectual property (IP). To guard SunTracker’s IP and increase sales, they co-founded a second company, HelioSol Software, in 2021 to focus on marketing and licensing SunTracker’s software although they could also take on other clients to promote as well. Shirley Lang, a familiar outsider to the company was hired given her extensive experience in marketing and entrepreneurship.