Existing research has compared the influence of two distinct types of CEOs on a firm’s innovation strategy: Internal Founder CEOs, who are the founders of the venture they lead, and Professional CEOs, who are external managers. We introduce a “third breed”, External Founder CEOs, who have founded other ventures before becoming CEO. Drawing on upper echelon and imprinting theory, we propose that founding a venture leaves an enduring founding imprint, priming External Founder CEOs to prioritize innovation strategies. However, as they transition to the corporate world, this imprint gradually gives way to a corporate imprint that reduces the focus on innovation, especially compared to an Internal CEO’s approach. Further heterogeneity among External Founder CEOs can be explained by additional imprints from funding or exit events. We present empirical evidence for this by assessing innovation-related speech in investor communication and patent applications of 2,252 CEOs in 900 S&P 500 firms from 2000 to 2019. More broadly, by examining the interaction of founding and corporate imprints, our study offers new theoretical perspectives on the factors influencing the manifestation and decay of individual behavioral imprints over time.