India, Oct. 8 -- A serious stroke left him needing brain surgery, but less than two years later, he had led the e-scooter company he heads to a $1.7 billion IPO.

Lime CEO Wayne Ting opened up about his stroke recovery and the challenges of leading the company in an interview with Business Insider. He shared that when he was in hospital recovering from the stroke, he struggled to find examples of other CEOs who had publicly spoken about their experiences with stroke recovery. He now wants to be someone people can turn to for help and guidance, he said.

"In Silicon Valley, you want to be hardcore. You can't be pumped; you have to be super pumped. Showing weakness and showing that you're a human is frankly the image that not a lot of CEOs ...