Everyone
thinks that being a startup CEO is a glamorous job or one that has to be a ton
of fun. Here are some of the ways to be a great CEO.
BE A KEEPER OF THE COMPANY
VISION
The
CEO is the keeper of the company’s overall vision. Not talking about the
vision for the next few months, but the larger road ahead. The CEO needs to be
able to keep things on course for the current quarter to make sure that the
large overarching vision of the company can be achieved. The takeover the world
vision of a startup usually can’t be achieved in one year or even in some
cases, like Google, in a decade. It takes a great startup CEO to keep the
company on track to achieve that vision. A great startup CEO will often judge
upcoming initiatives to see if they fit in as a piece of the large puzzle for
the bigger vision.
ABSORB
THE PAIN FOR THE TEAM
A
startup CEO needs to be the personal voodoo doll for a startup. They need to be
able to take on a strong burden of stress, pain, and torture all while making
level headed decisions. We can’t have the troops stressing and worrying about
the difficult challenges at hand. A good startup CEO will absorb the stress, so
the rest of the team can carry on. He also needs to be able to mask this pain
and stress. Not that he should hide or lie to the team. Most of the day
to day nuances+stresses of a startup aren’t worth having the entire team worry
about and the CEO needs to bear that pain.
FIND
THE SMARTEST PEOPLE AND DEFER ON DOMAIN
A
startup CEO has a great knack for finding talent. The key is finding people
that are smarter than we on specific topics. A startup CEO has to have
the ability to find these people and make relatively fast decisions to hire
them. They also have to be able to show the fire and passion to convince them
to leave what is most likely a better paying and more secure job to join the
company. The real key to hiring as a startup CEO comes after the hire. A great
startup CEO will be able to trust the hires that they make and defer to them on
areas of domain expertise. It’s hard to let go, but we have to learn to,
especially when the company grows.
BE A
GOOD LINK BETWEEN THE COMPANY + INVESTORS
Whether
we want to believe it or not, we are not an investor’s only portfolio company.
Even if we are a superstar, they have a handful of other companies to help and
a ton of incoming potential portfolio companies. A good investor will pick 2-3
new companies per year to work with. A good startup CEO will be a good link
between progress, issues, and areas where they need help with investors. A good
portion of early stage startups that raise money will have a board comprised of
3 people: the CEO founder, the investor, and an independent board member.
BE A
GOOD LINK BETWEEN THE COMPANY + PRODUCT
The best companies are those that keep a founder as CEO
for the long haul. Not because the founders have the right to be CEO, but
because the CEO needs to be close to the product vision of the company.
Founding CEOs understand this the best and can carry out that same unified
vision over time. To fill in the management gaps a great COO, other board
members, and heads of divisions will come along. It’s a strategy that Facebook
has employed and why Apple has had a great resurgence with Steve Jobs at the
helm. It’s all about keeping the CEO as close as possibly linked to the product.
BE
ABLE TO LEARN ON THE JOB
Most
startup CEOs didn’t start out with an MBA or some background in growing a
company from nothing to something. The best have an ability to learn along the
way and embrace their failures to become a better leader. Don’t worry
about whether “we’re qualified” as it’s hard to put typical qualifications on
the job. We’ll learn the really core stuff along the way. The best
startup CEOs will surround themselves with smart mentors to be a sounding board
along the way.
NO
EXPERIENCE ALMOST PREFERRED
It’s
almost better to have a blank slate of zero experience as a startup CEO. If we
come in with preconceived notions and block out the scrappy methods of a
startup founder, it actually hurts us. Traditional education often trains us to
be CEO or manager for a much larger company, not for a startup of under 50
people. It’s a different kind of leadership and company.
HAVE
AN UNCANNY ABILITY TO SAY NO
We
will be inundated with a list of requests from potential partners, investors,
employees, and more. As we grow, we will also have the resources to
execute more of them. Don’t. It’s easy to say yes, but so very hard to say no.
By having an uncanny ability to say no, we can keep our company on track with
the large vision we maintain. It will also keep our team members (notice I
don’t like to use the word “employees”) laser focused and feel more rewarded as
they are able to focus on one thing for a good chunk of time.
HAVE
SOME TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLSET
A
good startup CEO shouldn’t be afraid of a little bit of code and a text editor.
They don’t need to be diving into the source code on a daily basis, but they
need to understand the technical requirements. It’s easy to say “go build
this”, but it’s a whole other ball game to understand how to build it. What
seems simple may be a huge mountain of a technical feat that just isn’t
feasible with the given resources and deadlines. It can also help lend some
street cred with hiring early technical team members too.
BE
ABLE TO BREAK THINGS DOWN INTO SIZABLE CHUNKS + MILESTONES
Remember
that huge unwavering vision that we are the keeper of? Odds are it only makes
sense to us and our cofounder. We will need to break it up into sizable chunks
and milestones for the rest of the team to understand it. We also need to be
able to pick when and where to conquer things strategically.
HAVE
THE ABILITY TO CALL AN AUDIBLE
Nothing
goes according to plan. Things fall through, people quit, shit happens, servers
crash, and other random things go bump in the night. We’re going to have to deal
with it and fast. This is a football term:
“Seen when
the quarterback goes up to the line of scrimmage, sees a defensive alignment he
wasn’t expecting, and adjusts by yelling out a new play.”
We’re
going to come up against things that we didn’t expect and just be able to call
an audible. Launch faster, spend more money here, or even abandon a project.
CAN
MOTIVATE THE TEAM THROUGH DESPAIR
People
love to talk in this business. People love to talk even more when we’re company
isn’t fairing well. A great CEO will be able to take those moments of public
despair and keep the company focused. They will be able to debunk the rumors or
even approach them head on by keeping the members of the company focused on the
bigger mission at hand. It can come in simple 5 minute talks or motivational
emails. The worst thing we can do is avoid the situation and be passive
aggressive.
BE A
GREAT COMMUNICATOR
We
need to be able to portray the energy and passion that we feel into others…over
and over and over and over and over and over again on a daily basis. As a
startup founder we need to communicate the vision and hope for the future of our
startup to the rest of the world. We need to be able to break down the overall
vision of the company into something that mere mortals can understand. We can’t
speak in crazy technical jargon or industry terms. It needs to be simple,
clear, and compelling. We also need to be able to argue our point. Many will
pick “fights” with us just to see how strong willed we are. Be respectful, but
be very confident in our answer. Often wrong, but never in doubt my friend.
DON’T
BE A “FAKE CEO”
Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, makes a strong case for not being a fake ceo. In short, worry about things that produce results,
not fame. If it’s between going to a conference/doing an interview or
completing a deal, get the deal done. Don’t “leave it to someone else”. You
need to get your hands dirty every single day. By no means is this an
exhaustive or definitive list. In some cases, the traits listed above might be
counter-intuitive.
Reference
:
http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/14-ways-to-be-a-great-startup-ceo/
