Welcome back to Startup Curious, where we discuss things you should know if you’re thinking about working for or starting a startup.
I hope you all had a great New Year’s and that your 2023 is going well so far! For our first episode of 2023, we’re going to discuss a question that I think a lot of people ask, let’s say… a little too late. That question is: what does a startup CEO do?
Well, this of course varies by company and team but the general answer: they do whatever everyone else isn’t doing… plus they raise money, if the company is going down that path. This means they spend a ton of time context switching and being pulled in a ton of different directions. While a founding CTO, COO, CPO can focus on their domain, the CEO doesn’t really have that luxury.
One aspect of the job that I think surprises a lot of first time startup CEOs is the amount of work it takes to simply run a company, regardless of service or product. You have to worry about accounting & taxes. You also have to worry about HR things - employee benefits, hiring paperwork… even what days your employees will have off! Unless you come from an HR or operations background, all of this stuff can be overwhelming and feel a bit like a slog. It’s definitely not the fun part for most people!
Of course, there are plenty of fun parts to being CEO. You get to think about things like the overall direction of the company. You get to set a strategy and figure out how to rally your team to achieve it. If things go well, you’re the one whose name will be associated with the company. You also, of course, likely have the most equity so your financial upside is highest.
And, yes, that means the opposite as well - if things go wrong, you’re the most accountable. If the team is struggling, it’s your responsibility to help them figure out what to do. Since you’re the one in charge, there will be few (if any) people at the company who you can vent to when you’re having a bad day.
All this to say - being a CEO sounds like a glamorous, amazing job. If you’re a solo founder, you likely have no choice in the matter - the CEO will be you, at least for awhile. But if you’re part of a founding team and currently trying to figure out who’s CEO… take a minute and think about if it’s something that you really want to do. And also take a minute and really think honestly about who on your founding team would be the best possible CEO.
You want someone good at context switching, so they can handle being pulled in a ton of different directions. They should be amazing communicators, since they’ll spend a lot of time talking - both internally and externally. They need to be emotionally resilient, of course (the whole founding team should be, really). They need to be prepared to be the one who raises money and handles investors. And, perhaps most importantly, they should be someone who you can see yourself and future team members rallying behind. A strong team is crucial for a strong company, and it’s hard to maintain a strong team if you have a weak leader no one wants to follow.
And if you’re a newly designated CEO… congratulations! You’ve got this. You’re going to have to learn a lot, very quickly and you’ll likely have a lot of bad days and scary moments… but it’s going to be a fantastic journey, I promise!
And on that note… thank you for joining us for our first episode of 2023! If you found this episode useful, please remember to subscribe and share. Our goal is to make startups more approachable for everyone and the only way we can do that is to get the word out!
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If you have a topic you’d like to learn more about, or you’re a founder who would like their story featured on this show, send me an email at v@thescrappyoperator.com.
What does a startup CEO do?