The only consensus on what a COO does is that there is no consensus, especially at startups (see articles at the bottom). Moberg replaced Cees van der Hoeven following an accounting scandal involving the … Jeff’s corporate employment history includes two years as VP of Business Development at Network General Corp, three years at Visio as VP of Enterprise Products and five years at Microsoft, where he served as General Manager for the Network Management Group & the Visio product line and was also the Director of Incubation for Microsoft Research in the wireless mesh networking space. In reality this is, of course, an unrealistic and unreachable goal, but it speaks to the need to be a great delegator as CEO. Since this was done one small feature at a time, it’s likely that little, if any, real market research went into these small changes or that the company was actually aware that such a huge shift in the original idea had taken place. Hiring a Startup CEO? Now the well-researched business plan you started with is in the trash and you are marching down a completely different path that may or may not make any sense. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) job description: Job duties and responsibilities. Pro Tip: Use General Cognitive Ability Assessment to identify the best candidates among your applicants. In our eBook, How to Get a Job at a Startup, you’ll get a concise how-to guide for finding your dream job at a startup, through the knowledge of startup job-hunters, founders, and employers. Capital-as-a-Service: A Partnership Model to Help Startups Grow, When to Hire Your First Employee (And Who to Hire First), How to Attract Investors with an Irresistible Story that Makes Your Company Shine, How Startup Valuation Works and How a Company Valuation Affects Financing, Why Teams Fail: Avoidance of Accountability in the Workplace, Book Review – The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors That Transform Ordinary People Into World-Class Leaders, How to Define and Build Your Company Culture: 3 Keys to Success. Looking for answers to your fundraising questions? Going through a layoff when the money starts to run out is one of the least fun things you will ever do. You have an executive team there because you believe they know what they are doing. Silicon Valley was so flush with capital that some commodities were actually scarce. Leave your answer as a comment below. The belief I had was that, as the CEO of a startup focused on software consulting, I needed to be the best programmer in the company (I wasn’t) and had to have answers to every question that came up, technical or otherwise (I didn’t). The difference is that there are things that must be done (just do them) and stuff that you are better off letting your team do (like their jobs, for example). Anders C. Moberg: The CEO and president of Royal Ahold from 2003 to 2007. They have seen similar situations and are asking you questions to hopefully prevent a negative outcome. Being a startup CEO is a constant push to align the needs of your customers, your business, your team, your investors and yourself. Also called “moving the goal posts,” this is a situation where a company gets into the idea of the day/week/month syndrome. CEO to CEO: Taking a Job at a Startup vs. a Public Company Michael Dsupin|CEO, Talener Published 11:57 AM ET Thu, 9 Feb 2012 Updated 3:57 PM ET Tue, 13 March 2012 In fact, only 1 in 20 are in the top 5%. Sharing your own opinion too often can discourage your executive team from sharing opposing thoughts without fear of criticism. Startup CEO Job Description | Templates at... Posted: (7 days ago) This Startup CEO Job Description has ways to grab its audiences' attention. Your team isn’t going to think less of you, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Job Summary Consulting CEO to work with the other principals in our firm to provide the best... in or startup fees and you can retain 97% of revenues billed to clients. In a typical startup situation with professional investors, your board is unlikely to want to get very involved in your daily running of the company and they are not likely to do more than ask questions in your scheduled board meeting. CEO Job Description. Subscribe to our free email newsletter to stay up to date with our top stories delivered to your inbox (twice a month). The ideal candidate will have a successful CEO track record of growing a digital startup. Startup Factory est un startup studio qui crée et développe des startups. This is part of the ‘watch your spending’ lesson above but more specific. I have also seen situations where a leadership team is essentially bullied into making a certain decision, by sheer force of personality, by making legitimate debate painful or uncomfortable to the rest of the team. What you have to be alert to is something that actually changes the trajectory of the company because it seems like a great idea. Jeff has filed eight patents in the networking field, shipped numerous consumer and enterprise products for both Windows and Mac markets, and has board-level experience with multiple VC-backed startups. This is part of the loudest one wins syndrome. Manage Sales Professionals, including motivating Sales Teams to become highly productive in a professional environment. One of them is so simple, yet I feel like most people forget that it’s the basis of any great business. There’s a remarkable similarity in what I had to go through and learn as a CEO and what I am now helping others deal with. Don’t get me wrong, the subtle tweaking of a product under development can definitely be productive and is part of the learning process. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The ideal candidate will have a successful CEO track record of growing a digital startup. Once a decision is made, do not allow the debate to continue. Lighter Capital’s guides have the answers you need. Operations, marketing, strategy, financing, creation of company culture, The job is simple—very simple. So, hoard your cash. RELATED: When to Hire Your First Employee (And Who to Hire First). Key Responsibilities. As a Startup CEO, you will grow a new company with a differentiated product offering. Closely. A CEO’s responsibilities: everything, especially in a startup. Startups inherently come with a lot of challenges, unknowns, and often times disorganization. It’s very easy to make a comment about printer ink in a meeting and later find that you have a new feature because that’s what they thought you wanted. This is part of not having to be the smartest person in the room, and instead learning how to trust your team and delegate tasks effectively. In most cases, if you allow it, the rest of the team will just retreat into the background and not offer opposing views, simply because they don’t want to be the target of the offending member. Also called “moving the goal posts,” this is a situation where a company gets into the idea of the day/week/month syndrome. Whatever I had come up with, no matter how wrong or bone-headed, was interpreted as the law. These cookies do not store any personal information. The CEO/President is typically the founder within a startup. Required fields are marked *. I’m not saying you should lose your “persona” — what makes you. I was fortunate to have someone on my team that was willing to be honest with me. None of these are good outcomes for you. Hiring carefully, and ensuring that necessary positions are filled with qualified people and eliminating positions that aren’t. The power, the salary, and the chance to Be The Boss. New laptops, monitors for everyone, fancy staff lunches, maybe a latte machine in the break room. Let me use an example to make my point. Create a profile Creating a profile is free and easy This is a startup and is supposed to be running lean. Primarily, I really thought I was the smartest person in the room (this was a real problem back then), or at least had to create that impression with my team. Miss one and you’ll just make it so much harder on yourself. The CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company. Use Atomic Hire to increase the efficiency of your recruitment process. There was a lot of fun followed by serious pain when the money ran out. RevenueLoan® is a registered trademark of Lighter Capital, Inc. For California borrowers, loans are made or arranged by Lighter Capital, Inc. pursuant to its California Finance Lenders Law License, #603K634. The most important role of any startup CEO is to put every single one of their team members in a position to succeed. Idea generation is not a role. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. While it may sound like I’m contradicting myself, stop believing that you have to do, or be able to do, everything. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Before anyone believes in the idea of success, it is the CEO who needs to believe in first. Your email address will not be published. Do you really need another Program Manager or another whatever you are being asked for? This Startup CEO Job Description has ways to grab its audiences' attention. In 2011 Jeff assumed the role of President & CEO of Intego, the leading provider of Mac security software. CEO (Chief Executive Officer) duties and responsibilities As the highest-ranking executive in a company or organization, the CEO is primarily responsible for leading the company or organization and making major decisions for the organization. On paper, a startup CEO’s job is to recruit top tier talent, communicate a clear vision to the company’s stakeholders, and make sure the company doesn’t run out of money. Simply put, the CEO is the dreamer and the person whose passion goes beyond anyone’s expectation. CEO responsibilities include: Developing high quality business strategies and plans ensuring their alignment with short-term and long-term objectives. I used to think that if I wasn’t the ‘best at everything’ in the company my team would wonder why I was in charge. In an early-stage startup a particular idea or product is determined, and the company starts marching down that particular path. Watch the spending. Don’t let it happen. As I look back on my experiences, I wish I had this article to read 30 years ago. Every successful tech startup must have ‘the dreamer’ as part of it and the person that is always wi… Every time I have gone into existing startups either as the replacement CEO or as a CEO consultant, I have found an excess of people on the payroll that the company really didn’t need. First, be willing to do anything that needs doing. Remember what I said earlier about asking questions rather than offering opinions. In my mentoring role, I’ve been able to help CEOs and executive teams struggling with issues that seem to follow the role no matter what the company does. Job Description. In some cases this can be a case for termination; it’s that serious. You are the leader, it’s your responsibility to maintain the direction. They are crafted by HR professionals, intelligently structured and easy-to-navigate and provides the major categories that you should include. It’s very typical for a newly funded startup with a founder-as-CEO in charge to go on a bit of a spending spree. Apply to Chief Executive Officer, Ceo/President, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and more! Want more startup insights? A Startup CEO Should Remain Focused on Company Goals Keep your company focused on the goals. Jeff currently provides CEO-level consulting and mentoring. Many don’t know what their job should be, and few of those can pull it off well. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. I am going on the assumption that you have one, and if you have raised seed money from angel investors or raised a Series A round, your board makeup involves one or more investors – probably an outside board member and you. A CEO’s first job is to build a great product and find a small group of people who love it and use it enthusiastically. Use this job description template to attract the best people to apply for the open position. Job Description [CompanyX] is a growing biochemical company, and we need a chief operating officer (COO) to be the right hand of our thriving CEO. I once ended up with a telemarketing team that made no sense at all, just because I wondered out loud in a meeting whether we should have one. Let’s say a company is developing a product to allow consumers to better manage their home network in some way. C’est en partenariat avec des groupes industriels qui, dès le départ, valide l’opportunité et finance l’activité avec l’option de racheter la startup après deux ans que la plupart de nos projets sont construits. Hiring Startup CEOs? Conversations start with “What if we…” or “It would be so easy to just…” and can quickly gain ground and eventually result in a new direction for the product or idea that just seems better than the original. Constantly. They make major corporate decisions, manage the company's overall resources and operations, and communicate with the board of directors, management team, and corporate operations. Whether it’s writing code, being a tester, putting new ink in the printer or emptying the trash, establish the mindset that if it needs doing, do it. In summary, being a startup CEO means: Above all else, being a startup CEO means mastering the skills necessary to balance a complex variety of unique challenges that, when managed effectively, ultimately tip the corporate scales in favor of success for your newly found startup. The end-run style of getting one’s way is not just discouraged, it is eliminated if you are going to have a functional and productive leadership team. Discover the world's best tech startup jobs for CEOs. When a member of your team approaches you with an opinion about a decision that needs to be made, it is typically because they would much rather you made the decision outside of the normal process – meaning no debate about the alternatives. It happens. Maybe you can raise another round of capital if everything else is running on all cylinders. Being a startup CEO means being a lot of things, but doesn’t mean being everything. You have to take advantage of new ideas that actually improve on what you are doing. I decided a long time ago that the goal of the perfect CEO should be to have nothing to do. Being a startup CEO is a unique skill, focus on becoming great at that and not being the overall expert. Before you continue, let us know if you accept the use of cookies, in accordance with our Privacy Policy. When you create your own CTO job posting, you can update the information in the job description to reflect the qualifications that your company needs from a CTO. Provide Sales team with proper training regarding sales techniques, legal requirements, and company products, policies, and procedures. But, that is not always the case. When I was running my first VC-backed startup back in the early 90’s, I would run my business meetings and always have an opinion about whatever we were talking about (smartest person and all that…). Manage your spending as if it is your money (maybe some of it actually is) and establish strict budgeting rules up front. As a Startup CEO, you will grow a new company with a differentiated product offering. Recruit, hire, train, and motivate Sales team. Over-hiring is a pretty common problem in startups. As CEO, you simply cannot allow these situations to occur. Discover firsthand tips on how to break into a startup career, clear up confusing industry jargon, and learn about important resources that will aid you on your journey. In your typical board meeting, you will likely have members of your leadership team in attendance. They are crafted by HR professionals, intelligently structured and easy-to-navigate and provides the … List the benefits your company offer and ensure you stand out among other employers. Everyone is coming to you asking for permission to buy something, because the bank is now open. Become the CEO that is known for asking a ton of questions about everything brought before you. After a successful funding everyone on your team will be asking for new people for their teams. In an early-stage startup a particular idea or product is determined, and the company starts marching down that particular path. Apply to all of them with a single profile and get in touch with hiring managers directly. Jeff Erwin has been a startup founder and CEO in the high-tech and software industry for over 30 years, with additional VP-level experience in a variety of public companies. He told me, “When you gave your opinion in that meeting, it was like putting it on the front of an 18-wheel truck and driving it through the room.” Effectively, he was telling me that moment when I had vocalized an opinion, the conversation was over. There is no such thing as being the idea person in a startup. In those articles, I discussed the need for basic trust between the members of a team, the willingness to engage in open debate and completely buy-in to the decision on a topic. Nobody was willing to argue; I hadn’t developed that level of honesty in communication with my team. Leading and motivating subordinates to advance employee engagement develop a high performing managerial team. Every new position you are asked to open needs to be carefully scrutinized. On the other hand, asking questions allows your executive team to feel you value their opinions (which you should) and encourages them to share those opinions without the inherent fear of speaking out against your own. It has been estimated that up to one fourth of the VC money raised in the 1998-2000 period was wasted on frivolous things like latte carts, beer Friday and catered lunches every day. I’ve made numerous mistakes over those 30+ years and have seen others in the same position making the same mistakes. Funding may be obtained based on that particular idea. Then, later, since printer recommendations are being made, how about if the product searches for deals on printers and makes them available to the user. All Rights Reserved. 264 CEO jobs available on Indeed.com. Don’t let any one group or individual dictate the direction of your company. You may be too close to the trees to see the forest, as they say, so listen carefully to their questions and realize that there just may be some wisdom in their thoughts. If they make comments about a specific team member while talking to you one on one, it may be because they aren’t comfortable with something that person is doing but are unwilling to be more direct about it. Let them do it. At an early stage startup, the distinction is slightly less exclusive. Setting the vision for the company and defining the overall strategy from launch to scale, Driving growth, profitability and company value, Developing and implementing scalable and efficient strategies to ensure consistent results and exponential growth, Attracting, retaining and developing world-class talent, Cultivating a high-performing and agile team culture, Aligning resources to achieve key business goals, Owning the operational budget and managing burn rate, Managing competition and threats in the marketplace, with constant evaluation of the financial structure, capital strategy and strategic objectives, Providing expert guidance to all departments, including operations, sales and product, Reporting updates to the Board of Directors and corporate stakeholders regarding progress on strategic goals, Building strategic partnerships and relationships to drive growth, Being the public champion for the business, Establishing credibility throughout the customer and partner network, +5 years of experience leading and scaling a high growth start-up, preferably a company with venture funding and 50+ employees, Bachelor’s Degree (Master’s Degree preferred), P&L responsibilities at CEO or another senior level, Proven track record of building successful products and high performing teams from the ground up, Prior working experience in developing digital products and solutions, Experience in managing a Board of Directors and corporate stakeholders. 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