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Things You Must Do Every Week As Startup CEO

157 points by betashop 16y ago

dshankar 16y ago
My take away from this: wear and love every hat in the company (janitor, investor, engineer, CFO etc), and stay healthy and focused.
- betashop 16y ago
  Nice summary :)
jawartak 16y ago
> Spend at least 75% of your personal time on your Product. Define: personal time.
joshu 16y ago
All that and I just racked our new gear too. I must admit I enjoy it more than I ought to.
donnyg107 16y ago
A lot of the guidance I find in posts like this reminds me of the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. His analytical approach to identifying an excellent CEO is regularly confirmed by posts like this one. I highly recommend it for new CEOs and people looking to understand some of underlying nuances and necessities of running a business.
melissamiranda 16y ago
Great points. It be nice if it also included concrete examples of real CEOs doing each of the 13 things each week.
- betashop 16y ago
  hmmm ... i thought of giving some personal examples but was worried some people might take it as too much self promotion. Will think about that more for a future post.
  - melissamiranda 16y ago
    You could temper the self-promotion with examples from friends or other people you admire. Either way, examples would have made each point much more concrete. Just consider it for the next one you write.
petercooper 16y ago
The most important thing is missing, IMHO: Keep selling and finding the optimal customer acquisition strategy for your product/service. Without this, "pixel perfection" is a waste of time.
- betashop 16y ago
  That's a good point which I tried to cover in my #8 but should have hit more directly as its own point.
  - evangineer 16y ago
    I was also looking for and missing something about selling the right product to the right customer. Customer development?
hugh3 16y ago
Good advice not just for CEOs but for anyone engaged in doing something difficult.
hammock 16y ago
> Set the Tone. Everyone - your co-workers, your customers, your partners, your investors, the press, your Twitter and Facebook followers - takes their cues from you. Great advice for any new leader.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  The one tweak I'd say to this one is to make it "Be aware that you set the tone". The senior people in any organisation set the tone for it whether they're trying to or not. If it's not something they're actively doing then the tone goes either to their default (which may well be perfectly good if they're naturally inspiring and engaging) or to some level of disinterest or disengagement. So for me setting the tone isn't something you can choose to do or not do - what you do get to pick is what the tone you're setting is.
  - hammock 16y ago
    Good call. That's actually what I meant, didn't realize what I was quoting. The awareness is so important- it's a lesson I always seem to be re-learning, because you don't realize how many different ways people are taking cues from you. The most accessible examples are the industry "gurus" whose everyday lives and everyday mundane thoughts people seem to be so interested in. When they say "people look to a leader" they really mean it - they are looking at you whether or not you feel like you are actively leading at that moment.
dfield 16y ago
"Act Like an Investor. At the end of each week, ask yourself the following question: Did our actions this past week increase value? What was the ROI on your time spent this past week? If you go 2 weeks in a row or 2 weeks in a month without a positive ROI on your time spent, you’re clearly doing the wrong things." I feel like this is just good advice for life in general.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  Part of me recoils at treating all of life in this way and I think it can be taken too far but at it's heart I think it's good advice. Obviously quantifying life can be tricky, and it's not possible for every week to be fantastic, but the general principal of regularly assessing it to see if it can be tweaked or improved, and seeing if you're basically happy with it is a good one.
- jogo 16y ago
  Not everything should be viewed as an investors decision. Passion and determination help to take decisions an investor wouldn't make. That is why you are CEO.
  - betashop 16y ago
    I disagree. I'm the most passionate guy in the universe but in the end all of my passion has to create return on investment.
nethsix 16y ago
Exercise! One thing you can be sure that is missing from not only a CEO's list but a lot of entrepreneurs. A lot of people may feel that exercise only robs them of precious time but conversely as pointed out, it keeps the mind fresh and sharp thereby increasing productivity. Lincoln once said something along the lines of "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe".
- betashop 16y ago
  Most entrepreneurs forget this but I'm 100% convinced on the importance.
kchronis 16y ago
Great article.. One additional task for a CEO is getting out there and recruiting. A startup CEO should aim to get at least one meeting with an engineer and sell them on your product and vision. Like Mark Suster says ABR, Always be Recruiting.
cborodescu 16y ago
Apparently, this seem like a no-brainer pieces of advice for everyone and anyone to take, but only those who have walked in these "shoes" can really know how difficult is to keep on smiling, loving everybody, how to be optimist and enthusiastic every single moment around the clock, specially when you see that you are doing everything right, everything by the book, you are following every single one of the 13 steps (even the one with the exercises) and you still have no ROI. The truth is that a start up has to find it's own way, it has to pivot, to adjust, to ask for feedback and so on, until it has gotten some things right. There is no perfect receipt to having a successful start up - you just have to find your way.

157 points by betashop 16y ago

My take away from this: wear and love every hat in the company (janitor, investor, engineer, CFO etc), and stay healthy and focused.

betashop 16y ago
Nice summary :)

jawartak 16y ago

> Spend at least 75% of your personal time on your Product. Define: personal time.

joshu 16y ago

All that and I just racked our new gear too. I must admit I enjoy it more than I ought to.

donnyg107 16y ago

A lot of the guidance I find in posts like this reminds me of the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. His analytical approach to identifying an excellent CEO is regularly confirmed by posts like this one. I highly recommend it for new CEOs and people looking to understand some of underlying nuances and necessities of running a business.

melissamiranda 16y ago

Great points. It be nice if it also included concrete examples of real CEOs doing each of the 13 things each week.

betashop 16y ago
hmmm ... i thought of giving some personal examples but was worried some people might take it as too much self promotion. Will think about that more for a future post.
- melissamiranda 16y ago
  You could temper the self-promotion with examples from friends or other people you admire. Either way, examples would have made each point much more concrete. Just consider it for the next one you write.

petercooper 16y ago

The most important thing is missing, IMHO: Keep selling and finding the optimal customer acquisition strategy for your product/service. Without this, "pixel perfection" is a waste of time.

betashop 16y ago
That's a good point which I tried to cover in my #8 but should have hit more directly as its own point.
- evangineer 16y ago
  I was also looking for and missing something about selling the right product to the right customer. Customer development?

hugh3 16y ago

Good advice not just for CEOs but for anyone engaged in doing something difficult.

hammock 16y ago

> Set the Tone. Everyone - your co-workers, your customers, your partners, your investors, the press, your Twitter and Facebook followers - takes their cues from you. Great advice for any new leader.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
The one tweak I'd say to this one is to make it "Be aware that you set the tone". The senior people in any organisation set the tone for it whether they're trying to or not. If it's not something they're actively doing then the tone goes either to their default (which may well be perfectly good if they're naturally inspiring and engaging) or to some level of disinterest or disengagement. So for me setting the tone isn't something you can choose to do or not do - what you do get to pick is what the tone you're setting is.
- hammock 16y ago
  Good call. That's actually what I meant, didn't realize what I was quoting. The awareness is so important- it's a lesson I always seem to be re-learning, because you don't realize how many different ways people are taking cues from you. The most accessible examples are the industry "gurus" whose everyday lives and everyday mundane thoughts people seem to be so interested in. When they say "people look to a leader" they really mean it - they are looking at you whether or not you feel like you are actively leading at that moment.

dfield 16y ago

"Act Like an Investor. At the end of each week, ask yourself the following question: Did our actions this past week increase value? What was the ROI on your time spent this past week? If you go 2 weeks in a row or 2 weeks in a month without a positive ROI on your time spent, you’re clearly doing the wrong things." I feel like this is just good advice for life in general.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
Part of me recoils at treating all of life in this way and I think it can be taken too far but at it's heart I think it's good advice. Obviously quantifying life can be tricky, and it's not possible for every week to be fantastic, but the general principal of regularly assessing it to see if it can be tweaked or improved, and seeing if you're basically happy with it is a good one.
jogo 16y ago
Not everything should be viewed as an investors decision. Passion and determination help to take decisions an investor wouldn't make. That is why you are CEO.
- betashop 16y ago
  I disagree. I'm the most passionate guy in the universe but in the end all of my passion has to create return on investment.

nethsix 16y ago

Exercise! One thing you can be sure that is missing from not only a CEO's list but a lot of entrepreneurs. A lot of people may feel that exercise only robs them of precious time but conversely as pointed out, it keeps the mind fresh and sharp thereby increasing productivity. Lincoln once said something along the lines of "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe".

betashop 16y ago
Most entrepreneurs forget this but I'm 100% convinced on the importance.

kchronis 16y ago

Great article.. One additional task for a CEO is getting out there and recruiting. A startup CEO should aim to get at least one meeting with an engineer and sell them on your product and vision. Like Mark Suster says ABR, Always be Recruiting.

cborodescu 16y ago

Apparently, this seem like a no-brainer pieces of advice for everyone and anyone to take, but only those who have walked in these "shoes" can really know how difficult is to keep on smiling, loving everybody, how to be optimist and enthusiastic every single moment around the clock, specially when you see that you are doing everything right, everything by the book, you are following every single one of the 13 steps (even the one with the exercises) and you still have no ROI. The truth is that a start up has to find it's own way, it has to pivot, to adjust, to ask for feedback and so on, until it has gotten some things right. There is no perfect receipt to having a successful start up - you just have to find your way.