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> So the CEO can sit on his hands the whole time the product is developed, but then does reap huge gains. This sounds off to me. Even if the CEO isn't a techni
by mushufasa 3y ago
> So the CEO can sit on his hands the whole time the product is developed, but then does reap huge gains.
This sounds off to me. Even if the CEO isn't a technical engineer literally working on the code, they are ultimately accountable for getting engineers and designers to build the right product. Building the right product is massively hard. Usually, it takes several wrong takes to get it right. 90% of startups fail.
When an engineer is hired post-traction, they may not see all the scars and dead bodies of those failed attempts. It may seem easy to manage if the product is already a hit, because when there is true PMF it's hard to mess up.
But that's like those stories about how the military in WW2 thought they should be adding armor to the areas of the plane that had holes after sorties. That was totally wrong; the real problem would have been to add the armor to the areas of the plane without holes, because *those planes crashed and were never recovered.* In other words, what "seems easy to sit on the hands" is survivorship bias, and ignores the brutal reality of struggle that any founder will be able to relate with. Assuming that "engineers could run these businesses themselves" indicates a very incomplete understanding of what is involved with actually building and running a business.
- ldjkfkdsjnv 3y agoThis is how its supposed to work in theory. As a CTO, you can easily end up doing all the work of the CEO, which he gains from. Its only when you go to write the software, that alot of the product decisions get made. This is what the ycombinator video is about.
- KRAKRISMOTT 3y agoThe CEO is the sales guy. If you have worked in B2B places before, very often the CEO is completely non-technical.
- Apocryphon 3y agoCan't the CEO be the product guy?
- mushufasa 3y agoYes. If you're good at product you're typically good at sales. If you're good at sales you may not necessarily be good at product. Sales is about navigating conversations to match someone's problem to a solution. Product is about navigating conversations to understand problems and figure out what the solution should be in the first place.
- timfsu 3y agoProduct CEO only works for companies where the product sells itself, which in my experience is only a small fraction of companies
- choppaface 3y agoIf the product doesn’t sell itself, then the founders failed to make something people want. If sales lead the company instead of product, then market-making becomes the company’s actual product.
- KRAKRISMOTT 3y agoYou are getting confused by product led growth. It's a popular tech business model but most enterprise software doesn't work that way.
- _jal 3y agoThat's frequently true, but it really depends. Some CEOs are the HR person, entirely focused on filling roles with people who know how to sell/build/whatever. I do know one CEO who is "the engineer". They're in a bit of a weird market, and it seems to be working. I rather expect he'll move to a CTO role once they're actually in production, though, when the focus becomes growth.
- liquidpele 3y ago> Even if the CEO isn't a technical engineer literally working on the code, they are ultimately accountable for getting engineers and designers to build the right product. You haven't had to have meetings with a CEO before, have you?
- mushufasa 3y agoYou've never been a CEO before?
- liquidpele 3y agoI'll take that as a "no".