So you're the CEO, what do you actually do? | Hacker News Reader

So you're the CEO, what do you actually do?

tophatmonocle.com

62 pointsaxiom22 comments

possibly relevant comment and discussion

"A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank."

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/08/what-a-ceo-does.html

That's true once the company reaches critical mass. Before that, the CEO does everything from setting the strategy and recruiting talent, to piping cables and making sure the pixels line up just right.

No, before that, you don't have a position called "CEO." You just have a "business guy."

Or in the case of the original post, a developer / business guy.

Definitely true that when you're starting you have to do it all yourself, and the mix changes as the business grows.

But the way I interpret it is that 'everything' can be lumped into 3 buckets

- right idea (product, strategy, business model)

- right execution (good processes, making sure there is always cash in the bank, and you take off before you run out of runway)

- right communication - selling it, not just to customers, but to recruits, investors, and strategic partners

This reminds me of my Schnitzelconf talk from last September. Slides here if you're interested: http://bit.ly/cotoletta

I like the way Balsamiq's run - people-orientated and sustainable. I wish more companies were like that.

My favorite part was the last slide where you gave an overview presented in a table..I really loved the Feeling row, I can really reflect on it(we're near launching).

doing the time: happy

making it real: not so sure

making the jump: cry

launching: scared <-- a lot of us are here :(

some traction!: Yes!

gaining momentum: Ack!

growth: AAACK!!

team in place: Adjusting

sustain: Happy

What does "coop" mean in this context? ("founders and 2 _coops_, based in my living room") Is this basically an intern from a cooperative education program? If so, I'd love to hear more about your experience as a startup being involved in that kind of program.

I assume since they are based in waterloo they are talking about the waterloo coop program [ http://www.cecs.uwaterloo.ca/employers/prospective/ ].

Around waterloo it's actually normal for startups to be based around coop labor, they are cheap and the commitment is short (4-8 months), and best of all you get big tax breaks in Ontario if you hire students. Something else to keep in mind is that a waterloo coop student in their last year of coop has had at least 16 months work experience (To graduate the coop program you need to do at least 20 months of internships), so these aren't fresh out of class interns.

Yeah, it's just the Waterloo word for intern. The short answer is: co-ops are cheap, but usually you get what you pay for.

co-ops are cheap, but usually you get what you pay for

Ouch. This does not describe my experience. My co-ops have generally been great and I have hired (or attempted to hire) more than one of them upon their graduation.

Of course, hiring co-ops is like any other kind of hiring - you have to match the right person to the right task.

Yeah I'm a bit harsh. However, what we've found is that:

1. At least 1 in 4 co-ops will just suck, and you're stuck with them for 4 months

2. The ones that are good are gone in 4 months so you're stuck having to replace + retrain constantly

3. Google and Facebook are offering co-ops $40/hr + free food + free rent + free massages + free blowjobs on Thursdays, so they always get the best ones. It's insane. As a tiny underfunded startup it's really hard to compete with that.

> + free blowjobs on Thursdays

wow, the war for talent really is heating up.

My school (Rochester Institute of Technology) had a huge coop program. The major difference I think is that coops are short term, paid work. You're supposed to be treated like a short term Full Time Employee (as opposed to someone who is supposed to go make coffee). People in technical majors would often get coops with Microsoft, Apple, Google, Cisco, etc. To complete your Computer Science degree, you were actually required to have completed 4 3-month coops.

Hey, another RIT alum, cool! /waves

Hi there!

Two things I picked up from this:

1) It's really import to have software chops as a startup founder. Top Hat Monocle started off with a CTO co-founder that was dedicated to development, but it seems like coding took up most of the time for all three founders. There's a lot to be said for selling early, but unless you have the funding to hire developers from day 1 you'll be moving much slower.

2) axiom's job description never changed all that much over the last 18 months; it's more just the distribution of time. That's seems like something that can be easily modified to suit the CEO's experience by hiring the right people.

Something else can be gained from the first point, and that as a start up, at first, your priority is to get something that you can actually sell and market.

There's no point spending energy marketing or selling something that doesn't exist yet. No point in having a website about it either. Code your product/service first, because without a product/service you can't sell it, and without sales you have no income.

I have to half-disagree with this, you CAN "sell" something that doesn't exist and sometimes it's a good way to test interest and ideas.

You don't want to sell complete vapor (as in get a lot of interest then be like, oops now wait 4-5 months or whatever) but you don't want to build something that nobody wants or realize that people don't want it as badly as you thought they did.

If you can't code, you should at least be good at project management/design.

Email. Lots of email.

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