

Ask HN: How can a developer become a good CEO? - potomak

I worked for a startup.<p>I work as a freelance developer.<p>I'd like found my own startup, but I don't know "anything" about economics and entrepreneurship.<p>Where can I learn basic economics as a developer to run my own company?
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mindcrime
So, I can't claim to be "a good CEO" but I have founded a startup and we're
working very hard to make it a success. I can tell you a little bit about what
I did. How much you should infer from that, is up for debate.

1\. Read. Books. I was the weird geek/programmer who always found business
fascinating, so I've been collecting and reading books on business and
marketing for years... going way back to before I launched Fogbeam Labs. A few
titles you might want to consider, going from memory:

A. _The Four Steps To The Epiphany_ \- Steve Blank. This is about as close as
you get to a "paint by the numbers" guide to launching a startup. Invaluable.
I felt like Neo in the Matrix going "whoooah" after reading it.

B. _The Startup Owner's Manual_ \- Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. This is basically
the 2nd edition of _The Four Steps To The Epiphany_ but there is some
difference in the content. I'd honestly recommend reading both, but if you're
really more specifically focused on web startups / SaaS apps and the like,
there is more for you in this book than TFSTTE.

C. _The Art Of The Start_ \- Guy Kawasaki. One of the "Bibles" of startup
knowledge. I found this indispensable as well.

D. _Running Lean_ \- Ash Maurya.

E. _The Lean Startup_ \- Eric Ries

F. Forget me trying to compile this list from memory. Go to Quora and find the
threads titled something like "What are good books for entrepreneurs to read".
[1][2][3][4][5][6]

2\. Mixergy.com - Read their freely available stuff, then join and
read/watch/listen to the great content they make available.

3\. The Stanford Entrepreneur's Corner - Lots of great videos and audio of
presentations and what-not, on entrepreneurship. Freely available.
<http://ecorner.stanford.edu/>

4\. Take a few classes at your local community college if you have one. I went
this route, and took _Introduction to Business_ , _Introduction to Business
Law_ and _Introduction to Marketing_. Those three classes are a good
foundation for some basic stuff you'll want to know. An accounting class might
not hurt either. In the case of my local CC, these classes were all available
as online courses, and were fairly inexpensive.

5\. Your state government (I'm assuming you're in the US, if not, this might
not apply) probably has something like an "entrepreneurship center" or
something, that provides information on this topic, and holds seminars and
helps out. Community Colleges also have similar resources. There are probably
also non-profit advocacy and education groups dedicated to helping
entrepreneurs. Here in NC we have things like:

<http://www.sbtdc.org/>

<http://entrepreneurship.waketech.edu/>

<http://www.cednc.org>

Look for similar orgs in your area.

6\. SCORE - a group made up of retired executives who provide _free_
mentorship and advice to entrepreneurs. <http://www.score.org>

7\. Steve Blank has a great blog with some great stuff. Here's an example of
some good material from Mr. Blank. <http://steveblank.com/category/lean-
launchpad/>

There are tons of resources to help you on this journey, and a lot of them are
free. Dig in and take advantage. Obviously you found one great resource
already, in HN, and there are a lot more out there.

[1]: [http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-must-read-books-for-
entre...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-must-read-books-for-
entrepreneurs)

[2]: [http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-books-on-
entrepreneur...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-books-on-
entrepreneurship)

[3]: [http://www.quora.com/What-economics-books-should-an-
entrepre...](http://www.quora.com/What-economics-books-should-an-entrepreneur-
read)

[4]: [http://www.quora.com/What-are-good-books-for-a-tech-
entrepre...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-good-books-for-a-tech-entrepreneur)

[5]: [http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-are-the-top-10-books-
for-...](http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-are-the-top-10-books-for-an-
aspiring-tech-entrepreneur)

[6]: [http://www.quora.com/Startup-Advice-and-Strategy/What-are-
th...](http://www.quora.com/Startup-Advice-and-Strategy/What-are-the-best-
books-for-learning-how-to-be-a-great-tech-startup-CEO)

------
dirtyaura
I'm far from a good CEO but there are a few things that I've noticed are
important and I'm steadily trying to get better at them:

1\. Learn to delegate. This is surprisingly hard at first, if you are used to
do everything yourself.

2\. Learn to motivate and inspire. You need to surround yourself with talented
people who work toward common goal.

3\. Learn to demand, when it's needed. People actually enjoy getting things
done, but sometimes it requires that you push a bit.

4\. Learn to make decisions quicker. Developers are analytical folk, so we
usually err on the side of gathering too much information before making
decisions. Sometimes it's more important to just make a decision with
inadequate information and move forward.

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freework
Don't be afraid to fail. Be inquisitive. Don't give up. Find a good partner
who is the opposite of you. If you're a developer, you're probably introverted
and nerdy. Find yourself an extroverted slick salesman type. (Of course this
is much easier said than done). Stick to what you do best, and make sure your
partner sticks to what he does best.

------
orangethirty
This is one of the things that you ultimately learn by doing. Lots of trial
and error. I share my experiences doing this through my newsletter
(<http://orangethirty.github.com/marketing_bits>). Being a CEO is not
glamorous at all. Lots of hard work.

