

What does a startup CEO actually do? - ajaimk
http://www.ajaimk.com/2009/10/19/what-does-a-startup-ceo-actually-do/

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staunch
I can't disagree more with the idea that a CEO should never get his hands
dirty. That his entire job is just to dictate and coordinate other people's
work. I think the CEO needs to dig in deep regularly, to show people the level
of work that is expected.

It's hard to respect someone who can't (or doesn't) actually produce any work
themselves.

Steve Jobs seems to be an inventor, designer, tester, AND CEO. Steve Balmer
seems to be much more like the author imagines a CEO should be. I know who
would choose to emulate.

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dustingetz
maybe at first. once you gain traction, a CEO should be whining and moaning
about how he wants to code, and wishes he could code like he used to, but is
busy doing all the people stuff that a techie just doesn't have the skills
for.

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ramanujan
Nontrivial secret to being a CEO: You need to hire people who are _better than
you_ (at something).

That seems like a high bar to clear, especially if you are a pretty good
engineer.

 _But if you don't clear it, you will end up working with people who will do
things worse than you._

This will make you and them feel awful. You will feel awful because either you
won't have the time to redo what they did (and won't want to give them another
task), or you will have the time to redo what they did (and waste the time of
having assigned them the task in the first place). Moreover both ways you hit
their morale and your morale.

Yes, one can make comparative advantage arguments (country/person X is
uniformly worse, but frees up country Y for their value add) -- but in real
life it sucks to think that "oh, this page could have looked so much better if
I had styled it, but at least it got done."

In short: you need to hire people who are better than you (at least at
something) in order to delegate with any hope of retaining your sanity.

PS: things are different for a professor. That's more of an r-selected
strategy. Go for good graduate students, yes, but if any given one fails it's
usually not a huge hit as projects are decoupled. Big difference vs. running a
company.

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MicahWedemeyer
Responds to user support requests and begs customers not to cancel their
accounts. That's in between posting comments on blogs saying "come check out
my blah blah blah"

Glamorous, huh?

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dschobel
_A CEO’s job is to hire people to do different tasks, tell them what to do and
make sure they get it done._

So a startup CEO is a regular company's project manager with hiring powers
added? That doesn't sound right...

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kljensen
Clearly there are many different possible ways to be a successful start-up
CEO.

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elblanco
Anything and everything (wear lots of hats) if they want it to succeed.
Leadership by example.

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moe
Mostly counting the incoming money and thinking up new titles for the business
cards.

~~~
elblanco
I like to convert my money to silver dollars and stack them on my desk, while
complaining about the cost of coal to heat my office!!! _rubs hands together
maniacally_

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RaTEDsaR
Organize meetings and get the people.

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oldgregg
If he has an MBA? Probably nothing.

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ajaimk
So, what about you? Everything? or Nothing?

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ajaimk
What would you say is the difference between a leader going crazy trying to
get his team to work they way he wants them to.

