Let me just throw it out there: being a startup CEO is the most demanding and mentally exhausting
job I've ever had.
The decisions you make, affect not only the future of your company but the future of the
people who trust you to make the right decisions for the company they work for.
It's extremely demanding.
It never stops... and it's also the most thrilling experience of my professional life.
This is Startup CEO Roles and Responsibilities.
BTW- this is part of a new course on starting a business- check out the link below to subscribe.
Here’s some of my background in case you don’t know me: our company Slidebean is
a web presentation platform, way more efficient than PowerPoint.
We have over 600,000 sign-ups from all over the world, over $1MM in annual revenue and
growing fast.
We are a US company with a team of 20+ people based in New York City and in San Jose, Costa Rica,
where I'm originally from.
I'm the CEO, and one of three company founders- and everything in these videos comes from
my own experience, managing this, we'll call it a successful company, and a previous one,
who went out of business.
As a CEO you'll need creativity, people skills, number skills, patience, resolve... but before
all that, I think the most critical skill a founder needs is the ability to learn
and adapt fast.
You will need to do a bit of everything in your company, especially when starting up-
from tech tasks such as setting up an email to routing your domain- to understanding the
employment legislation in your city, state, and country.
As your company grows, you can delegate these tasks, but it's much easier to build a team
by delegating your tasks, than by hiring people to do things you have no idea how to do.
When you know how to do something, you know how long it should take others to do it, which
keeps your teams efficient.
However, knowing how to do everything means, well, that you have to learn a bit about everything.
Going back to my background: coming out of high school I decided to study computer science,
which didn't end up doing it for me but gave some basic knowledge in coding which has been
insanely useful as the CEO of a tech company.
I understand, at least in the abstract, how most of our features work.
After quitting computer science, I did my undergrad in digital animation, as in the
guys that do this stuff for a living.
I fell out of love with this career path and ended up dropping out when I started my first
business; however, I learned to design.
I don't consider myself an excellent designer, but I know how things work, I know how long
things take to make, I can tell good websites and bad websites apart, and before Slidebean
existed, I could build a nice-looking pitch deck without any help.
So as you can see, I don't have a business background.
Still, I know accounting, financial models, human resources, I live and breathe Excel,
I know legal documentation for startups, I know stocks, loans...
I can't say I'm an expert in either of these matters, but I understand them.
As a CEO, you just have to.
You have to learn something new every day, and you have to learn fast, and no career
path can prepare you.
While this may vary from company to company, I'm going to breakdown the tasks I need to
perform at Slidebean.
Again, at the time of writing, we are a team of 20 people based in 2 countries.
Starting with my core tasks, or the ones I feel I'll never be able to delegate- and then
moving to the functions that I am already looking to pass along to somebody else on
the team.
Job #1 for the CEO: Don't run out of money.
Job #2: Don't run out of money.
Balance new hires, budget expansion with revenue forecasts to spend capital efficiently.
I'm understating how important this is. It is your responsibility to keep the company going.
Define the company roadmap and strategy: from yearly to quarterly to monthly plans.
Connect the tasks of all the teams: ensure we are all rowing in the same direction, and
sync feature launches with marketing campaigns and customer training.
You are the one person in the company that oversees everything that's going on.
Optimize and facilitate, so that teams can work more efficiently.
Preside over the Board of Directors, and keep board members and investors updated and
informed.
Create and care for the company culture.
Again, this is easier said than done, and so much more important than it sounds.
Keep the team motivated.
Our revenue information is open to everyone in the team, so they know, every day, whether
it's meeting our expectations or not.
It's my job to keep everyone calm so they can perform to their full potential.
Deal with compliance: understanding legal and tax situations and how the company is
addressing them.
Most of those tasks would apply to any company.
On more Slidebean and me-specific tasks- these are some that I expect I'll delegate soon>
Write the scripts for these weekly videos, and oversee the content marketing efforts
we make.
Approve large product or service purchases.
Oversee the marketing site (our landing pages) and the strategy to improve it.
Lead some of our new marketing experiments, once again, so I can understand them and then
delegate them.
Define salaries and benefits packages for our team, based on our company budget.
Create and follow up on critical partnerships and business proposals. And a lot more stuff I can't remember.
So, starting a company is a marathon, not a sprint (not my quote, by the way).
If you are considering starting a business, you need to prepare yourself for what's to
come.
Here are my top 3 priorities:
Don't start a company for the sake of starting a company: I see a lot of entrepreneurs who
just 'wanted to build a business' and sat down to find an idea.
That's the wrong approach.
In most cases, your startup idea comes from your own experience: a unique industry insight
you learned at your job, an exceptional talent you acquired, or a business opportunity that
you have the skills to monetize.
Uncertainty: be prepared for not knowing where your company is going.
For the first few months or even years, you will have limited visibility about your future,
so embrace living in the moment.
Most startups fail, that's a sad but very real statistic, so even if your idea is great,
be prepared mentally and financially to deal with failure.
Don't quit your day job until you are ready and know when to go back to a day job.
Long working hours: as a founder-CEO, you are working on your business 100% of the time.
Your brain is always going to be on your business, and it's incredibly exhausting.
Even vacations are hard to enjoy when people's lives depend on your decisions.
I can talk all day about drawing boundaries and setting aside personal time, but the truth
is as a founder, vacations and holidays don't mean what they used to mean when you are an
employee.
Your business is a part of you; period.
So be prepared for the marathon of your life.
Thanks a lot for watching.
As always, the first 25 people that sign up with the link in the description will get
3 free months on our Slidebean Premium plans.