Being a CEO for the past 5+ years, one thing I enjoy the most is the fact that CEO needs to be good at everything ranging from product development, marketing, legal to sales, hiring and even firing.
Below is my work schedule for a typical weekday.
9:00 – 10:00 Read online news and share a couple of important ones on Slack
10:00 – 11:00 Get updates from technical team about ongoing projects and give feedback
11:00 – 12:00 Write follow-up emails to prospective customers
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch with teammates
13:00 – 14:00 Face-to-face meeting with a prospective customer
14:00 – 15:00 Review legal documents and important contracts
15:00 – 16:00 Face-to-face meeting with another prospective customer
16:00 – 17:00 Work on proposal materials for new customers and partners
17:00 – 18:00 Skype interview with candidates
18:00 – 20:00 Dinner with candidates or customers (rarely)
As you can see, a startup at post Series A still needs CEO to work as salesperson and I believe this is the way it should be. I spend much of my time talking to potential customers and partners. When I talk to them, I’m considering myself as a top salesman and being better than anyone at the company in terms of sales. But it doesn’t mean I can suck at everything else.
When I talk to CFO, I tend to use a lot of financial jargon just because it’s convenient. When I talk to CTO, then I leverage my full knowledge of being a former CTO myself in the past. It’s not enough for CEO to understand what a counterpart is saying. CEO needs to excel an opponent’s knowledge so that CEO can give a proper feedback and sometimes point out mistakes if necessary.
When I first stepped into the world of venture finance, Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist was my bible. I’ve read it countless times not because it was co-written by my favorite capitalist of all time Brad Feld, but it was my go-to destination whenever I countered something I didn’t know about in venture finance.
Same story goes to sales, HR, marketing, leadership, etc. I have at least one or two books I always refer to or a couple of mentors I can talk to whenever I face my lack of knowledge. I believe an excellent CEO is an excellent learner who has willingness to become master at everything.