Why is the relationship between autonomy-craving founders and goal-setting investors turbulent at times? It doesn’t need to be. After all, both founders and investors alike want their companies to succeed. And for that to happen, the start-up needs a dedicated CEO.
I’ve found that even the most resistant of founders can come to appreciate, and value, an incoming CEO. The secret to a smooth transition lies in how we choose the external CEO and how we manage the process of bringing them in.
Start-up investors and VCs are uniquely placed to take high-potential companies and create strong, sustainable growth from the seeds of an idea. And while start-up founders know deep down that this is true, I’ve still seen many occasions when an investor’s best efforts are met with suspicion — even hostility.
Why is the relationship between autonomy-craving founders and goal-setting investors turbulent at times? It doesn’t need to be. After all, both founders and investors alike want their companies to succeed. And for that to happen, the start-up needs a dedicated CEO.
I’ve found that even the most resistant of founders can come to appreciate, and value, an incoming CEO. The secret to a smooth transition lies in how we choose the external CEO and how we manage the process of bringing them in.
Contents
CEO STATS, FACTS AND SURPRISES
From the average age and tenure of a CEO to the gender gap and CEO salaries, this overview sheds some light on some of the current statistics.
“Trust, in many ways, is the new currency of business.”
WHICH SKILLS DOES A CEO NEED?
It is important to distinguish different types of CEOs. Some leaders at the helm of a company have gone through years if not decades of climbing the corporate leadership ladder into senior management and then took the position of CEO.
On the other side we have CEOs who are founders of start-ups. These are highly skilled experts in their field, but not necessarily in the CEO’s role of organizational design and managing executives.
The skill set every CEO needs, regardless of their professional background and company size, is a blend of classic CEO skills and those that were traditionally categorized as “soft skills”. Today, they are essential to how stakeholders assess performance and failing in them has business consequences:
✔️ lead with empathy and emotional intelligence
✔️ show strong communication skills
✔️ live and lead with strong values
✔️ champion diversity and inclusion
✔️ curiosity and continuous learning
✔️ deepen and expand the professional network
✔️ build successful teams and identify leaders
Next, we zero in on what the CEO for a startup needs to bring to the table beyond this set of skills. Some founders don’t want to take the position of CEO as the startup grows, some realize they need a strong leader for their fast-growth company. I’ve seen that, when it’s time to hire a CEO for a startup, a special skill set is needed.
HOW TO A HIRE A CEO THAT YOUR FOUNDER WILL LOVE
The CEO of a startup will lead an organization that is quickly evolving, growing, and facing new challenges. To understand how to go about hiring a CEO, you first need to consider what you’re asking them to do. The best external CEO will have the startup skill set required to lead confidently and successfully.
THE SKILL SET FOR STARTUP CEOS
Establish and maintain corporate culture
You need a high-performing CEO who not only gels with the existing corporate culture but who is able to guide and develop it in a way that fits the brand’s — and founder’s — vision and values.
Set company strategy
The right CEO will see the business through a strategic lens; you need them to complement the founder’s enthusiasm and passion with experience and rationality. More so, your CEO should know how to take a strategic plan and execute it in reality — so the founder can focus on other things.
Lead the executive team
Founders come with great ideas and enormous dedication, but few have significant leadership experience — and some, none at all. A great CEO comes with years of leadership know-how and can act as a role model for founders who wish to learn these skills.
Interface with the board and/or investors
The right CEO understands investors and corporate systems. This allows them to communicate clearly and easily with board members, VCs, and the founder, to avoid misunderstandings.
Represent the company wherever required
The CEO is an embodiment of the business, both internally and for the outside world. In the words of Peter Drucker, they are “the link between the Inside, i.e. the organization,’and the Outside — society, the economy, technology, markets, customers, the media, public opinion.”
Founders typically get to where they are propelled by pure passion; the decisions they’ve made have been focused on designing and delivering the best possible product that people want and need. Relatively few founders start off excited by conference circuits or PR, brand-building initiatives the CEO should embrace open-armed.
The opportunity to do more of what they want to do, and less of what they “have” to do, is just one way to get founder buy-in for hiring an external CEO.
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For a deep-dive into the Key Search hiring strategies for leaders, read our blog articles on:
FIND A CEO WHO IS RIGHT FOR YOUR START-UP
There’s no such thing as the perfect CEO for all situations. Each potential CEO will have particular strengths and weaknesses, bringing different experiences and mindsets. What you’re looking for in a CEO for your start-up will depend on the skills that are already there, and also on what role (if any) the founder wants to play in the future.
One factor that is often over-emphasized, though, is the importance of ultra-relevant experience.
Many investors assume that a CEO who has hands-on experience with a similar product, service, or technology will be best placed to lead a growing business through scale-up. When, in fact, the opposite can sometimes be true. A mindset of “but this is how we did before” can add fuel to the flames of discontent between a founder and an external CEO — it also risks holding the start-up back.
If the CEO relies, at least in part, on the founder for a product, customer, or technical intel, then both parties see the value in working together for sustainable commercial success.
When it’s time to find a CEO who will blend comfortably with the founder and existing leadership team, it can seem like a huge challenge, but it’s not one you need to face alone. Good executive search firms can help you balance the needs and interests of all parties — ensuring that founders and all other stakeholders feel confident in the future of the organization. In addition, their experience, networks, methodologies, and insights can save you time and effort in the executive search process, and help you find the perfect fit for the needs of your scaling start-up.