Dan Martell - 3 Responsibilities of Startup CEO

00:00:00.000 The responsibility of a startup CEO.

00:00:02.920 You know, I get asked that question all the time

00:00:04.820 and I was recently talking with some friends

00:00:06.620 and they were wondering like, you know,

00:00:08.320 okay, now that I have a team,

00:00:09.940 what is my responsibility as CEO?

00:00:12.080 Because a lot of them are still coding or designing

00:00:14.340 or doing kind of busy work.

00:00:16.760 But when it comes to being the CEO,

00:00:19.560 especially if you raise money from venture capitalists,

00:00:22.880 you need to figure out what is my responsibility.

00:00:24.820 And that's what I want to share with you guys today

00:00:26.040 is the three things that make great CEOs

00:00:29.260 and really the responsibilities of those founders.

00:00:32.260 So the number one is to set the vision.

00:00:35.760 Think about where the company's going.

00:00:38.060 You know, when people come to work,

00:00:39.060 they want to have a sense of future state.

00:00:41.860 You know, I always kind of try to paint people the picture,

00:00:44.260 not what we're doing today,

00:00:46.060 because we can kind of project out

00:00:47.660 what does the rest of the day or the week look like,

00:00:49.560 but how does this look like in three to five years,

00:00:52.960 or even 20 years?

00:00:53.960 What is our mission for this company?

00:00:56.460 And as the founder and CEO,

00:00:57.960 your responsibility is actually to not only paint that mission and set the vision, but it's also

00:01:03.660 to remind people. And trust me, you're going to feel like there's sometimes where you're explaining

00:01:08.320 yourself over and over and you're like saying this almost on a daily basis, if not several times a

00:01:13.640 day, but that's actually your job. That is what founders and CEOs do. They carry that mission and

00:01:20.560 that vision forward. They remind people, they tie what they're working on back to that mission.

00:01:25.340 and that is what they do all day.

00:01:27.860 It's a communication strategy, it's a leadership strategy

00:01:30.080 and that is the first responsibility of a CEO.

00:01:34.320 The second, the most important, the one that will kill you

00:01:37.720 is don't run out of money, right?

00:01:40.320 Now, it may sound crazy to think,

00:01:42.260 okay, of course, no, don't run out of money

00:01:43.700 because if you do, you have no business.

00:01:45.660 But think about this, if you're on the venture path

00:01:48.600 and that's the one I've known recently,

00:01:49.880 I recently sold my last company, Clarity,

00:01:52.420 but I've done two venture-backed companies

00:01:53.820 and what I've learned is the role of a venture-backed CEO

00:01:57.580 is to not run out of money.

00:01:59.060 It's to figure out how much capital

00:02:00.540 do you have left in your bank account

00:02:01.740 and when should you start raising

00:02:03.760 your next round of funding.

00:02:05.300 Bad CEOs, ones that don't take this into consideration,

00:02:08.440 are the ones that wait two to three months

00:02:09.920 before they run out of money to start the process.

00:02:12.380 It's at least a six to nine month process

00:02:14.060 prior to when you need it.

00:02:16.260 You know, so running out of money or resources.

00:02:18.920 So think about your team needs resources.

00:02:21.400 They might need contractors.

00:02:22.500 They might need server capacity.

00:02:23.820 they may need design support or feedback,

00:02:26.980 but whatever resource or need they have, including capital,

00:02:30.480 that is your responsibility to make sure it's topped up,

00:02:33.100 that everybody has access to it,

00:02:34.540 so they know how to use it, and that they don't run out.

00:02:37.100 So that's the second thing.

00:02:38.520 The third thing is to hire great people.

00:02:42.340 You know, it may sound crazy,

00:02:45.020 but those are really truly the three things,

00:02:47.400 is to make sure you set the vision,

00:02:48.840 you don't run out of money,

00:02:49.780 and hire amazingly great people.

00:02:52.880 This is the area, the people part,

00:02:55.020 that I spent probably 70% of my time on

00:02:57.820 because to me it's an ongoing thing.

00:03:00.080 As you're building a business,

00:03:01.800 you don't know when you're gonna need

00:03:03.440 to hire five great developer, designers,

00:03:06.120 BD specialists, marketing experts.

00:03:08.520 So what you're always doing as part of your daily routine

00:03:11.360 is always trying to meet new people.

00:03:13.600 Get introduced to high caliber talent.

00:03:15.940 You know, contractors that eventually

00:03:17.760 may be part of your team.

00:03:19.020 But whatever it is, 70%, for me anyways,

00:03:21.000 that's the way I look at it, especially if you,

00:03:22.360 Again, venture-backed, you have a good core team.

00:03:25.280 You need to be continuously looking for new talent.

00:03:28.840 And then recruiting that talent.

00:03:30.300 And most people at a high-performing team,

00:03:33.460 the people you hire don't need a job.

00:03:35.520 They're probably working somewhere,

00:03:37.180 and your responsibility, your goal,

00:03:38.800 is to try to convince them to either leave that position

00:03:41.840 and join you, or if they're working on their own startup,

00:03:44.160 and this has happened in many times,

00:03:46.000 most of the, I'd say half of the people I hire

00:03:47.960 actually are working on their own companies,

00:03:49.560 is putting their projects on hold

00:03:52.040 so they can come join our mission and our vision

00:03:54.960 for the next two to three, maybe four years if you're lucky.

00:03:58.380 But having A players and making sure that you continuously,

00:04:02.220 you know, if people aren't performing,

00:04:03.340 they're not a good fit, get them off the team.

00:04:05.560 If you need more people, have them queued up,

00:04:07.720 have them ready to join the team.

00:04:09.520 Those are the three areas.

00:04:10.600 Again, it's set the vision, don't run out of money,

00:04:13.400 and hire really great people.

00:04:15.780 That's a responsibility of a startup CEO

00:04:17.720 and I wanted to share that with you guys quickly.

00:04:19.480 I would invite you to like this video

00:04:21.480 and leave a comment below.

00:04:23.100 Let me know if you have any other tips for founders, CEOs,

00:04:25.920 or if you've struggled with anything and overcome it.

00:04:28.740 What were your solutions to that?

00:04:30.200 I wanna challenge you to live a bigger life

00:04:32.560 and a bigger business,

00:04:33.680 and I'll see you guys next Monday.

Dan Martell - August 17, 2015

3 Responsibilities of Startup CEO

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