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.
