JD of a startup CEO ??

Ever came across a job description for a startup founder/CEO?

I mean, we surely don’t see this vacancy often on LinkedIn, and while we can ask Workable or Indeed for a CEO JD (or maybe OpenAI now), it’ll most likely return unreliable results, simply because the job is so volatile that no published document can truly reflect what a CEO actually does and doesn’t.

Truth is, founders don’t get a handbook when they launch a new venture. We join accelerators, yes, we practice by doing, yes, we get inspired by others, yes, but none of that articulates what our unpredictable day-to-day will look like.

So, here’s what my JD looks like from what I did last year and what I’m mostly doing next year.

One thing to note before reading the below is that I still write most of our new vacancies’ job descriptions. I love doing that, although we’ve built a remarkable People team that can handle this on my behalf. There’s literal art in writing a JD. Sourcing extraordinary talents begin with the JD formation, and I like to have a cut in that while my time and capacity still allow.

Credit: Some of the responsibilities mentioned below were inspired by Sam Altman’s Startup Advice.

?? Role: Startup founder/CEO

?? Reporting to: team, investors, board, advisors, ecosystem, parents, wife, friends, and oneself.

?? Main objectives:

1. Make sure your startup doesn’t die, both metaphorically and literally.
2. Have all the answers, even when you know nothing.
3. Lead by example, even if you don’t know where you’re going.

?? The general stuff:

1. Develop the vision, mission, and strategic plans
2. Set up systems and procedures that don’t scale
3. Review company’s performance by reading financial statements

?? The crux:

1. Stay genuine about your purpose and vision
2. Find and hire people better than you
3. Fundraise relentlessly, but smartly
4. Have the ability to develop founder-market fit within you
5. Simplify things and clearly communicate quarterly objectives and goals
6. Roadmap for 3 months at most
7. Be an animal negotiator
8. Make money
9. Get lucky
10. Say no when needed
11. Be the jack of all trades at start, then learn how to delegate artistically
12. Keep your calendar organized and up-to-hour
13. Be the first to arrive to the office and the last to leave
14. Stay extremely optimistic and spread motivation and purposefulness
15. Trust the system and fear nothing but failure of execution
16. Avoid meetings unless vitally needed
17. Talk to customers, suppliers, and other key stakeholders in your value chain
18. Recognize, reward, and praise overperformers
19. Listen to everyone, but listen to no one
20. Build an advisory board of veterans to support your leadership team
21. Build a board of directors that cares more about the impact than the dollar value
22. Conduct and lead a weekly all-hands meeting for the entire company
23. Establish legal entities and manage all miscellaneous legalities
24. Send quarterly newsletters to your investors and stakeholders
25. Act as an unbiased, subjective and evidence-driven judge in conflicts.
26. Build systems that can improve efficiencies, decrease errors and silos, and eliminate distractions
27. Measure what you make and have sound & non-vanity metrics/KPIs
28. Religiously protect your company and board from takeovers
29. Obsess about execution and product quality
30. Be ridiculously and relentlessly resourceful to your team
31. Develop a framework to know when to pivot or persevere
32. Empower your team endlessly and be humble enough to learn from them
33. Keep a proactive eye on competitors
34. Identify market opportunities and be a first-scaler in them
35. Build a culture people would feel proud, safe and hungry to stay part of
36. Liaise with legal to avoid unnecessary lawsuits and fines
37. Spend 50% of your time doing everything, and 50% doing everything else
38. Read endless tweets about leadership but create your unique style
39. Update the company’s pitch deck on a monthly basis
40. Be a storyteller with influence
41. Take calculated leaps of faith frequently
42. Move fast and break things faster
43. Try your hardest to not fall in the imposter syndrome frequently
44. Sleep enough

In conclusion, the rapidly innovative world we are living in has turned the workforce into a challenging warzone. In my humble opinion, and based on my personal experience, being a founder is a unique challenge because you have to be resilient towards yourself and project this resilience onto the growing team that works for you.

Becoming a founder is holding a double-edged sword; having the sword is powerful and invigorating, yet challenging and strenuous.