Hot Seat

Part I. Founding

Your first days as a CEO and founder are, appropriately, full of existential questions.

What should we be doing?

What should our focus be?

Who does what?

Am I really the CEO?

Here’s the bad news: it’s not just the first days. In fact, none of this changes. As we’ll see later, even as a mature startup executive, you’ll be spending the few quiet hours between emergencies questioning your opportunities, directions, and sanity as you ride the rollercoaster of your company.

For now, though, answering those questions is actually your day job.

I’ve seen many founder CEOs wrestle with this. Are they ready for the responsibility? Can they do it? Part of that depends on the kind of leadership the company needs, as the role varies enormously from company to company. Part of it depends on the CEO’s strengths and weaknesses, because at the core of the CEO’s job is delegating nearly everything over the course of their careers. But while CEOs can be many things, there is no question they must be one thing: the tireless, resolute, committed, and devoted backbone of the company.

They need to know what to do. And when they don’t know, they need to be really, really good at faking it.

Are you ready for the hot seat? This book will help you decide.