Lead Upwards

CHAPTER FOURLanding Your Next Startup Executive Role: Leveling Up Within Your Current Organization or Seeking a Role Elsewhere

Can you become an executive within your current startup? That depends‐‐here are the scenarios where it's possible, and a couple where you probably won't get there, at least not anytime soon. Plus, how to look for your next startup executive role outside your current organization.

Are you looking to level up to your first leadership role from within your current startup? This chapter features in‐the‐trenches stories of managers or directors or “head of” startup contributors who made the transition to executive, what they did to prepare themselves, how they made the case, plus a true story of how I successfully landed my first executive promotion after a shockingly brief (ten‐minute!) discussion that was seven months in the making!

Many first‐time startup executives join as “head of” and prove they're able to be a true executive. This path aligns with the industry's common advice for founders from VCs and accelerators on how to level their early‐stage leadership team.

MY FIRST EXECUTIVE ROLE: JOINING AN EARLY‐STAGE STARTUP AND GETTING PROMOTED TO VP

My first executive role involved a “head of” where I proved I could own all of marketing and then was promoted to the executive title after six months. Prior to this, I'd done consulting in “head of” capacities where I tried out different functional marketing areas ranging from the strategic to the ...