Levels of the business

On Monday morning, I was reviewing copy for an email campaign for new trialing users.
On Monday afternoon, I was in a room full of VCs and their Limited Partners, discussing how turmoil in the middle east was impacting global financial markets.

One of the more intellectually enjoyable opportunities as a founding CEO is to work at many different levels of the business. Most of my colleagues focus on one or two levels at a time. Rank and file employees execute on the task at hand – a call, a design, a blog post. Executives and team leads coach them, as well as focus on delivering the strategy for their particular aspect of business. We all collaborate and ensure there is transparency and cohesion among all levels and business units – however that is of course limited.

As a CEO, it’s a challenge, but a necessity, to be able to seamlessly move up and down the “stack.” When fundraising and pitching the ten-year vision of the company, individual employee’s welfare cannot go unchecked. Or when deep in the weeds in discussion and research on a product concept, we need to make sure this fits into our overall long term vision. And it all matters.

Execution relies on the health, alignment, and motivation of every single employee.
Strategy relies on clear data from the users and the market.
Long term growth relies on overall market dynamics, capital availability, etc.

It’s an exciting challenge.