A great CEO will be passionate about the long-term aims of the business and inspire others to share their vision. This is particularly true of startup CEOs, as they tend to be company founders and have to work relentlessly to make their business a success.
A generalist
Realizing the dream for your business isn’t easy. I know that a startup CEO has an exhaustive list of things to do. It’s likely that you oversee every aspect of the day-to-day business including finance, operations, sales and marketing. You’re probably in charge of recruiting the best talent and creating a pleasant working environment and culture.
The CEO also has to understand what customers want and convince them to buy and rate their products or services. Most importantly, CEOs have to find funding and liaise continuously with investors.
To do all this, you’ll need to be competent with many skills. While you may not have specialist expertise, you’ll know enough about every area of your business to ensure tasks get done. A good CEO needs to be hands-on, without micromanaging.
Communicate the vision
Most of the CEOs we meet are great communicators. They can convince talented people to join their company, even if it means leaving a better paid, more secure job. They are also adept at giving motivational talks to employees that boost morale and keep teams on track. But even the most exceptional CEOs spend a lot of time fighting fires and not enough spreading the word.
As digital marketing experts for the technology sector, we work closely with CEOs to offer them support, from a board and personal level, and create marketing programs that communicate their vision.
Through analyst relations and content marketing, we build awareness and raise the profile of young companies. We help our clients to tell their stories in a compelling way and use a wide range of marketing techniques to reach the right target audiences from blogging, email newsletters, analyst briefings and social media.
Moving goalposts
When things don’t go to plan, CEOs need to make decisions and act quickly. Staying focused on long-term strategy is important, but so is the ability to adapt. It’s likely that at some point you’ll have to change your business model and tweak your product, in response to competition and market demand. When things change, we can help you to articulate an appropriate vision for your business and redefine messaging with an emphasis on creating equity value.
We’re sure you’re good at promoting your company and selling to customers. However, expanding your audiences and communicating with market influencers about what you’re building is also key.
If you create worthwhile relationships with investors, analysts and potential buyers, they’ll want to be part of your story. The more attractive your company is and the more people you tell, the more you can add long-term equity value.
By Tania Vie, Founder and Managing Director, Vie Carratt