Founder vs CEO knowing the difference between the roles increases a startup’s success.
Most founders love adding the CEO title to their name without truly understanding what it means to be a CEO. Every founder doesn’t need to be a CEO and realizing your skills, abilities, and responsibilities for each role are vital for stewarding your efforts and maximizing your growth.
A startup’s founder gives the startup its initial life through time, money, energy and other resources. The founder or founders are the ones who create the vision for the startup and make it a reality.
Separating ego and titles when running a startup may be hard but understanding that as a founder is essential. What a founder created is now a company and making the best decisions for the company is paramount for every founder to ensure they see their idea grow into everything it can be.
AChief Executive Officer, often called CEO, is the highest-ranking position in most businesses. The CEO is responsible for the overall performance of a company. They often serve as the face of the company in interactions with investors, creditors, and the public at large.
Basically, the CEO is the head of the company and is responsible for planning, directing and steering the growth of the business. The CEO is the leader who works with the founders, board of directors, advisors, and management team to set the vision and strategic direction for the organization. This individual has the ultimate responsibility to deliver the corporate goals.
A CEO is in charge of a company’s overall performance and future. As a founder selecting the right person to run your company and delivering on your goals and vision is essential to success.
As a founder with controlling shares in the company, it’s important to appoint a CEO that you can work with and a person that you can fire if they cannot deliver as promised.
Most founders think and make the mistake of giving equity in terms of controlling shares of the startup to their team. This form of equity, often called sweat equity, does not need shares in the company that has voting rights.
Founders need a crash course in understanding how to structure their company, onboard the right people with talent and focus on feeding, nurturing and growing their idea.
A founder wearing too many hats and involved in day-to-day operations aren’t effectively managing their idea. Every idea needs stewardship, and the effective use of time, money and energy is the competitive advantage of one founder over another.
Are you managing your startup, or is your startup managing you?
A founder needs to drive their idea and vision with a CEO partnered with your success, not your compensation package.
