CEO lessons from the road to Wall Street
The job description of CEO changes dramatically over a long trajectory of growth and success
By Brian Jacobs, Founder + General Partner, Emergence
Last week, I had one of the best experiences a venture capitalist can have. René Lacerte, the Founder & CEO of Bill.com — one of my portfolio companies — rang the bell of the New York Stock Exchange. It seems like yesterday when Bill.com started in a small house in Palo Alto, and over the last thirteen years, it’s been a marvel to watch him up close as he faced and overcame various business challenges while transforming himself into a skilled manager and a leader in his industry.
Growing into a Leader
The job description of CEO changes dramatically over a long trajectory of growth and success, and many people are not able to change and grow at the same pace. Every leader will bring different strengths and blindspots to this challenge, but René’s journey, which I observed from my vantage point as a board member and a personal friend, may provide insights useful to other founders who seek to become public market CEOs.
- Listening. I have found that successful leaders listen well and seek new information to refine their understanding of the market and the customers. With a clear vision in focus, great leaders tweak and hone the best business strategies based on new information. René treats everyone like someone who he can learn from. He knows a lot more about business payments than I do, but he was curious about what I have learned about SaaS pricing, channel strategies, freemium virality or stock option refresh plans. René is wicked smart, but he also knows that he doesn’t know everything.
- Team Leadership. I have never seen a startup success where a single person deserves all the credit. Every single home-run has something in common: a well-balanced and complete executive team. When I invest in a company, I tell the founder how I will rate them as a CEO by saying, “If you have an expert in each executive role who inspires the confidence of the board, then you are a great CEO. If you don’t, then I will ask why not.” This does not guarantee success, but without it, you will not make it to the IPO. Oh, and by the way, that means you have to convince them to work for you, and motivate them, and align them to work as a team.
Despite this pretty clear advice, René has also held these roles at Bill.com, in addition to CEO: CFO, Director of Sales, Head of Business Development, Head of HR, Head of Customer Success. He was doing what founders do, but he learned that it is impossible to scale this way.
Over 12 years, René has hired a lot of people at Bill.com, and I can tell his process has gotten a lot better! A finely-tuned, well-balanced, talented, diverse, high-performing management team is very hard to achieve and requires real leadership. He was a “doer” when we invested in Bill.com, and now he is a leader. It’s a full-time job to manage a team of thoroughbreds.
“Don’t be a bottleneck to their success.”
- Healthy Culture. I shared a book with René about maintaining youth and vitality as we age called Younger Next Year. René has embraced this philosophy of daily exercise and sets a positive example for the entire company. He takes time for a run almost every day, and we often have our meetings during a bike ride. Is it a coincidence that many of the executives also run, bike and weight training? Going from startup to IPO is a marathon, not a sprint. A healthy fit team will bring sharp minds to every business challenge and has the endurance to score when other teams are tired. I am a big fan of companies that celebrate fitness and health, and I am convinced that it can be a competitive advantage.
- Coaching and Caring. René is a demanding leader. He sets challenging goals for the company and his team, but he cares deeply about the success of each individual. He has a rockstar team, but he spends a lot of one-on-one time with each executive and thinks about how to coach them to raise their game.
- Raising the Bar. René demands more from himself than he does from his team. As the company has grown and accomplished more and more, René sets his sights even higher. He understands that goal-setting is key to maximizing human achievement. A clearly defined goal that is challenging but achievable helps everyone stretch to their maximum potential.
- Being Human. René is in touch with the human side of Bill.com. I have worked with René through some really good times and some really bad times. Over two decades, I have been to birthday parties, luaus, weddings and award ceremonies, so it’s clear that René can be a party-planner. He takes time to celebrate victories with his team and generally includes everyone in the company.
René is not afraid to show his emotions when we miss a goal for the wrong reasons. He has explained to me why there are times when he wants everyone to know that he’s upset and why. This is a powerful management tool, but it’s important not to lose control because you will have to explain yourself later.
Emergence is honored to be part of the first chapter in the Bill.com story. We partner with entrepreneurs with the vision and determination to change and grow, so that they can change the way the world works. Today, we salute René Lacerte and Bill.com as we embark on the next chapter as a public company.
