Shadowing the CEO Part I: Common Misconceptions of CEOs
By Sally Chen
How do you feel about being a CEO? How about one at a fast-growing, profitable and successful tech startup, with 65 employees and 4 locations across North America?
When I asked my friend the other day, he had visions of a luxurious lifestyle.
Although “tech startup CEO” does sound like a badass title, it is never as fancy as it seems. About a month ago, I started shadowing Sheetal Jaitly, CEO at TribalScale. During this time, my understanding of the responsibilities of a CEO has changed significantly.
In this post, I’d like to address some common misconceptions about the role of a CEO:
- High-level abstract decision-making. Not entirely. As a startup CEO, you are responsible for anything and everything. You need to solve specific problems in sales, marketing, operations, finance, HR, product and strategy, while also setting a vision for the future of the company. Every day, there are a million things on Sheetal’s plate. Some are definitely more long-term and strategic, like mapping out areas of expansion in the future for TribalScale. Some tasks sound more fancy, such as discussing term sheets with investors. Others are urgent matters like alleviating a critical interdepartmental communication issue that hinders project advancement. Sheetal also has many meetings with potential clients to personally show them around the office and showcase our Agile methodology. But at times, he might be involved in granular level tasks that are more tedious and administrative.
- Massive paycheque. Not at all. Having a startup is like having a baby. After many months of consideration and a whole year of a roller-coaster ride, it’ll finally take shape and your efforts will start to pay back. At this point, as the CEO, you wouldn’t even consider looking at sports cars and lake-view condos. For every single cent you earn, you’d want to re-invest it in the company to continue its steady growth and health into a toddler, then a teenager, and eventually into adulthood. Watching it and handholding it as it grows would be one of your greatest sources of satisfaction.
- Everyone’s boss, tip of the pyramid. Yes, and no. One of my favourite quotes that also reflects Sheetal’s approach to leadership is this: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Being a CEO at a tech startup requires bringing out the full potential in each employee. You can only do so by inspiring, trusting, supporting and nurturing the top talent in your organization. Merely looking down from the tip of the pyramid and passing along tasks would not make a good CEO. At the same time, you’d have to provide the structure and support that employees need to thrive.
Many only see the glamorous side of startup founders and the upside potential they have. And yet, behind that successful image, there lie countless small failures, efforts without reward, the 17-hour work day for 7 days a week, and the non-stop grind. As Sheetal always says: “I fuck up. In fact, I fuck up all the time. But failure shouldn’t be something that you’re afraid of — learn from your failures, and keep grinding!”
Sally is a student at the University of Toronto with a double-major in Economics and History. She is Sheetal’s mentee and intern and is currently working out of the Toronto Office.
