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What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

venturebeat.com

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Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#61

Post by stickfigure »

danieltillett wrote: post #38
alaskamiller wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, it's PresenceLearning, a digital platform to connect learning professionals with K-12 students. It just takes two minutes of reading some context.

I don’t think it is PresenceLearning as they still have a founder who is described as the Co-CEO [0]. 0. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/clay-whitehead#section-ove...

The commentary about PresenceLearning on Glassdoor sounds about right. They even mention the interm CEO (favorably, fwiw).

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/PresenceLearning-Reviews-E...

Crunchbase could be out of date, or maybe one of the cofounders stepped up.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#62

Post by wolco »

abhinai wrote: post #46
yial wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree with this - however it's important to remember that in smaller organizations.... Board members may still be incredibly involved and active. I know of a small (30 million a year) organization where board members input 20-40 hours a week. Not nearly as much as a CEO...but still much more then in other orgs.

20-40 hours / weeks sounds like a lot. What are these board members actually doing?

As silly as it sounds probably meeting with each other maybe making some calls or visiting a political friend.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#63

Post by wolco »

manigandham wrote: post #15

VCs without any operational experience are a major problem. This is why so many companies get advised into the overfunded death cycle and never actually build a sustainable enterprise. I find it surprising that not a single one of the existing 100 employees could be temporarily promoted to the CEO role.

A single employee makes sense from the outside. It's a control thing. A CEO doesn't need to actually know anything if the board is controlling direction. Hiring someone who doesn't have a relationship with the board would introduce risk.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#64

Post by caseysoftware »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #41
caseysoftware wrote: post #9

> Prior to this role, my “operating experience” consisted of working as a waitress during college. I found this line astounding and not in good ways. When a new senior person is announced (even interim), the first thing most people do is ask "what has this person done?" and they scour LinkedIn, writing, social media, etc to understand what they're about and their background. I'm trying to imagine senior leadership's…

That's out of context, isn't it? What does the next sentence say?

You mean this:

> My entire professional career has been in finance, where I have worked in small, flat organizations with a project-driven, deal team-oriented model.

Which is immediately followed by:

> In short, I had no idea what to expect, and I learned a lot, quickly.

This wasn't 3 people working on building v0.1 or early customer discovery. This was a 100+ person company with some momentum.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#65

Post by caseysoftware »

untog wrote: post #25
caseysoftware wrote: post #9

> Prior to this role, my “operating experience” consisted of working as a waitress during college. I found this line astounding and not in good ways. When a new senior person is announced (even interim), the first thing most people do is ask "what has this person done?" and they scour LinkedIn, writing, social media, etc to understand what they're about and their background. I'm trying to imagine senior leadership's…

How many SV startups are founded by recent college grads? Quite a few. I agree that it's not really that positive a thing, but it's certainly not atypical.

I 100% agree except that this isn't day one where they're still figuring out the basics and where the bathrooms are. From the article:

> The company has 100+ employees, hundreds of customers, and more than 15,000 end users.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#66

Post by alaskamiller »

danieltillett wrote: post #38
alaskamiller wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, it's PresenceLearning, a digital platform to connect learning professionals with K-12 students. It just takes two minutes of reading some context.

I don’t think it is PresenceLearning as they still have a founder who is described as the Co-CEO [0]. 0. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/clay-whitehead#section-ove...

Your research skills is lacking. Using crunchbase or TechCrunch to figure out what's going on is like reading IMDB and watching Entertainment Tonight to figure out what's going on in Hollywood. Go find the news wires, go read the gossip rags.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#67

Post by alaskamiller »

manigandham wrote: post #33
alaskamiller wrote: post #21

The writer's a VP, won awards, worked in i-banking, and has a double bachelors from an ivy league. She's trying to be cheeky and the first hot takes from the HN community is whoa, how dare they! Relax, it's a quick sunday read. Go do something nice for someone.

None of that is operational experience, as they themselves wrote. I've never seen an award that mattered either. I'm sure they're a smart individual but expression and context matters, and still leaves the question of not finding someone in the actual company who could take over temporarily.

You're reading too deep into it. It's a quirky little anecdote written as a throwaway listicle published on a weekend beat from a third rate pop tech news site.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#68

Post by alaskamiller »

ummonk wrote: post #31
alaskamiller wrote: post #21

The writer's a VP, won awards, worked in i-banking, and has a double bachelors from an ivy league. She's trying to be cheeky and the first hot takes from the HN community is whoa, how dare they! Relax, it's a quick sunday read. Go do something nice for someone.

That context isn't in the article; people are judging based on what is in the written article.

Some of these comments are making me ashamed of the Hacker News after being here for 11 years.

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#69

Post by hef19898 »

ErikAugust wrote: post #11

"The company has 100+ employees, hundreds of customers, and more than 15,000 end users. I spent almost four months as CEO. Prior to this role, my “operating experience” consisted of working as a waitress during college." I'll admit: I dug a bit to figure out what space the company is in, so that I can avoid using their services if it was applicable. Side thought: It'd be interesting to do a bizarro "Undercover Boss"…

Why wouldn't you use their services? Because they had an interim CEO? If that would be a reason a lot of companies would be out, wouldn't they?

Re: What I learned as a VC filling in as a startup CEO for 4 months

#70

Post by hef19898 »

czbond wrote: post #28
andrewstuart wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a contract temporary CEO found - plenty of them around and presumably a VC would know many.

Your suggestion is the right one - a contract CEO (with similar vertical or even horizontal experience) is better than a financial number cruncher.

I guess that depends on the situation of the company in question, doesn't it? If there have been financial issues a good number and finance cruncher might be exactly what the company needed to survive.
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