Recruitment for Start-Ups (Part II) Finding the Right CEO
Part two of this series by Tim Dempsey focuses on finding a CEO.
Marc is an inventor who has spent a couple of years building a robust product that is finally ready to go to market. The problem is that Marc is just that, an inventor, and realises that he has no clue how to run a business, manage a team, take control of finances or sell the product itself. Marc understands that he needs to recruit someone to do all this, but is completely perplexed on where to go next.
Before posting anything on the job market, Marc needs to spend time assessing whether he is the right person to take on the CEO role. Although he has been the only impetus and driving force behind the product development to date, he needs to understand that recruiting a CEO, rather than someone employed just to deal with the above tasks may be the most sensible option for him, however hard it may be to let up control.
Assuming that Marc eventually comes round to the fact that there may be a wide range of experienced industry candidates that can build on his development success, turning the product into a business and allowing him to concentrate on further product innovation; the task of recruiting a CEO to the business is one to be carefully approached.
There are a number of factors to consider here: experience, drive, connections and salary. Although what follows may seem slightly contrary to part 1 of this blog-series, remember that these are entirely different cases.
Experience
Marc needs to be sure that the candidate has experience in building a business from a product, as demonstrated by prior achievements, that will prove constructive for the ensuing task. A CEO needs to understand the needs of a business at this stage, and be able to steer the product into a particular market or industry.
Drive
A CEO has to have aspirations and positively encourage a team to reach them.
Connections
To reduce the time lag in bringing the product to market, strong industry connections will help significantly. The ability to call in favours from friends throughout the industry is something that comes at a high cost if it doesn’t already lie in the business.
Salary
Since the CEO is driving the business forward from now on, holding its success on their shoulders, I would suggest that their remuneration package should reflect this to a certain extent.
Most important of all, Marc needs to connect and communicate well with the candidate from the off. Trust is very important between the two and will be the main factor in the ventures success.