Who takes out a $20,000-per-week-interest loan to make payroll and then a few days later wants to spend $250k redoing the facade of a building they don't own? I know the guy.
I tell founders the same thing over and over:
The CEO has three responsibilities.
- Communicate the vision.
- Hire and lead great people.
- Don't run out of money.
That's it. Those are the things you'll never be able to hand off to anyone else. Those are your north stars.
And the way you hire and lead great people, and the way you don't run out of money (whether that's sales or fundraising) all of it boils down to the first one. Vision drives everything else.
CEOs are the Visionary in Chief.
But every so often you run into a CEO who fundamentally doesn't respect job three. They're not ignoring it on purpose. They just genuinely believe it's optional. We'll grow our way out of debt.
That's how you end up spending $20k a week in interest because accounts receivable is behind and payroll's due.
And then, a few days later, if you're wired a certain way, you'll want to spend that $250k making your new office look spiffy. Because in your head head, money that exists is money that's available.
A COO I work with is dealing with this exact situation and had to tell his CEO no. Not "let's workshop this." No.
The line of credit is not for cosmetics. It's for emergencies. It's for the moment you can't make payroll, not the moment you decide to zhuzh up your environment.
Founders will for hours on end debate culture, product, hiring philosophy, whatever AI tool is trendy this month. Anything to avoid paying attention to the thing that really matters -- runway.
You can have the best vision in the industry and the best people in that cool-looking office. None of it matters if you're borrowing from loan sharks to keep the lights on.
Communicate the vision. Hire great people. Don't run out of money.
The third one isn't optional. You can't win the game if your piece gets removed from the board.
BTW, I had to look up how to spell "zhuzh" :)