Lots of my favourite VPs of Gross sales are actually turning into CEOs. Many. And I’m so comfortable for them. Many SaaStr OG’s have pulled this off, and I’ve watching many from Sterling Snow, CRO at Divvy becoming a member of Redo as CEO, to our personal Brendon Cassidy, CEO at HiveFive, pull it off.
I’ve one bit of recommendation although as you watch them go from CRO to CEO: it’s a a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot greater leap from CRO / VPS than you may ever think about.
They usually agree 😉
It’s now all on the road.
And 95% of you might have by no means truly shipped a manufacturing into manufacturing. Dedicated code. Handled a SEV-1. And even know what a very nice CTO seems like.
You are able to do it. Simply understand it’s 10x tougher than you think about. Possibly 100x tougher.
Simply since you promote it, doesn’t imply you may construct it. And main an ideal crew is just not the identical as going from 0 to 1.
The Emotional Rollercoaster of Being a Startup Founder: Your Household Will By no means Really Perceive pic.twitter.com/kG51LQpIlL
— Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is Might 13-15✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) June 10, 2024
You’ll see. My greatest recommendation for VPS/CRO turned CEO:
- Make completely, positively certain you might have a ten/10 CTO. Should you don’t know, discover a 10/10 CTO and have them interview your CTO. No matter you do, don’t reduce corners right here. Should you can’t discover a 10/10 CTO, wait till you may.
- Work out the way to survive, for actual, for 2-3 years making even lower than you deliberate. Sure, that is exhausting. Nobody cares.
- Work out the way to work 24/7. Not actually … however the way to survive having to consider work all of the time. Not nearly the way to crush the quarter. CROs assume this can be a little completely different. They study it’s an entire new league of duty, stress, and all consuming-ness.
Go Forth and Conquer. Simply funds for all of this 😉
(picture from here)
