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It takes a special combination of character, personality, focus, energy and skill to make a CEO in the tumultuous world of IT, a world characterized by incredible pace of change, new synergies, entire sectors rising and falling within a few years, consolidation, predation, success and failure, all taking place on a very public and opinionated global stage.

Now consider the world of the IT startup, and just multiply that personal requirement set several fold.

Scott Barnett is just such a person. He has worked in sales and management positions, but has also scratched that entrepreneurial itch pretty well in this portion of his career arc.

Scott is a thoughful and very decent human being who exemplifies the best aspects of the American character. Here is a recent conversation with him.

Bill:
Scott, what attributes of a tech startup CEO can contribute to a winning formula for all stakeholders?

Scott:
Bill, the key for a tech startup CEO is searching for a business model, and you have to show infinite flexibility and outstanding communication.

I’m a huge fan of Steve Blank and his The Four Steps to the Epiphany. The most important thing is to realize that you do NOT have the answers – what you have is a strong set of assumptions, and a lot of tenacity. Take those things and iterate on your product with as many customers and prospects as you can – listen carefully, figure out what parts of what you have built are repeatable, build success, then scale. So many people start to scale before they are ready, and that’s the cause of many of the high tech startup failures out there.

In terms of managing and leading a team, I favor empowerment. Hire people smarter than you, give them latitude to do great things, be flexible, but firm, about what results you expect. A person who is empowered will be much more effective than somebody who is simply good at following orders. The CEO’s job is to define the path to go down and the results to achieve at the end of the day… and to provide the tools to the team so they can get that job done. Then, they should simply make sure everybody is going down the right road, making the appropriate course-corrections along the way. It’s also true that the CEO’s attitude will become the attitude of the entire company – so I try very hard to use calm and steady leadership, and show respect for every person within the organization – whether it be employees, partners, or customers. It’s most important to do this during times of duress – anybody can seem gracious when things are going well, it’s when things are stressful that a person’s true spirit comes out.

Bill:
I’ve personally experienced the empowerment with you in our last two engagements; ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’, or words to that effect; the quote is attributed to several, including Admiral Grace Hopper. Please continue.

Scott: A tech startup CEO needs to look in the mirror and KNOW that they love it. Startups are so incredibly hard – you can do everything right and still come up short. There are thousands of roadblocks in the way of a startup. You have to have the personality to enjoy this type of roller coaster ride – the type that never stops! And of course, the typical refrain that it’s lonely at the top – no matter what decision a CEO makes, somebody thinks it’s the worse decision in the world. So, you are judged more so than anybody else. If you don’t like it, you’ll never learn how to do it – I truly believe this is nature vs. nurture – you either have the startup, entrepreneurial gene or you don’t.

Bill:
Do you feel that the tech startup CEO has to also be competent in sales, since the team is so small, you are such a public face and effective results-based communication is so crucial?

Scott:
A tech startup CEO should be well versed in all areas of the business. They obviously came from one specific area, but it is not appropriate to “delegate” a part of the business to somebody else. In other words, a startup CEO is a sales person, marketer, product manager, customer support, etc. This may sound a little bit counterintuitive to my previous answer where I suggest that people should be empowered, but it isn’t. The point is that empowerment and blindly handing over responsibility are two different things. The CEO needs to set the vision and direction of the overall company, especially in the incubation stage when you are still searching for a business model. Until the business model is known, there are too many factors and variables that need to be processed, and the CEO is ultimately responsible for this. So, they need to feel the pulse of every part of the business.

The shorter answer to your question is yes, a tech startup CEO needs to be comfortable being in sales. But that is not sufficient.

Bill:
Do you think that the CEO and the CTO of a startup have special and/or additional challenges in defining and maintaining a smooth and successful working relationship?

Scott:
I have always thought that startups are a three legged stool (in fact, I’ve blogged about this. Those three legs are product, sales/marketing and leadership. Just like a stool, if two of the legs are strong but one is weak, the chair will break. All three legs need to be “strong enough” to sustain the weight. The CEO needs to set the vision and culture, set the priorities and make sure they have a pulse on the overall business. The CTO needs to make sure the product is being built in a scalable and flexible way, leverage agile methodologies and not get too “proud” of their work, since customers will almost necessitate a pivot from whatever was original delivered functionality.

All members of the leadership team need to work well together, understand and agree on priorities, and execute flawlessly. One thing I typically say to management teams I’ve worked with is that you have the right (and obligation) to argue with me about direction and provide all the points that back up those arguments – but once a decision has been made, EVERYBODY lines up behind that decision and executes. Failure to do that will almost guarantee a failed company. There cannot be multiple people driving the bus and expect the bus to get to its destination.

Bill:
I want to thank you for taking the time to let us know a little bit more about you; just one more question, please: What advice do you have for those who want to be entrepreneurs?

Scott:
For those people that want to be entrepreneurs, I say “the easiest person to fool is yourself”. What I mean is that there are hundreds (if not thousands) of inputs that an entrepreneur must process in order to take their idea and turn it into reality. Most people have a pre-conceived notion of how things “should be”. They will turn all the data they are receiving through that channel and make it look the way they think it should look, to validate whatever assumptions they have.

I have found that the successful startups I have been at (and the ones you read about) the entrepreneurs question EVERYTHING. They do not pre-assume anything, and they take all the available input to question and challenge all that they know. It is the person that questions everything, that doesn’t assume anything, and that doesn’t fool themselves into thinking they are “right” about everything that has the most success. I’m planning another blog entry about this topic and how it pertains to sales as well, hopefully I can post that soon!