Episode 13: The 3 roles of a CEO with Nicolas Vandenberghe
Today’s episode takes a look at a business leader who is passionately driven about starting up, perfecting his product, driving growth, and doing this again until perfection is reached.
Nicolas Vandenberghe, CEO and co-founder of automated meeting scheduler and boon to sales people the world over, Chili Piper imparts some key learnings for the CEO and entrepreneur. He talks in detail about how he grew Chili Piper and how he is applying a refined and perfected formula to his newer company, KosmoTime.
The viewer will be treated to very important and meaningful nuggets of learning from the seasoned CEO and startup founder. His entire experience in founding Chili Piper, along with the growth pains and the continuous struggle to grow and iterate the product is a journey anyone and everyone about to embark on a startup journey can benefit from.
Vanderbergh’s formula seems simple in theory, however, the mastery of the role and taking a startup from bootstrap to millions of users is a path laced with many obstacles. He stresses the importance of a CEO in the conceptualization, architecture, design, and implementation of the product.
He concludes that the CEO role transforms and evolves along with the growth trajectory of the company. When a company grows in a massively rapid manner, it is easy to get lost in doing too much as you try to hold off additional overhead for as long as possible to maximize funding. He throws caution to the wind on this spiral of doom.
“A CEO needs to think where they can be most impactful within the limited time of the day.”
The answer to this thought is to focus on what is important at certain stages of growth.
He dubs this “The Entrepreneurial Triangle”.
Firstly, the CEO is not only instrumental but has to take almost full control of seeking the product-market fit. Finding the balance of seeking the target consumer, gaining insight on what they need, designing a product that they want. It is of absolute essence that the product achieves an impact on the market or the company will drown in its infancy.
Secondly, after the prerequisite level has been unlocked, the CEO is the conductor of the go-to market orchestra. A symphony composed of continually touching base with customers, managing costs, and continually increasing revenues.
Thirdly, the CEO must initiate the organizational design and operational growth. Venderbergh suggests hiring the right people to implement the organizational design lest the CEO get sucked into the day-to-day operations. It is imperative to be involved in the people selection process to keep your incoming team aligned with your vision.
The insightful lessons imparted by Nicolas Vanderberghe in this episode strike key points in every startup founder who wishes to see their ideas turn into realizable dreams. For those who don’t know how to get things started this video brings a wealth of ideas to the table to help you found, grow, and expand your business.
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