Skylight’s Post

Why does no one talk about out this? Last night I was at a holiday party with some friends. I got talking to a guy I don’t know. Turns out he is the co-founder of a small e-commerce business that’s been very successful the last few years. As he told me about the business and his role in it. I sensed a hint of despair. He seemed conflicted. So I asked him about it. He told me that his heart is in innovation and product development, but the operations of the business and his small team occupy all of his time. I could tell it was wearing on him. I asked why he wasn’t doing what he really wanted. He gave me two answers: 1. No one could do it as good as him 2. Hiring for the COO role would eat into the profits of the company. Two myths to bust here. First, founders, there is always someone who could do it better than you. The only area of your business that you are irreplaceable is your vision and care. Second, the line to success is not a straight one. You have to be willing to lose some ground in profit to gain ground in growth. ✌🏻

From the first day of building topmate.io, Dinesh & I were focused on having the right team.🤝 Because, even if you're a genius, your business can still fail spectacularly by not having the right people on your team. Why? Because no matter how smart you are, you can't do it all alone. Building a successful startup takes a talented crew with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Think about the greatest businesses out there. They didn't get to the top by having one brilliant mind call all the shots. They invested in assembling teams of creative thinkers who could approach problems from different angles. Many of the team members are my college mates. So, obviously the trust factor is high. If you have the best team then you can.. ➡️Have better results ➡️Be more creative ➡️Work in happier environment At the end of the day, our team is our most vital asset on the path to success. ✨ So, you should also prioritize hiring people who bring new skills and ideas to the table. Please give them the autonomy and support to shine. Be humble enough to learn from them daily. What's your experience when it comes to assembling a stellar team? #teambuilding #leadership

LOOKING FOR PARTNERS 💡 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 Building out a new venture to reinvent trip planning doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a scrappy team with inspiration, unflinching determination to succeed, extreme focus, talented and dedicated resources, the ability to pivot quickly and raise sufficient funding to continually propel the business to the next phase of the vision. The strategy and business model for Solutionz Group is based on over 120+ years of experience (within the Executive Team alone) in building and running online travel businesses from the ground up. That knowledge has been coupled with the learning from the execution/market test phases as we took the product from concept to a company and proceeded to build out the infrastructure for the company. Want to come play with us? Let's talk. #zigwithchicke

Startup consulting was (mostly) fun… but I’m ready to focus on a single mission again and hoping you can help! I’m looking for a COO, Chief of Staff, or business operations/growth role at a quickly growing startup. I previously helped scale EliseAI as COO/CFO and employee #1: grew operations to serve 500K apartments, raised $30M (Seed - B), hired and led worldwide operations and data team of 50, and spearheaded sales and client success for Fortune 1000 clients. My highest priority: Working with an extremely competent, driven, and compassionate leader. Bonus points: - Startup already has customers / raised investment / proof they meet a real need - Startup helps improve people’s lives, particularly through education - Startup has an office / team members in D.C. If there’s a leader (or 2) that you admire who works at a startup, would you please message their LinkedIn profile to me? If the startup and leader seem like a potential fit, I’ll send you a short blurb that you can use to introduce me and ask them if they’d be willing to chat. It doesn’t matter if the leader isn’t hiring right now, as I’m looking to build relationships and not rushing into anything. Most startup leaders I know are always looking to build relationships too, as they’re going to be hiring at some point. :) Thank you so much!

Being part of a start-up is no easy feat. There's always a lot on your plate, from new learnings to countless opportunities. Every day brings a fresh set of challenges, pushing you out of your comfort zone. But that's where growth happens. In this dynamic environment, you're not just a team member; you're an innovator, a problem-solver, and a leader. The journey is demanding, but the rewards are immense. Embrace the chaos, learn from every experience, and seize every opportunity that comes your way. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

I went back to read my yesterday's post and was a bit like "ugh that sounds so formal". I will try to tell more about how I think and feel about these changes. If you read through the last post, you might notice that Katana Cloud Inventory recently hired a VP of Customer Success and that I was previously responsible for managing this department. This means that, basically, I decided to hire my replacement for that position. It's certainly sad for me to hand over the leadership of CS. To go from leading a team of 20 to leading 0, and not working as closely with my reports Andrew McGuire and Christopher Jay Martin anymore. For me, personally, it's a big change. Having said that, the sadness that comes with it is minor compared to the genuine excitement I feel for Katana as a co-founder and shareholder. I've always thought that if you can hire someone who can do your job better than you can, then you should hire. And this is what it had come to, considering the stage of Katana's journey. The next question for me was "Where can I make the biggest positive impact going forward?". To become a market leader, build products, and design a customer experience that people love, you have to know your customers better than anyone else. What are your customers looking for, how do they work, what do they think, and how is the experience you're providing making them feel? Making Katana even better at this is now my main goal. More confident than ever that this team can lead Katana to become the next remarkable Estonian startup success story!

"Co-CEO" is not a [good] title. First off- let's quickly define the role of a CEO. If you followed around 100 CEOs of various sizes of companies, you'd see 100 different workdays, but 4 things usually remain the same. 1) Getting funds 2) Choosing and letting go of top-level employees 3) Establishing the culture 4) Dealing with leadership issues that only you can handle. Speaking of various sizes looking different, here is a general breakdown: On a small scale, you will talk to customers, pay the bills, manage finances, and fill out paperwork. On a larger scale, you will focus on recruitment and policy. On the largest scale, you will focus on vision and direction. Now, a good business/startup team should have clearly defined structural roles and responsibilities for the CEO (one person) and the other team members. Continuing to call all team members "co-founders" without clear titles that indicate responsibility is a sign of 2 things: 1) You are not able to have hard conversations yet, and you can't decide who is a CEO between two people. 2) You can't make decisions when you disagree. You get stuck and delay. Clear areas of ownership build a culture of accountability, and you need this from the very beginning. If you are thinking of making your friend a "Co-CEO", read this post again. Or tell me about your hesitations here: https://lnkd.in/dxxuBDPs

Newsflash: Some might say that leading a tech consulting business through the end of a pandemic and into serious economic headwinds was a fool's errand. They could not have been more wrong. For the last two years I have had the privilege of working with the amazing team at HYPR NZ to consolidate their business and launch it into Australia as HYPR Australia. The fact that we have achieved this, stayed profitable and in the meantime vastly improved and clarified our proposition is something that I am hugely proud of. In terms of helping companies unblock the flow of value and create world class product engineering teams, HYPR are, in my opinion, head and shoulders above the competition. You can hear the but coming….. But, all of you who know me will understand that leading and building world class products from the inside is my true calling.  And so, I am stepping down as CEO of HYPR and casting myself into the global maelstrom of technology product entrepreneurship again. I am looking for a global opportunity, to lead a team that can benefit from someone with 30 years of experience at the cutting edge of building world class and world famous technology products. I’m an unusual creature. I have worked long stints globally, spent a third of my life in corporate giants in humbling exec roles, a third advising and helping start ups and scale ups to successful exits and a third as a business builder and entrepreneur myself. I’ve been in boardrooms on big TV shows and in many real ones as a contributor and later Director and I have an endless curiosity for new technology and how people work. I do what I do because I love it and I also love creating places where people can progress as humans in the endeavor of building meaningful, purposeful value for the betterment of society. I have also become aware that I thrive in the uncomfortable space where great change happens. And so, as they say on Linkedin, I am once more…. Open to work Let’s see what the universe can conjure this time 🙏 ps - I will only work in places with a genuine chance of doing something world changing and I will only work where I find amazing people, unbridled ambition, a wicked opportunity and a fair reward. pps - again, to everyone at HYPR thank you and I will miss you all. Gillian Clark Gareth Evans Ajay Blackshah Vicky Price 🙏🏼🤍🙏🏼 Check us out at hyprinnovation.io

While formally running and managing a big team I realized :- 1) How large the difference in impact can be between a low-quality decision and a high-quality decision. 2) How some decisions need a deep thought in contrast with some decisions that I can rely on my intuition. These are true for an IC and in life in general too, but the difference is that the number of these decisions is a magnitude higher when running a team and a magnitude even higher if it is a fast-paced startup. This requires the leader to be extremely strategic(sometimes creative) in using their time, energy, and team resources. Something I am trying to get better at every single day.

In every challenge I encounter, I find a parallel in sports, and it's led me to a powerful realization relevant to both sales teams and startups. The Power of Defined Roles: Just as in sports where each player has a specific role—goalkeepers save goals, strikers score, midfielders assist—businesses and sales teams thrive when individuals focus on their strengths. Attempting to have a closer generate leads or a tech specialist handle marketing, dilutes focus and diminishes effectiveness. Why Specialization Matters: In the same vein, expecting a salesperson to be a jack-of-all-trades is akin to asking a grasscourt tennis champion to excel on clay without adjustment. It's not about the skill level; it's about playing to one's strengths. The Startup Parallel: For startups, this underscores the importance of role-specific hiring as they scale. Founders might wear multiple hats initially, but sustainable growth requires specialized roles—from tech leads to marketing experts. A Call for Focus: The mistake many companies make is blurring these lines, leading to inefficiency and, ultimately, their downfall. Recognizing and harnessing the strengths of each team member, much like a well-coordinated sports team, is key to success. This analogy isn't just theoretical; it's a practical blueprint for building teams that are resilient, focused, and poised for victory. Are you a sports fan? What are the parallels you draw between your business operations and sports? Let me know in the comments! #TeamBuilding #Specialization #SalesStrategy #StartupGrowth #LeadershipLessons #salescoaching