How I fit into partnerships
I’m used to being the leader, but it’s not a must. For a change, it might even be interesting to not be the CEO.
I’m multifunctional and can run almost any function, as long as a team can be built there. Taking responsibility and making decisions comes easy to me.
The ideal partner for me is an engineer or a salesperson from a specific field who wants to focus on technology or sales while I run the rest of the business. Or a financial partner who can provide capital so we don’t have to raise an angel or pre-seed round, but doesn’t want to be deeply involved operationally.
But I don’t need just an investor. I need a partner — someone who balances me. Balancing means: helping me keep focus, sometimes slowing down decisions that are too fast, having a good feel for people and relationships, being stronger than me where patience, diplomacy and long consistent pushing are required.
Functionally, my strongest sides are product strategy and operations. I’ve almost always managed to build products that people love and that top the ratings, and to build operations that are efficient and cheap.
The hard story for me is sales. I’ve had misfires there, both with people and with performance. So if a project depends heavily on sales, ideally there should be a sales leader from that exact segment among the co-founders. With a decent budget, it can be solved by hiring.
I’ve learned from my own experience that saving on a strong sales leader almost always backfires.
Where you should bring me in
- Where something needs to be launched from scratch
- Where rapid growth is needed
- Where something is broken and needs fixing
- Into a stable business for a while — to quickly squeeze out a few points of EBITDA through cost cuts and revenue growth (I genuinely love this)
I can run something very large and multi-profile — there are always hard problems to focus on, and no time to get bored.
Where you shouldn’t
- Where there are many stakeholders (especially government ones) and you have to maneuver delicately and find balance
- Where the job is to sustain steady but not very fast growth. I’ll get bored and want revolutions
- Into businesses tied to alcohol and other vices, and anything with an unethical approach in general
In large organizations there is almost always a part of the job that is about multiple stakeholders, internal politics and maneuvering. That’s not my strong side.
How I manage
My approach can be described as Demonstrate, Delegate, Help.
When someone says something can’t be done, I often do it myself and show that it can. This creates a culture of hustle and proactivity.
Then I give maximum freedom and trust. I don’t control every step, but I encourage asking for help.
I work well with grown-up, independent people who can make their own decisions and own the result. If a person needs constant supervision, every task assigned and every step checked — most likely we’re just a bad fit.
My teams are usually small and very efficient. What takes five people in other companies is often done by one in mine.