founder vs. ceo

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: founder vs. ceo🕴️ 

i had the coolest opportunity to chat with nick donahue today at arcadia house. funnily enough, nick went to school in north carolina and dropped out to build his startup, atmos, in sf, while i’m heading there for school next year. :)

one part of the conversation that stuck out to me was the distinction between the role of a founder and that of a ceo. i never really thought of it before, but a lot of larger companies’ ceos, are not the original founders.

the gist is that founders are scrappy problem-solvers, while ceos are like managers that oversee the highest level decisions. a founder can most definitely be capable of fulfilling both roles, but it’s not necessarily a given, nor a super negative thing. ⚖️ 

nick mentioned getting a lot of value from executive coaching, and that made a lot of sense to me. the ceo level gets very bureaucratic and the skillset varies greatly from being a founder. this transition out of the need for a “founder role” happens as the company grows. it’s no longer the tiny team of 10 employees thinking about the next problem to tackle. now, there are different departments tackling each problem while the ceo makes public appearances and oversees organizational structure. 🏢 

this conversation helped me realize that founder and ceo aren’t interchangeable terms, they indicate two very different job descriptions. from my view, founders truly are their own bosses. ceos, on the other hand, aren’t. they need to reach a consensus with a board of directors, go through rounds of paperwork and finally give the last word before they can turn the needle and actually make a decision.

being a ceo seems pretty glamorous, but is it really?

i’m personally more drawn to the idea of hacking away at problems and generating fresh ideas with a tight-knit team, but that’s probably because i’m still young and have the energy to do that LOL.

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