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The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building
Matt Mochary coaches the CEOs of many of the fastest-scaling technology companies in Silicon Valley. With The Great CEO Within , he shares his highly effective leadership and business-operating tools with any CEO or manager in the world. Learn how to efficiently scale your business from startup to corporation by implementing a system of accountability, effective problem-solving, and transparent feedback. Becoming a great CEO requires training. For a founding CEO, there is precious little time to complete that training, especially at the helm of a rapidly growing company. Now you have the guidance you need in one book.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 5, 2019
1,145 people are currently reading
7,772 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
February 29, 2020
A very short, practical, to the point guide discussing topics of interest for a smallish startup CEO. I enjoyed a number of ideas I saw for the first time, e.g. "Energy Audit" (forces you to explicitly think about where you can uniquely add the most value by examining your last week's calendar), the "top goal" heuristic, or the discussion around group buy-in. It's good, but a bit more if a good checklist for "topics to discuss" with someone you respect in more depth in person, and more grounded in a concrete organization.
December 24, 2019
The Great CEO Within gets my Five Star book review.
In my first startup, I independently learned much of these items although it took years, talking to many people and reading many books. I wish I had been able to read this one book instead!
I read Great CEO Within in two sittings and it instantly became one of my top 3 recommendations for startup founders. If you are a first time founder of a company of 20 people or less, I recommend making it a priority to read this book now. Yes, like over the holidays.
The book is a tactical, specific and detailed look at how to run a tech startup. The audience is most specifically technically oriented first-time founders without much experience with management. Much of what it says will be applicable to a different audience or to a different type of company or management situation, but the further you get from the less it may apply to you. For the experienced startup leader, the book can be a reminder and checklist of best practices.
I’m told the book was passed “hand to hand” as a Google Doc for a few years. I originally read as that Google Doc and now it is available as an ebook and paperback book.
Matt Mochary, the author, was a VC and then founded Totality which was sold quickly in the first dotcom boom. More recently he has developed a coaching practice working with CEOs of tech startups like Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Brex, OpenAI, Flexport and others. The book summarizes what he has learned from experts, other books and coaching these CEOs and includes his approach to how to handle the issues that come up again and again.
It very well summarizes the Silicon Valley body of knowledge of how to run a tech startup. It is something you can learn but there is precious little time for training when you are in the middle of it. Having a resource that summarizes so much in one place, is extremely valuable. If you adopt these approaches, while not all employees will be familiar with them, they are accepted enough that other management, board and employees will be less likely to be push back compared to something you invent on your own.
The book is strongly opinionated. The voice is definitive in presenting one way of doing things. That can be helpful as a first time exec who has a lot to learn. Of course, we all know and I suspect the author would agree that there is more than one way to do things. But some ways are better than others and many of the things described here are way better than anything you’ll figure out on your own while doing 20 other things. It’s probably useful to take his recommendation as the starting point until you develop your own point of view.
I have implemented many of the ideas in the book previously but not all. Given the success I’ve had with the ones I’ve used, I would be inclined to try the others, as well. For example, I have not used the RAPID decision-making process or writing-heavy prep for meetings.
What is covered in the book? Things like:
-Beginning (getting to product market fit and keeping a team very small before that)
-Individual Habits (things like GTD, being present, expressing gratitude, and taking care of personal health)
-Group Habits (decision making, impeccable agreements, issue identification and conflict resolution, company culture, etc.)
-Infrastructure (tools like online file folders – yes it gets this tactical)
-Collaboration (org structure, accountability and transparency)
-Processes (fundraising, recruiting and sales/marketing)
Here are some of the big things it does not cover enough. No book is perfect!
-Diversity: From experience I can share that it is easier to build a diverse team the earlier you start.
-Remote or Virtual Teams: I think there is more to be said about management practices for teams that are not physically together. As this is becoming more possible/effective and costs to be physically in the Bay Area are rising, the importance of this is increasing.
-Purpose: While there is some discussion of a 10 year company vision, I think there could be more said about identifying and communicating about a company’s purpose.
On the more tactical side, the book does not cover much in depth on the following areas as the assumed audience likely knows it, or it is less important in the B2B software world or one book can’t cover everything. You should know so you’re not expecting too much given my glowing review.
-Devops
-Agile or another approach to managing software development. Although there is some on the role of a product manager and why it should be an independent function in the company
-Press / Media
-Compliance
-Consumer Marketing
-Collections
There are some areas where I disagree with the book. Some worth mentioning right now would include:
-Sleep – While the author does advocate for exercise, meditation and personal health, he seems to embrace a low sleep approach. It seemed like he almost advocated sleeping 3 to 6 hours. I’ve heard enough interviews with Dr. Matthew Walker (author of Why We Sleep) to think that more sleep is important for most people.
-Disciplined Entrepreneurship over Lean Startup – I think the Disciplined Entrepreneurship book is wonderful but if I had to pick, I think the Lean Startup approaches applies in more places and gives a larger framework/mental model compared to the DE approach.
-Governance – There is a brief mention in favor of super voting founder shares. I believe that a more balanced governance model is often better to drive accountability, represent different interests and avoid the risk of a founder losing touch with reality. A reasonable debate to be had here.
-Going Public – The book is fairly negative on going public and argues that staying as a private company is better. I think the discussion is more nuanced depending on the company and the situation.
I had the thought that it would be great to extend this work even further. I wonder if anyone has:
-Cataloged and/or created the template documents that support the recommendations here and published them in one place?
-Created a list of the software tools that support the practices here and are the recommended software tool kit.
As it might be helpful, here are some of the key books referenced that are summarized and incorporated with others. Reading the source book can be helpful, although Great CEO Within can give you a great place to start. Think of the time you can save!
-Getting Things Done
-One Minute Manager
-15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
-Who
-Never Split the Difference (I read Getting More and Getting to Yes and have not read all of this one)
-Predictable Revenue
-Unconventional Success
-Disciplined Entrepreneurship
-Nonviolent Communication
-High Output Management (have not read but plan to do so now! It is on my nightstand.)
In my first startup, I independently learned much of these items although it took years, talking to many people and reading many books. I wish I had been able to read this one book instead!
I read Great CEO Within in two sittings and it instantly became one of my top 3 recommendations for startup founders. If you are a first time founder of a company of 20 people or less, I recommend making it a priority to read this book now. Yes, like over the holidays.
The book is a tactical, specific and detailed look at how to run a tech startup. The audience is most specifically technically oriented first-time founders without much experience with management. Much of what it says will be applicable to a different audience or to a different type of company or management situation, but the further you get from the less it may apply to you. For the experienced startup leader, the book can be a reminder and checklist of best practices.
I’m told the book was passed “hand to hand” as a Google Doc for a few years. I originally read as that Google Doc and now it is available as an ebook and paperback book.
Matt Mochary, the author, was a VC and then founded Totality which was sold quickly in the first dotcom boom. More recently he has developed a coaching practice working with CEOs of tech startups like Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Brex, OpenAI, Flexport and others. The book summarizes what he has learned from experts, other books and coaching these CEOs and includes his approach to how to handle the issues that come up again and again.
It very well summarizes the Silicon Valley body of knowledge of how to run a tech startup. It is something you can learn but there is precious little time for training when you are in the middle of it. Having a resource that summarizes so much in one place, is extremely valuable. If you adopt these approaches, while not all employees will be familiar with them, they are accepted enough that other management, board and employees will be less likely to be push back compared to something you invent on your own.
The book is strongly opinionated. The voice is definitive in presenting one way of doing things. That can be helpful as a first time exec who has a lot to learn. Of course, we all know and I suspect the author would agree that there is more than one way to do things. But some ways are better than others and many of the things described here are way better than anything you’ll figure out on your own while doing 20 other things. It’s probably useful to take his recommendation as the starting point until you develop your own point of view.
I have implemented many of the ideas in the book previously but not all. Given the success I’ve had with the ones I’ve used, I would be inclined to try the others, as well. For example, I have not used the RAPID decision-making process or writing-heavy prep for meetings.
What is covered in the book? Things like:
-Beginning (getting to product market fit and keeping a team very small before that)
-Individual Habits (things like GTD, being present, expressing gratitude, and taking care of personal health)
-Group Habits (decision making, impeccable agreements, issue identification and conflict resolution, company culture, etc.)
-Infrastructure (tools like online file folders – yes it gets this tactical)
-Collaboration (org structure, accountability and transparency)
-Processes (fundraising, recruiting and sales/marketing)
Here are some of the big things it does not cover enough. No book is perfect!
-Diversity: From experience I can share that it is easier to build a diverse team the earlier you start.
-Remote or Virtual Teams: I think there is more to be said about management practices for teams that are not physically together. As this is becoming more possible/effective and costs to be physically in the Bay Area are rising, the importance of this is increasing.
-Purpose: While there is some discussion of a 10 year company vision, I think there could be more said about identifying and communicating about a company’s purpose.
On the more tactical side, the book does not cover much in depth on the following areas as the assumed audience likely knows it, or it is less important in the B2B software world or one book can’t cover everything. You should know so you’re not expecting too much given my glowing review.
-Devops
-Agile or another approach to managing software development. Although there is some on the role of a product manager and why it should be an independent function in the company
-Press / Media
-Compliance
-Consumer Marketing
-Collections
There are some areas where I disagree with the book. Some worth mentioning right now would include:
-Sleep – While the author does advocate for exercise, meditation and personal health, he seems to embrace a low sleep approach. It seemed like he almost advocated sleeping 3 to 6 hours. I’ve heard enough interviews with Dr. Matthew Walker (author of Why We Sleep) to think that more sleep is important for most people.
-Disciplined Entrepreneurship over Lean Startup – I think the Disciplined Entrepreneurship book is wonderful but if I had to pick, I think the Lean Startup approaches applies in more places and gives a larger framework/mental model compared to the DE approach.
-Governance – There is a brief mention in favor of super voting founder shares. I believe that a more balanced governance model is often better to drive accountability, represent different interests and avoid the risk of a founder losing touch with reality. A reasonable debate to be had here.
-Going Public – The book is fairly negative on going public and argues that staying as a private company is better. I think the discussion is more nuanced depending on the company and the situation.
I had the thought that it would be great to extend this work even further. I wonder if anyone has:
-Cataloged and/or created the template documents that support the recommendations here and published them in one place?
-Created a list of the software tools that support the practices here and are the recommended software tool kit.
As it might be helpful, here are some of the key books referenced that are summarized and incorporated with others. Reading the source book can be helpful, although Great CEO Within can give you a great place to start. Think of the time you can save!
-Getting Things Done
-One Minute Manager
-15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
-Who
-Never Split the Difference (I read Getting More and Getting to Yes and have not read all of this one)
-Predictable Revenue
-Unconventional Success
-Disciplined Entrepreneurship
-Nonviolent Communication
-High Output Management (have not read but plan to do so now! It is on my nightstand.)
January 28, 2020
Хороший ликбез по основным менеджерским практикам для современного СЕО. Ничего не рассмотрено достаточно глубоко, зато рассмотрено практически все, с чем приходится сталкиваться. Есть хорошие советы текущего момента. Лет 5 книга прослужит...
February 9, 2020
Great practical guide for anyone in a startup leadership role. It's straight to the point and gives you the cheat sheet for most situations.
January 14, 2021
A very good book that has information and realistic advice about the nuances of running a company. Recommended for startup founders.
November 10, 2018
This is a no fluff, 4-hour read about scaling a tech startup. The doc is applicable outside of tech, but the author, contributors, and examples all come from tech. It doesn't get too deep in any particular topics, but there are plenty of recommendations for additional reading if you're looking for specific help. The advice largely focuses on what to do after you've found product market fit, which is unique to each company but typically looks something like >$1M in annual recurring revenue for B2B. Don't expect to find anything about ideation, customer interviews, or building a MVP. There's also not a lot of examples to help you digest the information, but that was sacrificed for conciseness. For the amount of content you get over the time invested, it's worth a read for every founder or early employee.
I love that it's a publicly shared Google doc. That's the embodiment of a minimum viable product. It's easily shareable, platform agnostic, and gives readers the ability to easily jump around to the relevant content via outline.
There's a lot of great nuggets here- we were able to implement a couple suggestions immediately, and others are stored away as reminders for things we'll need to do in the near future. I expect to be double checking our decisions using this doc once every couple months for the foreseeable future.
I love that it's a publicly shared Google doc. That's the embodiment of a minimum viable product. It's easily shareable, platform agnostic, and gives readers the ability to easily jump around to the relevant content via outline.
There's a lot of great nuggets here- we were able to implement a couple suggestions immediately, and others are stored away as reminders for things we'll need to do in the near future. I expect to be double checking our decisions using this doc once every couple months for the foreseeable future.
July 24, 2018
At the time of the writing this is not a book per se, but a Google Doc that reads like a step-by-step instruction manual on structuring every aspect of starting, funding and managing a startup. Chalk full of relevant advice with references to other books where appropriate. While it's definitely not enough for a company or a manager to succeed, you'll be better equipped to do so when you're done reading.
April 23, 2022
Much to my surprise, this book has happend to be quite a valuable source of tips for ant startup CEO. I learned many interesting things from feedback mechanism to team structure which can be easily applied even in any sort of companies. Furthermore, the book was written in simple language.
August 17, 2023
I don’t agree with all advice (f.E. AoRs), but this book contains a lot of advice in very compact form in a breadth I haven’t encountered so far. If I were to found a company at some point, I’d revisit this again
December 24, 2022
نصائح مكثفة وعميقة ومختصرة في إدارة الشركات الناشئة التقنية
August 27, 2022
If you are seeing this review and you’re interested in the title of the book… please give it a read! I have yet to come across such a clearly defined path with actionable steps to becoming not only an amazing leader, but an exceptional human being.
May 25, 2020
Not a big fan of "how-to" business books since they tend to age quickly. This book however was superhelpful! For all fellow entrepreneurs- if you read 1 how-to business book in 2020, please read this.
December 27, 2020
Great tactical guide on everything from recruiting to fundraising. Gets very into the weeds but lacks in describing more complex scenarios.
December 5, 2021
The best practical leadership book for scaleup CEOs, founders and senior leaders.
November 3, 2024
Good book, very light en easy to read with good tips on how to improve productivity
December 20, 2020
I loved this book. Great tactical advice for CEOs. Clearly written with little to none of the ambiguity that normally shrouds advice. And most importantly the vast bulk of the suggestions are great ones. Some are a little bit full on - of the variety where the level of organisation required to make them happen isn't realistic for me/in a business the size of Forward - but the vast bulk are great. Many times I found myself thinking that Matt had made crystal clear what I had previously understood intuitively and that the extra clarity will improve my execution.
And the format is discrete bite sized chapters. This book is easy to dip in and out of/put up and pick down.
Highly recommended for startup CEOs.
And the format is discrete bite sized chapters. This book is easy to dip in and out of/put up and pick down.
Highly recommended for startup CEOs.
February 11, 2023
A fantastic resource for any CEO or leader. This is one of the most practical, actionable, immediate-impact business books I've read, with no fluff, business speak, or even a single page wasted. This book also is a treasure trove of recommendations to other highly valuable business books, and the recommendations don't waste any pages either, either saying "book XXX explains how to do this, so go read it, we won't waste time repeating it here" or "book YYY explains how to do this, but here's a one sentence/paragraph summary of what you need to know."
To be fair, the book is highly opinionated, and many of those opinions are optimized for VC-backed, hypergrowth startups, so not everything here applies to every company (e.g., sentences like "once you get there and begin the blitz-scaling process..."), but there are still a lot of gems here for just about everyone.
Here are some of the key takeaways for me:
Avoid a 50/50 split with co-founders. Having to make unanimous, consensus-driven decisions day after day is inefficient, exhausting, and can easily destroy a company. Having a clear decision maker for every decision eases the burden for everyone and produces better outcomes.
Don't grow beyond 6 until you've achieved product-market fit (PMF). Companies get exponentially slower as they grow, so stay (very) small until you have clear PMF: that is, companies are willing to both buy your product (after the test phase) and recommend it to others. Don't be fooled by large enterprises who have budgets just for trying software; ensure they actually renew after the trial & recommend to others. Look at metrics like revenue, renewal rates, and NPS.
Scaling past 20. Every company goes through a dangerous transition as it grows from fewer than 10 people to more than 20. Communication breaks down, productivity breaks down, and even as you hire new people, they don't seem to produce much output. The solution in almost every company uses the same three ingredients:
1. Establish a vision and goals for the company, each team, and each individual on a regular basis (typically quarterly)
2. Communicate the vision and goals to every team member
3. Track and report progress towards these goals on a regular basis (typically weekly).
At Google, they use OKRs for this, but the name doesn't matter; just these three ingredients. Although it sounds simple, in practice, establishing this system effectively from just reading instructions is very, very hard. The solution: hire a COO to establish and run this system, or temporarily hire an ex-CEO to help establish this system and then hand it over to you.
Use GTD for an organizational system. Go read the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and follow the advice there to organize your inbox (that is, email inbox, Slack inbox, and all other TODOs) into Next Actions, Waiting For, and Someday/Maybe buckets, process them on a regular basis, etc. There's even a great pointer in the book for how to organize GMail to show these three buckets.
Block out 2 hours per day to work on your top priority. This comes from the book Essentialism and the key idea is to ensure that you have two hours blocked out every single day, ideally as early in the day as possible, to work on the absolute most important thing on your plate. This is what lets you move the needle on the things that really matter.
Show gratitude every day. Add a trigger to remind you to show gratitude to your team every single day. Ask:
- "What's good about this situation?"
- "What is good about this team member?"
- "What is good about the company?"
- "What is good about my life?"
Be specific: names of people, actions they took, etc.
The role of sales: trust. People buy things only when they've built trust in them. If the product is cheap (< $100), you don't need much trust, and you might take a risk. But for more expensive products—especially B2B products that costs tens of thousands of dollars and up—trust is essential. Building trust from a website (self-service) is very hard, so that's the role of sales. Without it, most B2B products just don't work.
The role of customer success: hand-holding. Most people are overwhelmed with products and new things to learn, and while good design, docs, and streamlined onboarding all help, they aren't enough, at least in the B2B world. In the B2B world, you need a customer success team to hold the hand of the customer, walk them through onboarding, answer questions, and help out with technical issues along the way. Without this, the customers don't on board properly, they never see the value from your product, they don't renew, and they end up resenting you.
The loudest voice in the room. By default, the CEO almost always has the "loudest voice in the room," and people will assume you know more, and go with your suggestions, even though they truly prefer something else (which they then never articulate). To avoid this, and to get people really bought in, allow everyone else to voice their opinion first. Better yet, have them write it down async, and then voice it. Only then share your own opinion.
Impeccable agreements. A common cause of inefficiency is being sloppy with agreements, so people don't get done what you thought they agreed to. To avoid this, you need to:
1. Precisely define the agreement, which means it is captured in writing, and an objective third party could look at the agreement and determine if it was accomplished successful or not.
2. Get everyone to commit to it—in the high integrity commitment sense, as defined in Conscious Business, and again, capture this in writing.
Put these written agreements somewhere everyone can see them regularly. Everyone is expected to follow through on agreements: if you find out that you can't, you must proactively let all stakeholders know immediately and work to update the agreement; if you fail to notify others, then you have broken that agreement. This has consequences. The first time around, you are given this explanation about how to uphold agreements (or notifying others & altering the agreement in the rare cases you can't). If you keep failing to do this, you are fired.
Identifying key company issues. Ask team members to write in their own private documents thoughts about the company that elicit joy, excitement, sadness, anger, and fear. For anger and fear, you must write (a) facts, where you explain what the camera saw, with no judgments / opinions, (b) story, where you explain your judgments / opinions, and (c) proposed solution, with specific actions, deadlines, and owners. After everyone has done this, you have them add their items to a big shared document, with no attribution. You then all read the document, getting inspired by what creates joy and excitement, bonding over what makes you said, and figure out how to incorporate the anger & fear items into the roadmap.
Conflict resolution. The vast majority of interpersonal conflicts arise from people not feeling heard. In most cases, people don't necessarily need you to agree with them, but they do need you to hear what they are saying. If you just argue back immediately, that doesn't happen, and you get a conflict. The solution: don't argue right away; first, repeat back what the person told you, in your own words ("I think I heard you say") until the other person says, "that's right!" When you hear that, that means they feel heard, and now you can share your own thoughts.
Two-way communication mediums. For any sensitive discussions, such as giving performance feedback, always use a two-way communication medium, such as a face-to-face chat or live call. These sorts of discussions always require rapid back-and-forth to clarify things, deal with emotions, etc. With a one-way medium (e.g., email, chat), you can't do this, and the recipient may become angry & defensive, with no way for you to see it or respond to it.
Effective intros. If you need an important introduction, such as to an investor, find everyone in your network who knows them, and ask 3-5 of them to send recommendations that they meet you, all at the same time. Getting one intro is good; getting a whole bunch at once makes you seem amazing.
Look for partners, not investors. You want an investor who contributes more to your company than just money. The way to find one is to build a relationship before trying to ask them for money! In the first call, tell them, "I only want to work with investors with whom I have a good relationship. So let's start with coffee and get to know each other personally." Have a few chats like this—in person, via Zoom, etc—before talking about raising money at all. In those chats, ask about their lives and work; prove you heard them ("I think I heard you say..."); prove you remember ("last time we talked, you mentioned..."); let them know what you appreciate about them. If you do this, the investor will eventually say, "I like you and want to invest in you. Tell me what your company does."
Telling your story in a humble way. Here's a formula to sell yourself and tell your own story in a way that sounds humble, rather than bragging:
- Credit: "It could not have happened without..."
- Hard work: "We had to work so hard to make this happen, such as [example]..."
- Vulnerability: "It was most difficult when...
- Duty: "We were driven by our dream to [noble motive]..."
- Gratitude: "I'm so proud and thankful that..."
Interview questions. Ask each candidate:
1. What were you hired to do? [Ideally, some sort of OKRs]
2. What accomplishments are you proud of? [Ideally, these link to #1!]
3. What were some low points during the job? [Keep asking until you get an honest answer]
4. Who were the people you worked with?
- What's your bosses' name and how do I spell it?
- What was it like working with them?
- If I ask them for your biggest strengths & weaknesses, what would they say?
- Who were your peers and how do I spell their names?
- Who were members of your team and how do I spell their names?
- How would you rate the team when you inherited it (A, B, C)? And when you left (A, B, C)?
5. Why did you leave that job?
Reference check questions.
1. In what context did you work with them?
2. What were their biggest strengths?
3. What were their biggest weaknesses back then?
4. How would you rate their overall performance from 1-10? What about their performance gives you that rating?
5. They mentioned they struggled with _____. Can you tell me more about that?
To be fair, the book is highly opinionated, and many of those opinions are optimized for VC-backed, hypergrowth startups, so not everything here applies to every company (e.g., sentences like "once you get there and begin the blitz-scaling process..."), but there are still a lot of gems here for just about everyone.
Here are some of the key takeaways for me:
Avoid a 50/50 split with co-founders. Having to make unanimous, consensus-driven decisions day after day is inefficient, exhausting, and can easily destroy a company. Having a clear decision maker for every decision eases the burden for everyone and produces better outcomes.
Don't grow beyond 6 until you've achieved product-market fit (PMF). Companies get exponentially slower as they grow, so stay (very) small until you have clear PMF: that is, companies are willing to both buy your product (after the test phase) and recommend it to others. Don't be fooled by large enterprises who have budgets just for trying software; ensure they actually renew after the trial & recommend to others. Look at metrics like revenue, renewal rates, and NPS.
Scaling past 20. Every company goes through a dangerous transition as it grows from fewer than 10 people to more than 20. Communication breaks down, productivity breaks down, and even as you hire new people, they don't seem to produce much output. The solution in almost every company uses the same three ingredients:
1. Establish a vision and goals for the company, each team, and each individual on a regular basis (typically quarterly)
2. Communicate the vision and goals to every team member
3. Track and report progress towards these goals on a regular basis (typically weekly).
At Google, they use OKRs for this, but the name doesn't matter; just these three ingredients. Although it sounds simple, in practice, establishing this system effectively from just reading instructions is very, very hard. The solution: hire a COO to establish and run this system, or temporarily hire an ex-CEO to help establish this system and then hand it over to you.
Use GTD for an organizational system. Go read the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and follow the advice there to organize your inbox (that is, email inbox, Slack inbox, and all other TODOs) into Next Actions, Waiting For, and Someday/Maybe buckets, process them on a regular basis, etc. There's even a great pointer in the book for how to organize GMail to show these three buckets.
Block out 2 hours per day to work on your top priority. This comes from the book Essentialism and the key idea is to ensure that you have two hours blocked out every single day, ideally as early in the day as possible, to work on the absolute most important thing on your plate. This is what lets you move the needle on the things that really matter.
Show gratitude every day. Add a trigger to remind you to show gratitude to your team every single day. Ask:
- "What's good about this situation?"
- "What is good about this team member?"
- "What is good about the company?"
- "What is good about my life?"
Be specific: names of people, actions they took, etc.
The role of sales: trust. People buy things only when they've built trust in them. If the product is cheap (< $100), you don't need much trust, and you might take a risk. But for more expensive products—especially B2B products that costs tens of thousands of dollars and up—trust is essential. Building trust from a website (self-service) is very hard, so that's the role of sales. Without it, most B2B products just don't work.
The role of customer success: hand-holding. Most people are overwhelmed with products and new things to learn, and while good design, docs, and streamlined onboarding all help, they aren't enough, at least in the B2B world. In the B2B world, you need a customer success team to hold the hand of the customer, walk them through onboarding, answer questions, and help out with technical issues along the way. Without this, the customers don't on board properly, they never see the value from your product, they don't renew, and they end up resenting you.
The loudest voice in the room. By default, the CEO almost always has the "loudest voice in the room," and people will assume you know more, and go with your suggestions, even though they truly prefer something else (which they then never articulate). To avoid this, and to get people really bought in, allow everyone else to voice their opinion first. Better yet, have them write it down async, and then voice it. Only then share your own opinion.
Impeccable agreements. A common cause of inefficiency is being sloppy with agreements, so people don't get done what you thought they agreed to. To avoid this, you need to:
1. Precisely define the agreement, which means it is captured in writing, and an objective third party could look at the agreement and determine if it was accomplished successful or not.
2. Get everyone to commit to it—in the high integrity commitment sense, as defined in Conscious Business, and again, capture this in writing.
Put these written agreements somewhere everyone can see them regularly. Everyone is expected to follow through on agreements: if you find out that you can't, you must proactively let all stakeholders know immediately and work to update the agreement; if you fail to notify others, then you have broken that agreement. This has consequences. The first time around, you are given this explanation about how to uphold agreements (or notifying others & altering the agreement in the rare cases you can't). If you keep failing to do this, you are fired.
Identifying key company issues. Ask team members to write in their own private documents thoughts about the company that elicit joy, excitement, sadness, anger, and fear. For anger and fear, you must write (a) facts, where you explain what the camera saw, with no judgments / opinions, (b) story, where you explain your judgments / opinions, and (c) proposed solution, with specific actions, deadlines, and owners. After everyone has done this, you have them add their items to a big shared document, with no attribution. You then all read the document, getting inspired by what creates joy and excitement, bonding over what makes you said, and figure out how to incorporate the anger & fear items into the roadmap.
Conflict resolution. The vast majority of interpersonal conflicts arise from people not feeling heard. In most cases, people don't necessarily need you to agree with them, but they do need you to hear what they are saying. If you just argue back immediately, that doesn't happen, and you get a conflict. The solution: don't argue right away; first, repeat back what the person told you, in your own words ("I think I heard you say") until the other person says, "that's right!" When you hear that, that means they feel heard, and now you can share your own thoughts.
Two-way communication mediums. For any sensitive discussions, such as giving performance feedback, always use a two-way communication medium, such as a face-to-face chat or live call. These sorts of discussions always require rapid back-and-forth to clarify things, deal with emotions, etc. With a one-way medium (e.g., email, chat), you can't do this, and the recipient may become angry & defensive, with no way for you to see it or respond to it.
Effective intros. If you need an important introduction, such as to an investor, find everyone in your network who knows them, and ask 3-5 of them to send recommendations that they meet you, all at the same time. Getting one intro is good; getting a whole bunch at once makes you seem amazing.
Look for partners, not investors. You want an investor who contributes more to your company than just money. The way to find one is to build a relationship before trying to ask them for money! In the first call, tell them, "I only want to work with investors with whom I have a good relationship. So let's start with coffee and get to know each other personally." Have a few chats like this—in person, via Zoom, etc—before talking about raising money at all. In those chats, ask about their lives and work; prove you heard them ("I think I heard you say..."); prove you remember ("last time we talked, you mentioned..."); let them know what you appreciate about them. If you do this, the investor will eventually say, "I like you and want to invest in you. Tell me what your company does."
Telling your story in a humble way. Here's a formula to sell yourself and tell your own story in a way that sounds humble, rather than bragging:
- Credit: "It could not have happened without..."
- Hard work: "We had to work so hard to make this happen, such as [example]..."
- Vulnerability: "It was most difficult when...
- Duty: "We were driven by our dream to [noble motive]..."
- Gratitude: "I'm so proud and thankful that..."
Interview questions. Ask each candidate:
1. What were you hired to do? [Ideally, some sort of OKRs]
2. What accomplishments are you proud of? [Ideally, these link to #1!]
3. What were some low points during the job? [Keep asking until you get an honest answer]
4. Who were the people you worked with?
- What's your bosses' name and how do I spell it?
- What was it like working with them?
- If I ask them for your biggest strengths & weaknesses, what would they say?
- Who were your peers and how do I spell their names?
- Who were members of your team and how do I spell their names?
- How would you rate the team when you inherited it (A, B, C)? And when you left (A, B, C)?
5. Why did you leave that job?
Reference check questions.
1. In what context did you work with them?
2. What were their biggest strengths?
3. What were their biggest weaknesses back then?
4. How would you rate their overall performance from 1-10? What about their performance gives you that rating?
5. They mentioned they struggled with _____. Can you tell me more about that?
March 14, 2023
A fantastic guide for founders on how to set up all the basics of a functional company. Prescriptive and simple, with good, clear logic.
October 4, 2023
I guess I am not the target audience, but I found this book touching a lot of areas superficially. I would rather go to the primary literature.
March 3, 2022
Wish it wasn’t so tech focused and for companies that want to go public, but still a lot of great takeaways and highlight worthy moments.
March 10, 2024
The business book I’ve read so far. Just 100 pages of distilled practical wisdom of how to run a company on a day-to-day basis. Must read to all managers
February 9, 2023
Highly tactical operating system for running and growing an early stage company. Distills info you’d otherwise get in lesser form from dozens of different sources into actionable steps. If you’re a founder or working at a startup and have asked yourself “what’s the best way to do X”, this book probably has the answer in a highly distilled, actionable and authoritative format.
February 9, 2023
Practically useful. Revisit when in practice.
February 4, 2023
Ordering a physical copy - so useful
August 15, 2020
This book provides highly practical advice for running an early-stage startup. The book is split into the following parts: habits (both individual and team), infrastructure, collaboration and processes. The book is not about finding product-market fit (for that, read Steve Blank, Eric Ries, or Bill Aulet) but about building the innards of a company. The author, Matt Mochary, works as an executive coach with CEOs at companies like CoinBase and Brex. Matt writes that he regularly works as "one day a week" CEO to set up the processes and infrastructure explained in this book, and then teaches full-time CEOs to take over. You can consider this book his distillation of what he does during those few months.
The book is filled to the brim with practical advice. I was reminded of the importance of several practices I knew about (creating impeccable agreements, OKRs) and learned about a few new practices, such as RAPID decision making and running board meetings. I would recommend the book for first-time founders who are a few years into a new company.
The book is filled to the brim with practical advice. I was reminded of the importance of several practices I knew about (creating impeccable agreements, OKRs) and learned about a few new practices, such as RAPID decision making and running board meetings. I would recommend the book for first-time founders who are a few years into a new company.
February 1, 2023
To the point.
Recommended
Recommended
February 8, 2020
good and pretty distilled (so it is easy to read) book with the instructions for founders of well funded startups, with mostly on-site teams. Talks about management, time management, personal finances, decision making, fundraising, recruiting, sales and marketing, lead generation. Also, the book includes essays from few famous startups founders sharing their experience and offering an advice.
January 3, 2021
Matt compresses the best parts of 20+ business books to an actionable guide for founders at any stage.
Highly actionable and opinionated in a way that cuts through the noise to best practices. Clearly delineates what is relevant based on company size. Very well structured: starts with individual habits then moves to group habits, infrastructure, collaboration and processes.
Highly actionable and opinionated in a way that cuts through the noise to best practices. Clearly delineates what is relevant based on company size. Very well structured: starts with individual habits then moves to group habits, infrastructure, collaboration and processes.
November 1, 2020
One of the best books for a newbie founder/ceo, i have read
Very solid read. Concise and straight-to-the-point
Very solid read. Concise and straight-to-the-point
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