What is it really like to be CEO of a startup?
Ever wonder what it really feels like to be at the helm of a startup? We’ve gathered firsthand insights from 13 CEOs and founders, revealing the essence of their day-to-day leadership. From listening to your customers to help your business to scale to allowing the unpredictability of it all to fuel your passion, join us as we pull back the curtain and show what life could be like for aspiring founders.
Listen to customers to find the path forward
Whether you’re the CEO of a startup or a public company, you should be spending most of your waking hours thinking about how to grow and scale the business. It’s been nearly 20 years since I started ZoomInfo, and the one thing that I still do constantly is listen to customers and ask for feedback. If you’re not front and center selling your product or service—and getting beaten up along the way—you won’t be successful. It’s the only way to learn and improve. It forces you to remain nimble and flexible as a leader, ready to pivot at any given moment depending on market needs. I also apply this same logic to other areas of the business.
Founder and CEO, ZoomInfo
Abundantly gratifying, yet challenging
I’ve found that it’s one of the most abundantly gratifying spaces to be in—when I finally was able to stop working in my business for two minutes and start working on it—it’s a different mindset altogether. To be a CEO who thrives, the time spent working on myself is equivalent to or greater than working on the business. They say that in difficult times, we don’t rise to the occasion but rather fall to the level of our training. It’s not glamorous—it’s hard work.
CEO, Micah Abigail
You’re always learning and adapting
Being the CEO of a startup means constantly needing to learn new things as your company’s needs grow. Every day, I’m challenged to do something I’ve never done before, and that is one of the most exhausting things about being a founder. Everyone looks to me to make the right decisions, but I have no idea what those are. I can only do my best with the information I have. Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don’t. The most important thing is knowing that you can adapt and that there are very few decisions you can’t recover from. There are good and bad days, but the bad far outweighs the good in the beginning. It does get better. The only way forward is through.
Cofounder and CEO, eWebinar
No two days look the same
Being the CEO of a startup is a challenging yet rewarding role. Each day is different, which makes the job exciting. My cofounder and I each start our day early to maximize productivity, checking and responding to urgent emails and messages. Continuously refining the business model and strategy based on market feedback and company performance is crucial. This includes analyzing daily sales reports and making decisions about the most effective channels.
A key part of the role is leading the team and ensuring effective communication across all departments. Some days involve attending industry events and conferences to network and promote the company—these are some of the most enjoyable days as they provide opportunities to build valuable connections.
Having your own brand and working for yourself is truly a pleasure, but it comes with great responsibility.
CEO, VIKE BEAUTY
Get comfortable finding your business rhythms
Being the CEO of a startup is all about finding the rhythms of your business and recognizing that not every season should be a sprint for the fastest growth. Starting and running my business has often looked like taking the time to set strategic goals, leveraging the expertise of my team to collaboratively create and execute a game plan, and then collecting and analyzing data on what’s working in order to make changes to the plan. There are certainly times when it’s all hands on deck to respond to an opportunity, a problem, or a rapid shift in the market, but for the most part, it’s my goal for my business to move toward intentional, sustainable, and profitable operation. This is what frees up the creative space, team bandwidth, and other resources to be able to continue innovating in how we serve our customers.
CEO, Rhetorik Agency
Best and worst job you could have
It’s simultaneously the best and the worst job. On one end, I have the privilege of being at the forefront of all our exciting initiatives—getting paid to learn on the job. On the other end, when we’re experiencing rough patches, I’m the one who has to deliver—laying off friends, making unpopular but necessary decisions, facing numerous rejections, and the list goes on. I was always told this prior to Doorvest but never truly grasped it until experiencing it firsthand.
Cofounder and CEO, Doorvest
Inspiration and responsibility go hand in hand
Being the CEO of a startup is like piloting your own spaceship: It’s both inspiring and full of responsibility. Every day, I don’t just solve problems—I live my mission, inspiring and energizing my team, clients, and partners with my vision. This role demands not only creativity but also the ability to live in a multitask regime, make crucial decisions, manage products and finances, and create a sustainable system that brings about positive change in the world.
At the same time, I never lose sight of my identity as a woman, both at home and at work. As a mother of three and the CEO of several startups, I believe the key to female leadership in startups lies in our ability to perceive subtly and make less aggressive decisions, which ultimately makes us stronger. These personal features contribute to the creation of a sustainable system that brings about positive change in the world.
CEO, Kosmos Foundation
Be ready to touch each aspect of business
I went from working at a large global corporation to running my own global agency alongside my business partner. The freedom, ability to make decisions and move quickly, and closer ties to risk and reward are all amazing. But all of a sudden, we also need to think about every single aspect of a business—finance, HR, operations, client work, marketing, talent development, etc. It’s equal parts thrilling and mind-numbing—compartmentalizing your day and switching among all of those can be difficult. But so far, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Cofounder, Vivace Content
Master time management and delegation
Running a startup requires mastering the art of time management amid the chaos of ramping up the business. My company provides free content for marketers through virtual events, a podcast network, and newsletters, with all revenue coming from paid sponsorships of these media products. Each day is a balancing act, demanding focus on the most impactful tasks first. We internally always call it “eating the frog,” to ensure progress on key initiatives.
Another critical key to success is effective delegation skills. Delegation is crucial but challenging to master; yet, it’s essential for scaling operations and managing myriad responsibilities. The last element that is going to determine success is time management. Your calendar is the driving force behind being able to move things forward. Enabling the juggling of diverse activities from content creation to revenue growth to building out your team is a massive daily effort.
By prioritizing high-impact tasks and developing strong delegation skills, managing the daily demands of your company becomes more manageable and sets the foundation for sustainable growth.
Founder and CEO, GURU Media Hub
Embrace challenges, celebrate ‘yes’
After spending more than a decade working for other companies as an employee, I decided to take the leap and start my own shop. And it certainly is a massive change. Being the CEO of a startup, you get to see what you’re really made of. It stops being about your technical skills or how good you are at doing a specific job. Instead, it pushes you to learn about many areas you’ve never had to deal with before (and fast) and also challenges you to think outside the box you know so well. You have to have very strong self-belief and a strong stomach to digest the multiple “nos” you get on a daily basis.
That said, when you get a “yes,” it’s an exceptional feeling, and the freedom you get to build a company based on your philosophy and your ideas is, for me, one of the most amazing creative expressions I can imagine. It’s definitely not an easy journey, and you don’t know if there will be a happy ending, but it’s a journey that builds you up into a stronger person, and it’s worth taking.
Founder, Amazing Wave
Be flexible
As CEO, I’m constantly juggling diverse responsibilities, from product vision to sales execution and administrative tasks. My day starts with one to two hours of strategic solo work, leveraging my peak clarity and energy, followed by meetings with my team or potential clients. Critical projects, such as sales generation or product development, are a key focus, alongside tasks such as bookkeeping and HR. I prioritize my own growth through coaching, therapy, and peer discussions. The highlight of my day is engaging with the participants in our women’s leadership program, empowering them to advance in their careers.
The biggest surprise for me as CEO is that I’m always working on the next big milestone, and it never seems to feel easier. It’s fun but always a learning curve.
CEO and Founder, Arise Leadership
Grit behind the glamour
These days, social media makes running a business look like it’s filled with trips to Italy and long lunches with girlfriends. However, starting and running a business requires grit, ambition, and intense amounts of motivation to get you through the hard moments. In the beginning, you have to put the blood, sweat, and tears in order to reap the rewards of being a CEO and founder. Day to day, I’m jumping among client calls, meetings, content creation, marketing plans, signing off on concepts for events, recording podcasts, replying to emails, and so much more. You are the visionary, executor, operations head, marketing genius, and so much more, all at once. It’s truly so fulfilling and can be equally exhausting if you do not have the right systems, structure, and direction in place.
Having a strong enough “why,” as cliché as it sounds, is essential. Having a dream that is bigger than you gets you through those hard days when you just want to throw in the towel. Also, normalize having those meltdown moments of thinking you need to give up—you’re human!
Do not compare yourself to someone who’s been in business for eight years when you’re just starting out. They started in a different climate, they have privileges that you don’t have, and you need to put in the work to stand out. Additionally, don’t try to do it all at once. When you’re starting out, build the know, like, and trust with one thing, and then you can expand later. Especially in the day and age of artificial intelligence, you need to ensure your authenticity is staying at the forefront of what you’re doing. People buy from people, not robots.
CEO, Monica Yates Health
Allow unpredictability to fuel passion
The magic—and the challenge—of working as a startup CEO lies in the uncertainty and unpredictability of each day. Some days, I’m in a blazer speaking at a conference, and others, I’m in my pajamas all day fixing bugs in our app. Often, you’ll find me scouring the internet for ways to solve a problem I’m facing or on back-to-back calls with our customers to get their feedback on new features.
In an early-stage startup, the CEO title doesn’t just mean “chief executive officer.” It sometimes means “chief everything officer.”
Despite the chaos of wearing many hats, one thing always remains true: My deep passion for the problem I’m trying to solve keeps me going. I’m constantly learning, troubleshooting, and listening to feedback in service of my company’s mission.
Founder and CEO, Outerly
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