How many Direct Reports do you have? Does it feel like the correct amount? Starting to feel like my time divide between managing vs. higher level convos is out of balance due to number of people (I have 6) and the issues that arise in those check-in meetings.
Hi all, I’m meeting the CEO of this startup incubator(fairly large in our field, they have about 12-14 startups under them) based in CA in about 2 hours.
I’m a senior in college (his alma mater as well) and I’m graduating in June.
We met for the first time at a mixer his team organized on campus, I texted him the same night thanking him for the opportunity and asked if he was open to a call to discuss opportunities and my ideas. Did not get a response then but I later heard through a friend in the industry who said that he felt I “jumped the gun”. My thoughts were that there’s no jumping the gun in the startup world, if you want to talk to someone or build a connection, you do it instantly. This was October 2025. Fast forward to April 2026, I met him again and he asked me to setup a time to meet.
Our interests align but I don’t know what he expects.
Any guidance would be appreciated
I've been thinking about why small businesses keep losing employees to big tech, and I think we're framing the competition wrong.
Yeah, you can't match the salary. You're not going to out-perk Google: free lunch, gym, RSUs, the whole thing. That battle is lost before it starts.
But there's something a company with 50,000 employees structurally cannot do: make someone feel actually seen.
When you're employee #4,847, your manager has 40 direct reports, and your name shows up on a workforce planning slide that's the experience. It's not anyone's fault. It's just physics at scale.
As a small business owner, you know your people's names. You know which project nearly broke them and how they got through it.
You can walk over and say "that mattered, and here's why" and they know you actually mean it.
I've noticed that people don't usually leave for the next salary bump. They leave because they stopped feeling like they mattered. And when someone genuinely feels that no bonus attached, no performance review pending, they bring everything they have.
Most owners I talk to don't use this deliberately. They're firefighting. But it costs nothing and no competitor can copy it.
Curious what others have seen: have you lost good people not because of money but because something else eroded? And on the flip side has something small ever made an employee go from checked out to fully bought in?
Any thoughts on how to find a CEO for a very small business that is doing $300K - $500K in gross revenue?
Wondering if I should I approach it as a part-time role and definitely thinking a profit share on all new revenue generated would be included.
Anyone navigated something like this?
Remote work threads popped up in my feed, took a look and pretty shocked at attitudes towards companies, self entitlement anti social anti collaborative and wage theft quiet quitting tactics.
I have a factory so only one remote and she is great, but id do major due diligence before going ever more broadly remote for certain positions
I'm curious if only few people are "made" for the role or if anyone can grow into the role? What is one soft skill that's needed to not only be a CEO, but thrive as one?
I am 32M. Web Dev. Web Engineer. Mobile dev for. My total work experience is 9 years. How do you all became CEO? Any suggestions?
Something I wish someone had told me earlier.
Every time I hired someone good enough because budget was tight, I didn't just fill a seat. I made it harder to attract anyone better afterward.
Strong people don't want to work next to people who don't give a shit and they can tell within a week.
The real cost wasn't the salary. It was that each mediocre hire quietly lowered the bar for the next one. And the one after that.
You don't notice it happening until you're trying to recruit someone genuinely good and they pass not because of comp but because of the room they'd be walking into.
The standard you accept becomes the standard you're stuck with.
Curious if others have felt this or if you think it's possible to raise the bar after the fact without basically rebuilding the team from scratch.
so I've been leading our company the last few years (I'm an owner). We're doing fine but I grew up as a founder and we've slowly grown over 15 years. I feel like I'm bush league and that most CEO's come from Bain or wherever and have their plans and formulas and whatever to grow 15% a year. I'm happy to grow profit 10% a year (our industry is fine but growth has been tough for me). Don't get me wrong - we are profitable and do well, but not the sexy growth.
Is there a CEO bootcamp you all can recommend ? Any books/training I'm not uneducated, I have an MBA from a very good school but i never actually did anything outside of our small company. Something tells me I should know more and be able to do more.
What do you all think ? Please be kind. It's humbling to write this at Midnight.