Top 4 Priorities for a Startup CEO in Growth Stage

Last week I had the pleasure of talking with a fellow entrepreneur who is in the customer discovery phase of his new business idea. His idea centers around helping companies scale successfully that are in the growth stage with 25-75 employees. During our customer discovery interview together, he asked “as the CEO of a company experiencing high growth, what are the top 4 priorities you find yourself working on each day?”

Here are the top 4 priorities I mentioned in my answer:

Hiring and retaining the best talent to join the QGenda team. We have done a great job at hiring the brightest minds from all over the country to join our team, and we are lucky to have an amazing company culture. Please join us: QGenda.com/careers

Customer retention and providing the best product support is another high priority and a huge differentiator when it comes to our competition. We definitely take pride in over delivering to all customers. A customer in distress is a natural part of any business, and luckily it is a rare occurrence at QGenda, but when this happens we take an all hands on deck approach in that everyone at the company steps up to help in any way possible.

Product vision and continual innovation of new features is something I constantly think about. In order to stay in touch with our customer’s pain points and drive the product vision, I travel at least twice a month with the implementation team and help train end users without them knowing I am the CEO. Seeing exactly how customers use the product and talking with them at length provides for a great starting point to developing new features.

Learning from mentors and other entrepreneurs is important because they have most likely been in your similar position before, and their advice will save you time, money, and prevent you from making any mistakes they might have made along their journey. I am a huge fan of asking entrepreneur mentors lots of questions, and I have found that entrepreneurs really like helping other entrepreneurs, so always ask for advice when you making big decisions!

The top 4 priorities of a founder/CEO will always vary based on the current stage of their company. The top 4 priorities I dedicated time to today as a growth stage company are very different than they were in 2006 when I set out to build QGenda. What are the top 4 work related priorities you dedicate time to?

1 thought on “Top 4 Priorities for a Startup CEO in Growth Stage

  1. With shows like Undercover Boss, one more important priority would be having a good understanding of the needs both psychological and physical of the front line workers and to try to accommodate those needs to have a happy, loyal workforce. Thanks

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