What’s it really like to be a startup CEO? This week on the GeekWire radio show, two tech entrepreneurs talk about their struggles, what they learned and how their experiences changed their approach to business and life. We’re featuring highlights from talks by Dave Cotter and Marc Barros at the recent GeekWire Startup Day in Seattle.
Listen to the episode via the audio player below or this MP3 file.
A big part of Startup Day is sharing difficult lessons learned, and we encourage the speakers to talk candidly about mistakes they’ve made to help others benefit from their entrepreneurial experiences.
Cotter, the CEO of SquareHub, took that to heart, sitting on a barstool on stage and talking without notes or slides about his story, including health and family crises, and the three lessons he now tries to follow on his journey to the “Big Exit.”
Watch the full video of his talk here.
Barros, the co-founder of action-camera Contour, focuses the talk on the transition from founder to CEO — drawing on his own experiences attempting to make that evolution. Founders do basically everything in the early days, but CEOs must be good at leading the people and teams who are doing the work — running the system that makes the company successful.
He talks about his own struggles making that transition, which ultimately contributed to his exit from the company. Contour later closed its doors (although an investor is now seeking to revive the Contour brand).
Watch the full video of his talk here.
See this video archive for more talks from Startup Day.
