23 Does a startup need both a CEO and a COO?
This chapter covers
- CEO versus COO—do you know the difference?
- Can you find a COO with complementary skills to the CEO to balance the latter’s strengths?
- Co-CEOs or solo CEO+COO? Which leadership model will go the distance?
There are three anecdotes in this book about specific titles other than Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The titles that deserve their own anecdote are Chief Operations Officer (COO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and head of sales. Why them and not others? Because these three have either controversy, special circumstances, or both surrounding them. The COO—the subject of this anecdote—is controversial because this role is rare for startups and sometimes is used to avoid having co-CEOs. The CMO (discussed in anecdote 24, “Marketing: Too often a startup’s afterthought”) is controversial because first, a lot of startups wait way too long to build a sufficient marketing team; and second, many startup CEOs do not fully understand the CMO role, and neither do other C-suite people, resulting in short tenures for CMOs. The head of sales (sometimes called the Chief Revenue Officer [CRO] and discussed in anecdote 25, “The right character for your sales leader—and when to hire them”) is only controversial when hired too early. Sales leaders are definitely a different breed from other C-level executives and need to be treated differently.