Everyone thinks that being a startup CEO is a glamorous job or one that has to be a ton of fun. That’s what I now refer to as the “glamour brain” speaking aka the startup life you hear about from the press. I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about what it takes to be a great Startup CEO that is also a founder. Here are some of the traits I’ve found.

1. Be A Keeper Of The Company Vision: The CEO is the keeper of the company’s overall vision. I’m not talking about the vision for the next few months, but the larger road ahead. The CEO needs to be able to keep things on course for the current quarter to make sure that the large overarching vision of the company can be achieved. The takeover the world vision of a startup usually can’t be achieved in one year or even in some cases, like Google, in a decade. It takes a great startup CEO to keep the company on track to achieve that vision. A great startup CEO will often judge upcoming initiatives to see if they fit in as a piece of the large puzzle for the bigger vision.

2. Absorb The Pain For The Team: A startup CEO needs to be the personal voodoo doll for a startup. They need to be able to take on a strong burden of stress, pain, and torture all while making level headed decisions. You can’t have the troops stressing and worrying about the difficult challenges at hand. A good startup CEO will absorb the stress, so the rest of the team can carry on. He also needs to be able to mask this pain and stress. Not that he should hide or lie to the team- I’m not encouraging that. Most of the day to day nuances+stresses of a startup aren’t worth having the entire team worry about and the CEO needs to bear that pain.

3. Find The Smartest People And Defer On Domain Expertise: A startup CEO has a great knack for finding talent. The key is finding people that are smarter than you on specific topics. It might be technical team members/leaders or it might be a new VP of Biz Dev. A startup CEO has to have the ability to find these people and make relatively fast decisions to hire them. They also have to be able to show the fire and passion to convince them to leave what is most likely a better paying and more secure job to join the company. The real key to hiring as a startup CEO comes after the hire. A great startup CEO will be able to trust the hires that they make and defer to them on areas of domain expertise. It’s hard to let go, but you have to learn to, especially when the company grows.

4. Be A Good Link Between The Company + Investors: Whether you want to believe it or not, you are not an investor’s only portfolio company. Even if you are a superstar, they have a handful of other companies to help and a ton of incoming potential portfolio companies. A good investor will pick 2-3 new companies per year to work with. A good startup CEO will be a good link between progress, issues, and areas where they need help with investors. A good portion of early stage startups that raise money will have a board comprised of 3 people: the CEO founder, the investor, and an independent board member. You are the lone representative for your cofounder and other employees.

5. Be A Good Link Between The Company + Product: I have this unwavering belief that the best companies are those that keep a founder as CEO for the long haul. Not because the founders have the right to be CEO, but because the CEO needs to be close to the product vision of the company. Founding CEOs understand this the best and can carry out that same unified vision over time. To fill in the management gaps a great COO, other board members, and heads of divisions will come along. It’s a strategy that Facebook has employed and why Apple has had a great resurgence with Steve Jobs at the helm. It’s all about keeping the CEO as close as possibly linked to the product.

6. Be Able To Learn On The Job: Most startup CEOs didn’t start out with an MBA or some background in growing a company from nothing to something. The best have an ability to learn along the way and embrace their failures to become a better leader. Zuck started when he was 19 and now 7 years later, runs the most powerful internet company. Don’t worry about whether “you’re qualified” as it’s hard to put typical qualifications on the job. You’ll learn the really core stuff along the way. The best startup CEOs will surround themselves with smart mentors to be a sounding board along the way.

7. No Experience Almost Preferred: It’s almost better to have a blank slate of zero experience as a startup CEO. If you come in with preconceived notions and block out the scrappy methods of a startup founder, it actually hurts you. Traditional education often trains you to be CEO or manager for a much larger company, not for a startup of under 50 people. It’s a different kind of leadership and company.

8. Have An Uncanny Ability To Say No: You will be inundated with a list of requests from potential partners, investors, employees, and more. They will all sound absolutely wonderful. As you grow, you will also have the resources to execute more of them. Don’t. It’s easy to say yes, but so very hard to say no. By having an uncanny ability to say no, you can keep your company on track with the large vision you maintain. It will also keep your team members (notice I don’t like to use the word “employees”) laser focused and feel more rewarded as they are able to focus on one thing for a good chunk of time. I’ve seen too many startups sink because the CEO keeps changing what the head of product and engineering should be doing.

9. Have Some Technical Knowledge And Skillset: A good startup CEO shouldn’t be afraid of a little bit of code and a text editor. They don’t need to be diving into the source code on a daily basis, but they need to understand the technical requirements. It’s easy to say “go build this”, but it’s a whole other ball game to understand how to build it. What seems simple may be a huge mountain of a technical feat that just isn’t feasible with the given resources and deadlines. It can also help lend some street cred with hiring early technical team members too.

10. Be Able To Break Things Down Into Sizable Chunks + Milestones: Remember that huge unwavering vision that you are the keeper of? Odds are it only makes sense to you and your cofounder. You will need to break it up into sizable chunks and milestones for the rest of the team to understand it. You also need to be able to pick when and where to conquer things strategically. What is the past of least resistance so you can gain traction? What can you do first with your given resources?

11. Have The Ability To Call An Audible: Nothing goes according to plan. Things fall through, people quit, shit happens, servers crash, and other random things go bump in the night. You’re going to have to deal with it and fast. You’re going to come up against things that you didn’t expect and just be able to call an audible. Launch faster, spend more money here, or even abandon a project.

12. Motivate The Team Through Despair: People love to talk in this business. People love to talk even more when you’re company isn’t fairing well. A great CEO will be able to take those moments of public despair and keep the company focused. They will be able to debunk the rumors or even approach them head on by keeping the members of the company focused on the bigger mission at hand. It can come in simple 5 minute talks or motivational emails. The worst thing you can do is avoid the situation and be passive aggressive.

13. Be A Great Communicator: You need to be able to portray the energy and passion that you feel into others…over and over and over and over and over and over again on a daily basis. As a startup founder you need to communicate the vision and hope for the future of your startup to the rest of the world. You need to be able to break down the overall vision of the company into something that mere mortals can understand. You can’t speak in crazy technical jargon or industry terms. It needs to be simple, clear, and compelling. You also need to be able to argue your point. Many will pick “fights” with you just to see how strong willed you are. Be respectful, but be very confident in your answer. Often wrong, but never in doubt my friend.

14. Don’t Be A “Fake CEO”: Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, makes a strong case for not being a fake CEO. In short, worry about things that produce results, not fame. If it’s between going to a conference/doing an interview or completing a deal, get the deal done. Don’t “leave it to someone else”. You need to get your hands dirty every single day.

Joe Galante is taking on a new role as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Nashville’s Entrepreneur Center. He will maintain a desk and hours at the center to help Entertainment and Digital Media startup companies. In fact, he’s already supporting new companies such as Artist Growth and Populr.me, where he’s an investor. “I’m excited to work with the entrepreneurs that are creating the next evolution of this sector and keeping Nashville competitive locally, nationally and globally,” he explains.

“As we’ve been getting the Center up and running, one of my strongest calls-to-action has been for Nashville’s industry leaders to work through the Center to share their incredible depth of knowledge with Nashville’s entrepreneurs,” said Michael Burcham, President and CEO of the Entrepreneur Center. “The value that mentors like Joe add to the startup process cannot be overstated and we’re incredibly excited that he is joining us as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.”

In April 2010, Galante stepped down as Chairman of Sony Music Nashville after 39 successful years with the same label family.

A lot has happened this year and teens have taken notice. World events, economic pressures, personal milestones, friends, education and brands all play big roles in influencing the lives of teens. Teens are evolving and maturing as fast as the technologies and platforms we build around them.

This survey caught up with 300, 13-19-year-old teens in an online discussion to talk to them about the technologies, platforms and brands they used over the course of the year, with their responses offering fresh insights into who they are. Below are highlights from our complete findings.  I really enjoyed reading it, so I thought I’d share. The following narrative represents insights gleaned from more than 4,500 individual responses:

1. 2011: A Year Of Personal Sacrifices. No longer insulated by parents doling out discretionary funds, teens are not only reacting to the pressures felt by their cashed-strapped parents, but are helping to take on the responsibility through part time jobs and making their own sacrifices on personal spending. Billed as “The Lost Generation,” the unemployment rate of a teen is double that of an adult (20% by some measures; NPR, 2011), which leads to teens adopting many of the cost-saving measures they glean from their parents.

2. Like Their Parents, Teens Are Savvy Mobile Users. Much of the coupon-redeeming, price-comparing and loyalty-point-aggregating activity marketers have witnessed among adults around Black Friday/Cyber Monday is actually taking place among teens, as well. The top shopping apps mentioned among teens in our discussion forum included Amazon mobile for scanning, Foursquare for check-in discounts, Old Navy’s Snap Appy, Seventeen, Red Laser and ShopKick. A surprising number of teens expressed interest in using apps to learn about local deals at restaurants, as well as redeeming offers from Groupon and LivingSocial.

The opportunity for a brand to step up as an ally of all things education is huge. Across dozens of posts, we found that teens are seeking a mobile solution for keeping track of their homework assignments, grades, high school sporting events and to-do lists. In 2012, there’s a viable opportunity for marketers to uncover what the next level of customization means for this generation, and find ways to add utility to their high school experiences.

3.  Teens Are Native Users Of Virtual Currency. Gamification continues to grow among teens, as it provides them with a way of earning points and virtual currency in an entertaining format. 43% of teens have spent real dollars on in-game virtual items or virtual currency. Teens flock to games such as Cityville (Over 55 million active users, #1 game on Facebook in December; Games, 2011), Sorority Life and numerous others to earn points that can be redeemed for real items. Many teens in our forum described earning virtual points in order to save money on holiday gift purchases this year.

Top virtual points/currencies among our panel: MyYearBook’s “Lunch Money,” Facebook “Credits,” Coca-Cola’s “MyCokeRewards,” Sorority Life’s “Brownie Points” and SwagBucks.

4.  Watching Content Is A Social Experience.  Social media turns watching content into a shared experience among teens, and with research citing improved ad recall when ads are published across multiple platforms (Up 150%, compared to just TV; Mashable, 2011), the circumstances are ripe for brands to create an integrated approach to content. When tuning-in to their favorite TV shows (“Glee,” by a two-to-one margin; our Nationwide Poll, 2011) 53% are posting comments about the show to their Facebook pages, 45% are texting their friends show-related updates, a staggering 39% will visit the show’s Facebook page, and 18% will Tweet directly at the show. By contrast, only 11% report using a show’s specific mobile app (our Nationwide Poll, 2011).

5.  Teens Yearn For More Customization On Facebook. Among 250 responses from our online discussion, teens expressed their overwhelming desire to keep things simple and unchanged. Negative sentiment (among our responses) to Facebook’s ticker remains persistently highly, as teens think it provides too much information about their social activities. On the other hand, Facebook mobile (and “places” in particular) is very well received. Teens look forward to the day when they can customize their pages further, choosing their own color schemes, much like the old MySpace.

6.  Teens Use Google+ To Meet Up Online. Teens are using Google+ to have more intimate conversations among subsets of friends, carving out circles, which fit their own definitions of social groups. Teens have fun defining these: “cool kids, weird people, fat people, hot girls (and guys) and Moustache Mafia,” are among the more interesting circles. Teens also create circles for high school classes and after-school clubs/hobbies to facilitate study sessions. Hangouts are another way in which teens can connect with their classmates online to socialize their late-night cramming. Brands should support this activity, helping to bring together teens around unique circles and interests.

7.  Spotify And TurnTable Turn Teens On To Music. With the ability for teens to follow what their friends are listening to on Facebook, teens now have Spotify and Turntable to thank for expanding their own musical tastes. In a recent poll among teens, we found that 70% of teens are “highly likely” to listen-in to music tracks that they notice their friends listening to in the activity feed on Facebook (our Nationwide Poll, 2011). Undoubtedly, this social integration has led to the successful rise of Spotify, Turntable and other services keen on taking advantage of Facebook apps, as a way to grow awareness of their services. Top music services with teens in 2011 included Pandora, YouTube and Spotify, as well as lesser-known sources Grooveshark, iheartradio.com, Playlist.com, SoundCloud, last.fm and Tumblr.

Now it’s time to close the door on 2011, and enjoy the holiday season. Keep these insights in your back pocket for 2012, and consider how the events, technologies and social platforms teens are using today will impact their decision making in the New Year.

As a kid, I saw Thanksgiving as an annoying speed bump between two of the most anticipated events in the calendar year: Halloween and Christmas. It’s amazing that when you add 35 years to your life, Thanksgiving becomes the opposite—a cherished opportunity to press the pause button between those two seasons and consider the moments of grace over the past year when you realize just how blessed you are.

I love Thanksgiving. It is comfortably free of the social, religious, or political pressures that give so many holidays a feeling of uneasiness at best or deep disappointment at worst. At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can enthusiastically believe in (1) good food, (2) good friends, and (3) audacious appreciation. Personally, I’m a fan of all three. Especially the last.

I’m not a religious scholar, but my gut tells me that thanksgiving is an important part of every major faith tradition on our planet. By this, I don’t mean the holiday called thanksgiving, but the act of thanksgiving. And by the act of thanksgiving, what I really mean is gratitude—the root of the root of this day.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “I have noticed that the most balanced minds praise the most, while the cranks and the misfits and the malcontents, they are the ones who are the least grateful.” Amen, Mr. Lewis.

When life hands us people or situations (or stock markets) that don’t please us, our heart becomes anxious and our demeanor droopy. One of my great disappointments in our country right now is the amount of ingrown negativity that is simmering beneath the surface. We’ve all fallen victim to it at one time or another. When the gnawing desire to have more…more physical beauty, more political power, more personal wealth…has us in a headlock, it is almost impossible to be joyful, content or to share selflessly. But there is one thing that has the power to reverse this pervasive pessimism and today is its special day! It is there, silently sitting on a shelf and waiting to be embraced.

It’s called gratitude, and the second you grab it something magical happens.

It turns what we have into enough and then some. Gratitude reminds us that we have enough security, possessions, time, money, food, drink, whatever. It’s no surprise that the happiest people I know are also the most grateful people I know, even when they appear, in the worlds eyes at least, to have less than others.

So today, on this favored day of food, friends and appreciation, may we experience and practice the transformative power of gratitude—the secret to happiness that is completely free, readily available, and easily shared with a world that needs it more than ever before. And in the process, may it quickly become a daily habit that sets our soul, and our country, free.

This was written as an editorial for the Tennessean by Hal Cato a few years ago. I read it this AM and knew I had to share it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Michael

After 10 years as the CEO of the Oasis Center, a nonprofit that assists young people, Hal Cato is stepping down today. In an article from the Tennessean, Hal comments: “I’ve loved every moment here, and I couldn’t be prouder of the Oasis Center and what I’ve been able to do.”

In a recent conversation, Hal and I were talking about his passion to help young men and women – and what drives him and fuels his energy. Hal quoted Fredrick Buechner, who defines vocation as “that place where the heart’s deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”

Hal went on to say that although he had surfed into Oasis off a fairly successful run in the business world, the Center helped him understand that there is a huge difference between vocation and occupation. One keeps us occupied, and usually involves listening to a voice “out there” beckoning us towards some kind of prize. The other comes from a voice within, calling us to be the person we were born to be. It starts with the self and moves us outward.

Oasis Center – and all its many citizens young and old(er) – gave Hal the courage to listen to that voice many, many times over the past 10 years. Hal also shared with me this week that that same voice that told him to take a chance on Oasis in 2001 is now telling him its time to take what he’s learned and move to his next chapter. Hal commented that one thing he most definitely knew is that he would never be the same as a result of his experiences at Oasis.

Hal plans to open his own business in partnership with the Entrepreneur Center — “I love working with teenagers, and I want to stay in that area. I see how hard it is for schools and nonprofits to connect with them. So, I’m developing a strategy to make it easier. Basically, it involves a mobile technology that doesn’t exist yet.”

Under Hal’s leadership, Oasis works with about 1,900 at-risk youth every year, providing crisis support for issues such as homelessness and violence. In 2009, Oasis co-led development of Nashville’s Youth Opportunity Center, a 39,000-square-foot facility that brought nine youth agencies under the same roof.

Last evening, some of Nashville’s most prominent businesses and families hosted an event to honor Hal’s work. And while the venue, the food and the people were all very impressive — what was most impressive was the testimonials given by several of the young people whose lives have been forever changed by Hal’s work. One of the most memorial moments came when a beautiful young woman, Kanesha Scruggs, shared her story as a teen in trouble (and suicidal) and how Hal became a father figure to her. She credits Hal for helping her find a path out of her chaos. Listening to her story — and seeing the transformation in this young woman — was incredibly moving. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Other young men and women shared similar stories – from finding a safe place to sleep, someone to trust, becoming the first in their family to both finish high school and go to college — it was so clear to see that Hal has made an incredible difference. He has a calling – a vocation – and has lived it for the past 10 years.

As I reflect on all this – I’m reminded that all the “stuff” we collect as humans won’t really matter after we’re gone. But the work Hal (and others like Hal) does leaves an incredibly rich legacy. He’s made a difference. I trust that I too, will leave this world in a better place.

Congratulations Hal. I know you’re destined for great things in your “next chapter.”

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Contrary to what many aspiring entrepreneurs believe, the key to a successful startup does not rest upon having a unique, one-of-a-kind idea. Don’t get me wrong. A good idea is a necessary starting point for any new business, but that’s all it is. Ideas are not scarce: they’re commodities. Virtually any idea worth pursuing has already been done. What is rare, on the other hand, is the ability to execute an idea and turn it into a profitable business. That’s why so many startups fail year after year.

So what distinguishes an attractive opportunity from a mere idea? First, opportunities are driven by customer need. The entrepreneur has identified a set of customers who can be served profitably. The economics of the business are favorable, and it has the ability to generate significant cash flows in a relatively short period of time. Second, the opportunity is closely aligned with the entrepreneur’s personal interests and skill set. Third, the entrepreneur is able to leverage proprietary knowledge or relationships to gain a competitive advantage over rivals. Finally, the timing of the opportunity has to be right.

I’ve had the privilege to mentor a number of young startup entrepreneurs over the past several years. I saw this quote by Parker Palmer on Mentoring – and it captured for me the essence of the process. I hope you enjoy:

“Mentors and apprentices are partners in an ancient human dance, and one of teaching’s great rewards is the daily chance it gives us to get back on the dance floor. It is the dance of the spiraling generations, in which the old empower the young with their experience and the young empower the old with new life, reweaving the fabric of the human community as they touch and turn.”
― Parker J. Palmer