Superhero CEOs Share Their Top 5 Scaling Lessons

November 29, 2011

Now that we are all back after the Thanksgiving Holiday trying to work off too much turkey with trimmings and whatever else was on our holiday tables, I thought I would share a light article that I read this week when I came back.

At OpenView we are big fans of learning from other successful people and sharing those lessons with the CEOs and management teams of expansion stage software companies in which we invest venture capital. This is why this blog post caught my eye. Early in November at the Mass TLC Unconference, a group of seven top CEOs gathered for a panel to discuss lesson learned in scaling their companies. Scott Kirsner of The Boston Globe called them “the startup equivalent of the Justice League of America.” The CEOs were:

  • Michael Simon, CEO/founder of LogMeIn (2009 IPO)
  • Scott Griffith, CEO ZipCar (2010 IPO)
  • Gail Goodman, CEO Constant Contact (2007 IPO)
  • Niraj Shah, CEO/cofounder of Wayfair ($500m revenue)
  • Colin Angle, CEO/cofounder of iRobot (2005 IPO)
  • Paul English, CTO/cofounder of Kayak ($200m revenue, S-1 filed)
  • Matt Lauzon, CEO/cofounder of Gemvara (reportedly $10m revenue)

The 5 Key lessons to scaling a business that came out of the panel discussion were:

  1. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
  2. Outside Catalysts Force (Healthy) Change
  3. Create a Culture Based on Integrity
  4. Nothing Comes Easy
  5. Alignment, Alignment, Alignment

You can read the details behind the 5 lessons and the complete article here.

Enjoy the read… I did.

All the best!

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.