Entrepreneurship guru Steve Blank defined a startup as “a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” He defined an enterprise as “a permanent organization designed to execute a repeatable and scalable business model.” Many of us have been blessed to live, at different times, in each of those worlds, and yet the transition from one to the other can be hard.
One of the most common times people come to me for help is when they sense that they are in the midst of that transition. In short, their primary job title is changing from “founder” to “CEO”. The signals that indicate this change is happening can vary, but using Blank’s definitions, it’s when the company believes that they’ve found a business model that they can scale and they are ready to invest in scaling it.
Managing this transition can be hard, but it definitely needs to be thoughtful. Being CEO requires different skills, uses different tools, and has different measures of success than those for being a founder. If you’re going through that transition, today I’m starting a series of articles that I hope will help you be intentional about thinking differently, learning new skills, and applying new tools to drive the success of your business.