
How to Nurture Executive Talent
09.20.18
Co-founder and co-CEO of FreeWheel Doug Knopper tells me how he uses his considerable Silicon Valley experience to train the next generation of talent with his new project, CEOhacker.
09.20.18
Co-founder and co-CEO of FreeWheel Doug Knopper tells me how he uses his considerable Silicon Valley experience to train the next generation of talent with his new project, CEOhacker.
Doug Knopper spent 17 years leading advertising technology companies such as DoubleClick, which was acquired by Google for $3.1 billion in 2008, and FreeWheel, which Doug co-founded and served as co-CEO, and which was acquired by Comcast for $375 million in 2014. Doug spoke to me about what he learned about leadership in these roles and about his new project, CEOhacker, which teaches the young Silicon Valley CEOs of today the skills they’ll need to lead successful companies tomorrow.
The benefit of experience
When Doug started FreeWheel with his co-founders, they were established and experienced leaders with deep networks, helping them to attract executive talent almost immediately. They also knew enough to know that FreeWheel would need a vision from Day One.
Benefit from Doug’s experience:
The eternal struggle: how does a technical CEO find a VP of sales
Co-founders Doug and Jon Heller served as co-CEOs of Freewheel, which allowed them to fill many top sales roles themselves in the company’s early stages and take their time finding the right VP of sales — ideally someone promoted up through the company.
Benefit from Doug’s experience:
One of your first hires should be a talented but inexperienced sales person you can groom into the VP role. Create your own VP of sales rather than hire one from outside.
The hardest hire
Many think it’s the VP of sales, but Doug says it’s the head of marketing. The pool of qualified candidates is smaller and most of them are already working at established companies and won’t want to risk moving to a startup.
Benefit from Doug’s experience:
Money and vision but no idea what to do next
Silicon Valley is full of young, inexperienced CEOs who have been trusted with millions of investor dollars despite not knowing CEO fundamentals:
Benefit from Doug’s experience:
That’s why Doug created CEOhacker — to “crack the code” of being a successful CEO and scaling your business. It’s especially important to him that women and people of color who have little representation in Silicon Valley have access to these tools.
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Silicon Valley’s diversity problem