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You’re a first-time CEO and you’ve just realized… you don’t know what your role actually is.
That was me when outside capital came in, and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do.
In this episode, I’m launching the CEO Series on B2B Growth, where you’ll hear from me, your host John Belizaire, Editor of CEOPLAYBOOK, an online publication full of stories from real CEOs and advice for founders and CEOs of high-growth companies.
What I talked about:
- My first experience being CEO (won by a founders vote, 4 out of 5)
- Advice I learned that I wished I’d known back then
- The importance of falling in love with your customers even if they take their shoes off during a meeting (true story)
- Joining a community of CEOs
Check out these resources I mentioned during the podcast:
- My publication, the CEOPLAYBOOK
- The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
- Living at the Speed of Growth (from entrepreneur to CEO)
- The Culture Code (the science behind great cultures and teams)
- Swimming Across (Andy Grove’s Memoir)
- High Growth Handbook (sage advice on being the leader of a high-growth company)
- Laser Focus and Seven Nuggets of Advice for First time CEOs
Listen to the episode HERE.
You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the #CEO series at the B2B Growth Show on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.
About the Author: John Belizaire
John is a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who has successfully founded, scaled multiple technology companies over a 20-year career. He is currently the CEO of Soluna, a company helping to shape the future of renewable energy and computing. Before Soluna, John was the founder and CEO of FirstBest, a transformative insurance software company acquired by Guidewire Software and Theory Center, an e-commerce software company acquired by BEA Systems. Before becoming an entrepreneur, John was the lead architect for Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group.
John is on the advisory board of several software-as-a-service, data analytics, and insurtech startups. He is the Managing Editor of CEOPLAYBOOK Media LLC, an online publication full of sage advice for first-time founder CEOs. John is also a trustee of Harlem Academy, an independent school in New York.
