Jason M. Lemkin advises founders to avoid burnout by hiring an additional VP who is a ‘true owner’—a leader who takes company success on their shoulders like a founder would. He distinguishes between VPs who meet their functional targets and the rarer ‘true owner’ VPs who shoulder broader company responsibility and can meaningfully lighten a founder’s burden.
Number one tip to avoid burnout, it really always works, is hire an extra VP that can be a true owner. And really, there's three types of VPs you'll hire under you. Then you'll hire two types of VPs that actually perform, that do their job, that hit their commit, that hit their number, that hit their goal. There's ones that just do that. The sales folks that hits the sales plan, the marketing folks that brings in the leads, the CS leader that hits the MPS and NRR goals. And that's great, but. But what's even special is when one or two goes further and they're almost like a founder, they're a true owner. They take the entire company's success on their backs like you have, and you think all your VPs and key employees should do this, but it's too much for 90% of the world. It's too hard to take all of that burden on your back. But you will find if you keep at this journey and you hire some VPs, you will find some that are so romantic, that are so committed to the vision, they will take some of that burden on your back. But when you find one of these, it will take some I'm about to load off your back and.
