Even if you have co-founders or an amazing C-Level team, ‘CEO’ is singular for a reason: there’s only one of you at the company.
You’re the one person expected to know all the answers and make the final decisions. You’re the one person responsible for both day-to-day operations and long-term growth. You’re the one person that connects the company and employees to the board and investors (or shareholders).
There’s no doubt about it: being a CEO is lonely. And we hear all the time that it gets lonelier as you scale. So how do successful SaaS Founder-CEOs deal with it?
Here are some of our favourite methods, shared by guests on the SaaS Revolution Show Podcast:
1. Find 2-3 external people for ‘safe’ conversations
“There are some things that you don’t want to talk about to your staff or your leadership team, so you have to find some safe folks to talk things through with.”
Mike Tessler, formerly Founder-CEO at BroadSoft (now Managing Partner at True North Advisory), never realised the level of CEO isolation until it happened to him. As BroadSoft got bigger, there were some things he couldn’t discuss with the board of directors and others that were not appropriate topics of discussion with staff or the leadership team.
Mike’s trick? Figure out two-three folks or mentors with whom you can have a safe conversation unrelated to the company.
2. Build a cohort of peers
“People ping me less because they think I’m really busy. It’s true, I am really busy, but I don’t want them to communicate less with me.”
A few years after co-founding WordPress, Matt Mullenweg founded Automattic – first taking on the role of President and then CEO. As Automattic scaled, he experienced a growing distance between himself and his team by virtue of his position.
Matt’s tonic? Build a small cohort of other CEOs or past CEOs with whom you can vent to or talk about what you’re going through, because they’ve probably been through something similar.
3. Turn your isolation into a positive
“It’s a bit of a lonely place. Most of the meetings I have are just with men.”
Zygens Founder, Zandra Moore, discovered a different type of Founder-CEO isolation: being a female founder in a world dominated by men (roughly 13% of startup founders are female). From selling to SaaS vendors to meeting other SaaS founders, most meetings she has are with men and she has made sure not to let the lack of diversity get to her head.
Zandra’s solution? Flip the isolation on his head. As the only female in the room, you’re memorable. There’s an opportunity to get noticed and push your personal brand by being bold.
4. Allocate time for self-care
“It’s one of the loneliest jobs in the world.”
Loneliness is an emotional driver, so Rahul Vohra, Founder CEO, Superhuman & Rapportive, focuses on how he deals with it mentally. Beyond creating an amazing support system, he has implemented daily self-care practices that have been life-changing.
Rahul’s routine? Mediate an hour per day (half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon) to increase creativity and focus. Get acupuncture once per week to improve relaxation and happiness.
5. Embrace the loneliness
“You wear so many hats and you are very lonely in your decision-making.”
Eynat Guez, Co-founder & CEO at SaaS unicorn Papaya Global is an outlier among Founder-CEOs: she enjoys the loneliness at the top. As a CEO, she has many different demands on her time and many different roles to play. Sometimes she feels like taking off the CEO hat and removing the decision-making responsibility from her shoulders, but she reminds herself that being a CEO is a 24-7 job.
Eynat’s rule? Remind yourself that being a CEO is always going to be your job as long as you are there. Take your own decisions, make your own mistakes, and ultimately own your own success.
Find your Founder-CEO support group at SaaStock
At SaaStock, we exist to help SaaS founders move their business forward. Part of this is bringing the community together through our conferences, local meetups, and SaaStock Founder Membership (SFM). We also share learnings, stories, and tactical insights from our conversations with SaaS leaders all over the world, to help founders connect and learn from one another.
Since 2021, we’ve run 100+ in-person and remote events through our SaaStock Founder Membership. These events take place year-round and enable founders to share their experience and get support from other SaaS Founders, outside of our SaaStock conferences.
Recommended reading
Discover how more top Founder-CEOs overcome adversity, grow as leaders, and manage the stress of being at the top.
- Why sharing your weaknesses elevates your leadership with G2 CEO and Co-founder Godard Abel
- How a SaaS founder overcame a Goliath that tried to kill his business with PK Keller (Emergent 3)
- How 10 top Founder-CEOs manage the stress of the job
