Does A Startup CEO Have To Work At The Head Office?

I remember as CEO of my own startup presenting a review of our progress to one of our investors. The whole team was located in one office in the Silicon Valley.

I told the partners of this VC firm that we were ahead of schedule on our project development. The partners were very pleased with our progress.

One of the partners said, “We should set up a design center in India. We’ll save a lot of money!”

I ignored the advice of the partner, and we kept the whole company in the Silicon Valley.

The other investor firm that invested in our company was led by an ex-Israeli army officer. He had a great analogy that went as follows: Keep your supply lines short.

You want to be where the action is.

As CEO, you need to be as close as possible to where the majority of your team and the action is. If it’s London, then you should be located in London. If it’s Sydney, then you should be located in Sydney.

You can Skype all you want, but nothing replaces face-face communication.

It’s hard enough building a company with everyone in the same building. It’s even tougher with geographical challenges.

Communication gets much more difficult:

• Gone are the hallway conversations, and…
• Gone are the impromptu brainstorming and collaborations over lunch, and..
• Getting answers takes longer, and…
• Solving problems takes longer.

Don’t kid yourself. Your geographic location as CEO will have a HUGE impact on the success of your company.

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