When I was sitting in attendance at Tech Crunch 40, Marc Andreessen mentioned how you have to be crazy to be CEO of a company. He is right.
LIFE AS A CEO
Waking up to bad news, going to bed to bad news… knowing that any semblance of good news in between will at any given moment pause and give way for bad news is no way to live life. Mind you, I am the eternal optimist and find good news in everything and actually get pumped up for the challenges and obstacles that we face every day.
I actually believe that I can talk my way out of things, mainly because I am honest and as naive as this sounds: the truth will always cover your ass.
That’s right: if you lie, then you need to ration your words. If you speak the truth, eventually you win others over. Of course, that outlook makes some small-minded folk dislike you, but who cares.
52 HOURS OF DOWNTIME
This Saturday at 4am, our sites went offline. Recently, I hired a part-time system administration person to monitor our sites’ activities. Since that decision, we were up 100% of the time… until Saturday. We came back up sometime this morning at around 11am. That’s right, from Saturday 4am to Monday 11am, that is a 56 hours of downtime… simply unacceptable.
Over a month (720 hours), that 56 hour run translated to a downtime of 7%. You oftentimes see companies brag about 99.9% uptime. What does that translate to? Well, over a month, to be up 99.9% of the time, that means you can only be down 7 hours per month. That’s not a lot of time. Apparently, a lot of sites - big and small - are down. Numerous reports outline downtime of social networks: Bebo is tops, or worst… depending on how you see it.
YET SOMEHOW, OUR 3RD BEST DAY EVER
What’s interesting about our down time was that Saturday - when we were down for 20 hours out of 24 - was our third best day ever. Did we have massive traffic on those first four hours from midnight to 4am on Saturday?
Nope. We do 99% of our video streams (HipMojo.com is one blog out of 15 or so, and our sister site is the WatchMojo.com video content producer and syndicator) on our syndication network. I always brag that our success is independent and agnostic of any one site, and apparently, that includes our own, go figure.
Maybe that is why I wasn’t cursing and throwing a fit.
Maybe it’s because I will be a father in three months and I have a different perspective.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have outside investors to worry about so I’m not on the hot seat to make up excuses and can look at the matter objectively to avoid it from repeating.
Maybe it’s because I simply understand and accept that it’s out of my hands.
Maybe it’s because before and after that happened, I was busy resolving an administrative headache…
At 11am: both were fixed. This too shall pass, a wise man once said.
Or, maybe it’s because when so many things are going right and all signals are going in the right direction, you can’t be greedy and have to take the bad with the good.
DUDE, I INVENTED… NOTHING
I’m no techie. I get tech. But I don’t pretend that I was “taking apart computers at 5″ or building “cell phones out of legos at 11″. I never was too much into tech to be quite frank. When I was 7, I hated computer class. Anyway, connecting all of these seemingly random thoughts, I realize the time is nigh to bring on a full-time techie. I am really fortunate to have 3 really talented tech guys working with me, but they’re part time guys… I wish I could afford them full-time and maybe the day I raise some serious money I will be able to do that… but right now, I cannot afford those guys full time.
DISTRIBUTION OVER DESTINATION? AMEN
Mind you, if this weekend proved anything, it’s that our site is somewhat secondary to the gameplan relative to our syndication network. As the company CEO, that essentially validates the rationale behind launching the network… but it also makes me think about realizing one’s weaknesses as a CEO.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CEO?
Being the CEO of a company is essentially being willing to take a barrage of body blows, interrupted once in a while by a shot to the head. That’s why I was nodding my head in agreement when Netscape founder Andreessen was describing the masochist nature of CEOs. I don’t know what is more daunting: CEO or founder?
Both have their wonderful surprises, as both the founder and CEO, I’m too numb after this weekend to even really tell which one is worst, or better…
RECOGNIZE YOUR STRENGTHS
When I think of what made me uniquely qualified to launch WatchMojo.com, I sum it up into three main pillers:
1- good storyteller: can package content well;
2- good salesmen: can pitch why we do what we do to all interested parties, be it hosts, advertisers or would-be investors;
3- web-savvy: experience in search, online publishing… good mix for the nuances of web video.
There are probably a million people that are better at me at every single one of those things, but I would not be able to find anyone that is as good as those three things as I am all at once (if that sentence isn’t a bastion of modesty I don’t know what it - yes, that’s sarcasm).
After a couple of years of managing this company and having been involved in successful startups working alongside successful entrepreneurs (and studying the DNA of many other management types), here are a few random observations:
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOUNDER, CEO AND EXECUTIVES
a) If you are only good at one thing, you can start a company but you can’t be a CEO. Why? Your vision will be critical to starting something and take it from concept to reality, but you are kidding yourself if you think you can weave through the intricacies of doing it all.
b) If you are good at a few things, but not necessarily outstanding at any one thing, then you can both start a company and run it as its CEO.
c) If you are good at a few things, but lack the patience to master any single one of them or don’t want to hone your skills in one of those thing to specialize in, then you will eventually need to step aside and make room for another CEO or at least bring on a COO or additional VPs and employees to address weaknesses or under-developed areas.
Anyway, now that the company’s been around for 2 years, I realize I spend a lot of time doing things that do not touch on 1, 2 or 3 above.
Sure, I still devise content strategy, recruit talent, advertisers and publishers and always try to be one step ahead of where the online video space is going… but I am also spending way too much time on areas that I could care less about or am not best suited at:
- Do I really want to spend hours at the bank? Nope.
- Do I really want to wrap my head around the nuances of a server? Nope.
- What about understanding how corporate taxes work? Nope.
I guess what this weekend made me realize, is that I started a business for a very few simple reasons… but two years into it, I need to make some decisions in order to minimize the time I spend doing some things I don’t - or shouldn’t - be spending time doing.
What are those decisions. Stick around. You’ll find out soon enough.
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March 9th, 2008 at 12:21 am
> I wish I could afford them full-time and maybe the day I raise some serious money I will be able to do that… but right now, I cannot afford those guys full time.
Hi Ashkan, I’m a regular reader and am somewhat in a similar boat. I’m *considering* an offshore/outsourced model for tech. Would love to hear your views.