The cost of a proven C-Level executive inside a startup can be around $150,000 to 250,000 per person. When adding together a CEO, CMO, COO, CFO and CTO, that could total $1,000,000 a year in salary alone, just for your five person senior team. Most startups cannot afford this kind of spend, until after they have raised a material round of venture capital or are driving material revenues. Instead, they opt to go without that role filled, merge mutiple roles into one body or downgrade the talent level to a VP position to make it more affordable.
But, what is the most important driver of success for a startup? The team!! Exactly the thing startups should not be cutting back on. So, how can a startup attract the high-power talent they need, at a budget they can afford? How about sharing executives between startups. You get the same brain involved with your company, on an affordable part-time basis.
Read the rest of this post in Forbes, which I guest authored this week.
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