The Great CEO Within
by Matt Mochary, Alex Maccaw, Misha Talavera · first published 2019
70% recommend30% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A practical, tactical guide to company building for founders and CEOs, with concrete tips on running meetings, setting OKRs, and prioritizing work. It is a first read for startup leaders.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
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…that makes the process easier, such as automatic invoicing, working with an accountant, working with a lawyer.) 3. Working in a start-up environment and learning how to prioritize work. 4. Reading The Great CEO Within from Matt Mochary, there's so many tips in there that have been amazing and helpful I'm definitely struggling with the scaling issue of consulting tho. It's great and all, but I find it a struggle to…
on “Seven tough lessons from ten years in bootstrapped business” ↗…Lencioni) is indeed gold. I really like 'The Ideal Team Player', too, as well as his other books. Other books with immediately-actionable advice for improving company processes, systems and culture: - The Great CEO Within, by Matt Mochary - High Output Management, by Andy Grove - High Growth Handbook, by Elad Gil
on “5 Books That Changed My Business” ↗Best business books: -Secrets of Sandhill Road -Hackers and Painters -The Great CEO within -Venture Deals -Predictable Revenue -Zero to One -The Hard Thing About Hard Things -Lean customer development -Lost and founder -Lean B2B -From Impossible to Inevitable -Traction Best computer…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…(Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman) - The Founders’ Dilemmas (Noam Wasserman) - The Entrepreneur’s Daily Nietzsche (Brad Feld and Dave Jilk) - Build (Tony Fadell) - Zero to IPO (Frederic Kerrest) - The Great CEO Within (Matt Mochary) Finance - Wharton's Introduction to Financial Accounting course: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting](https://w... - How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart…
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗…mentor...but those are hard to find. Edit: Having said that, Reddit has a lot of smart people on it that are able to provide sensible guidance for specific business problems. Also: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building-... <-- this was a great framework for running various areas of a business. Wish I had stumbled across it sooner than this year.
on “How to Start a Startup (2014)” ↗It's been up for years. If you are super worried, I suggest buying his book which is ~90% of this in printed form. Called The Great CEO Within.
on “Mochary Method Curriculum” ↗…large customers with long sales cycle, vs. many small customers). Go with something simple (Google Sheets) if you don't know your workflow and requirements yet. Tasks/communication: buy a copy of 'The Great CEO Within' and read it cover-to-cover. Pick something to implement. Do it. When you're done, open the book and find the next thing. Sales: what type of business? Maybe read 'Presictable Revenue' by Aaron Ross,…
on “Ask HN: What do you use to manage your business and what changed when growing?” ↗OKRs transformed how our I run my business - I cannot recommend them highly enough. Read The Great CEO Within for a practical guide on how to implement them, including how to manage meetings that manage and monitor OKRs.
on “OKRs vs. KPIs: understanding measurements for your SaaS business” ↗…https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gyPmRdEnJ6GVibKuQekoF?si=YD...) ^^ Take this one seriously, take notes, and when he says do something - do it, trust the system. - Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders https://a.co/d/8H4AsQg // Startup & Business - The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building https://a.co/d/daElAvL (MUST READ - extremely actionable) - A Radical Enterprise: Pioneering the Future of High-Performing Organizations https://a.co/d/d7LljeV…
on “Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?” ↗Some of the business books that I always keep within easy reach of my desk: - High output management - The hard thing about hard things - The Great CEO Within - Who - a method for hiring (I've also bought and given away multiple copies of each of these books.)
on “Business books are entertainment, not strategic tools” ↗This seems to be a rawer form of Mochary's book "The Great CEO Within"
on “Mochary Method Curriculum” ↗The Great CEO Within is now available in print and on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building/dp... If you want to support the author, buy the book and/or write a review.
on “Ask HN: Suggest good books on bootstrapping a startup” ↗…me because of my skill set and communication. I don’t want to be hands to the keyboard for the rest of my life though so I’m trying to figure out how to move forward from here. Do you think reading The Great CEO Within would help?
on “Seven tough lessons from ten years in bootstrapped business” ↗…doing these basic things properly and consistently. (I don't know Matt, and haven't been coached by him, but I do know a lot of the founders he's coached, and have read his book https://www.amazon.com/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building-eb... which covers much of the same material.)
on “Mochary Method Curriculum” ↗