Determining What You Need in a COO with Jess Hunt

Intro: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real- world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder and CEO of Bolster, and I'm here today with Jess Hunt. Jess is a senior technology operating executive. She's an independent director and advisor to a lot of startups. She has a lot of specific experience in talent- oriented marketplaces like Andela and Axiom and GLG. Jess, it's great to see you.

Jess Hunt: Hi, Matt. Great to be here.

Matt Blumberg: All right. I am excited about this topic today because I get asked this question a lot and it sounds like you get asked this question a lot. So now I get to ask you this question and then we can talk through it. The number of early- stage and even mid- stage CEOs that come to me and asked me, " Hey, I think I need a COO. How do I hire one? What does one look like?" And of course, my view is the COO role is the most confusing one out there because no two of them have the same job description, but there's some common threads with them. So I'd love to hear, what do you say when you get asked that?

Jess Hunt: Yeah, I imagine Bolster gets asked this a lot and delivers on it. I get asked it a lot too for all of those reasons. Usually the impetus is because I feel a gap. I feel an operating gap, and often, founders, COOs are very, very talented, but maybe their first talent is not operating in management, and so they feel that gap and they think, " I got to fix it." I think there's another element out there too, which is like, " Oh, everyone has a COO, so I'm supposed to." And the answer may be no, not necessarily. I think the bar is pretty high actually to hire a COO. So when I get asked this, I say a couple things. One is make a chart of jobs to be done. Look at oneself as CEO and say, " What are the things that I can uniquely do that I drive disproportionate value with?" And try to maybe talk to a few people that will be honest with you about that. Many times it's industry or product and it might not be management. And then the second half of that is to, when you write all the jobs to be done, look at the jobs that someone else can probably do better than you. And does that look like a COO job description? Many times it may be, but other times you may need to fill out other parts of the executive team before you hire a COO. Or in some cases the jobs to be done are not senior enough for a company officer and a VP of ops or another sort of brilliant gap filler might be better. So that's the second part is looking at the jobs to be done that are not yours. The last thing I'd say is when you embark on hiring a COO, if it is a true COO, it is likely that you are going to be in some ways, two halves of a whole, and you've got to spend a heck of a lot of time with this person. I can say as a COO to a terrific CEO in my past, he was often the first person I talked to on Monday morning, the last person I talked to on Friday night, and you're talking to him many times during the day. You've got to complement each other, you've got to be honest, build trust, and hopefully enjoy working together.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah, that's so true. Building on at least the last two things you said, probably all three, when a CEO comes to us and says, " I need a COO. What do they do?" the first thing I always say back to them is, " Well, let's start with you. What do you want to do? What do you want your job to be?" And it is very true, they're very complementary roles. One of the other things we say a lot, and I'm curious to hear if this resonates with you. I think a lot of first- time founders, when they say, " I need a COO," what they're actually saying is, " I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing anymore. I need help." And that doesn't necessarily mean they need a COO.

Jess Hunt: That's right.

Matt Blumberg: It may mean that they need to work through with a mentor or a coach for a little while, like, " What's my job description supposed to be right now?" as opposed to just saying, " Hey, so many founders have imposter syndrome. I'm clearly not supposed to be here anymore. I need an adult in the room." It's like, " Well, no, you can do it if you want and if you're equipped to do those tasks."

Jess Hunt: And doing that in the context of looking at the executive team, it may be that you need to level up a CFO or a CMO rather than hiring yet another company officer.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah, that's right. All right, great advice. I'm so glad you have a good answer to that question. I may start sending people to you. Jess Hunt, good to talk to you.

Jess Hunt: Thanks, Matt.