Erik is joined on this episode by Ryan Delk (@delk), COO of Omni, and Jared Fliesler (@JaredSF), COO of Scribd.

They talk about the fact that Chief Operating Officer is a relatively new role in Silicon Valley that has emerged over the last several years. They explain how they make sure they are effective COOs.

They say that being COO is analogous to being a bumblebee in that a COO is always moving from place to place within the company making sure things are running smoothly. They use “how often am I surprised?” as a question to use to take the measure of how well they are doing their job.

They move on to talking tactics, including how to set up your org structure, how to think about recruiting in a growing startup, and the nuances of assigning titles in your company. They also discuss goal-setting within the company, performance reviews, the tough task of letting people go, and much more.

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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.