Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business

Category: Growth & Scaling
Brand / Publisher: Wiley – Techstars
Format: Book
URL: https://www.amazon.com/Startup-CEO-Scaling-Business-Techstars/dp/1119723663

Description

Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business is a practical handbook for startup founders and CEOs who are navigating the transition from early-stage company to high-growth scaleup. Drawing on the author’s extensive experience founding and scaling startups, it focuses on the evolving role of the CEO and the concrete skills required to build an organization, manage a board, raise capital, and lead through rapid change.

Written in an applied, checklist-driven style and based on years of lessons shared on StartupCEO.com, the book is designed as a reference guide that startup leaders can return to as they encounter specific growth and scaling challenges.

Author Background (Context)

• Written by Matt Blumberg, a repeat founder and CEO who has spent his career starting, scaling, and advising startups.
• Based on operating experience including founding and scaling Return Path (email marketing company, 1999–2019) and co-founding Bolster (leadership and board development for startups and scaleups).
• Extends themes from the StartupCEO.com blog and is part of a broader set of “field guide” books on startup leadership, company functions, and boards.

Features

• Focus on the CEO’s Role in Scaling

  • Clarifies how the CEO’s responsibilities evolve from early startup to growth stage.
  • Provides guidance on shifting from doing to leading and from improvisation to more structured management.

• Organization Building & Team Design

  • Frameworks for designing and scaling the leadership team.
  • Practical advice on org structure, executive hiring, and managing executive performance.
  • Checklists for assessing and benchmarking executive teams.

• Leadership & Management Practices

  • Tactics for leading through uncertainty, high growth, and change.
  • Guidance on communication rhythms, meetings, and decision‑making discipline.
  • Emphasis on operational discipline as a foundation for sustainable scaling.

• Fundraising & Investor Relations

  • Practical guidance for planning and executing fundraising.
  • Insights on managing relationships with investors over time.

• Board Management

  • Detailed treatment of working with a board of directors in a high‑growth environment.
  • Covers building, using, and leading an effective board as CEO.
  • Aligns with and complements the separate “Startup Boards” field guide.

• High-Growth Startup Focus

  • Tailored specifically to venture-backed or fast-growing startups and scaleups.
  • Addresses common scaling pain points (people, process, governance, capital).

• Actionable Frameworks & Tools

  • Includes frameworks, checklists, and step‑by‑step guidance that can be applied directly by founders and CEOs.
  • Designed as a “field guide” that can be consulted situationally rather than read only once.

• Ecosystem-Oriented Perspective

  • Reflects the perspective of an active founder/CEO embedded in the entrepreneurial ecosystem (with experience in leadership development platforms like Bolster and nonprofit talent initiatives like Path Forward).
  • Oriented to the realities of working with executive teams, boards, and broader stakeholders in growth companies.

Ideal Readers / Use Cases

• First-time and repeat startup founders stepping into or currently in the CEO role.
• Startup and scaleup CEOs seeking practical playbooks for organization building, fundraising, and board management.
• Senior leaders in high-growth companies who want better insight into the CEO perspective and scaling challenges.

Pricing and specific formats (e.g., hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) depend on the retailer. No fixed pricing details are provided in the available content; see the product page on Amazon or other booksellers for current prices and editions.