Guide to Your First CEO Gig in Automotive SaaS

[john.quinn]

RIF: The Playbook to Landing Your First CEO Gig​

An advice column for tomorrow's automotive SaaS executives, by Brock Hammerstein, CEO of VelocirAuto Synergistics™​

Friends, colleagues, fellow travelers on the journey from Series B to "strategic exit" —

It's me, Brock. Three-time CEO. Two-time LinkedIn Top Voice. My inbox has been overflowing with letters from junior executives asking the same question: "Brock, how do I become a CEO in this economy?" Pull up a chair. Let's get fit and focused.

---

Dear Brock,

I'm a VP at a dealer-tech SaaS company. I want to be CEO, but I don't have a track record of building anything. What do I do?

— Ambitious in Augusta

Dear Ambitious,

Building things is so 2019. Today's CEO doesn't build — today's CEO rightsizes. I haven't shipped a product since the Obama administration, but I've eliminated 11% of three different workforces, and the stock popped 7% each time. That's value creation, baby.

Here's your homework: take whatever your company does and announce you're doing 11% less of it. The number 11 is critical. 10% sounds calculated. 12% sounds desperate. 11% sounds like you ran the math. You did not run the math.

---

Dear Brock,

Our board wants us to "trim management layers." How do I frame that?

— Confused in Cary

Dear Confused,

The trick is to make eliminating managers sound like a gift to the people who remain. Try this:

"By flattening our management structure, we're empowering our individual contributors to own their outcomes, accelerate decision velocity, and operate with the agility of a true challenger brand. Our people have told us they want fewer barriers between them and the work. We're listening."

Translation: we fired the people who knew what was going on, and now everyone reports to a Slack channel.

Pro tip: ensure exactly 20% of eliminated roles are management. Any less and Wall Street thinks you're protecting your friends. Any more and your remaining managers update LinkedIn before lunch.

---

Dear Brock,

How do I announce layoffs without sounding like I'm announcing layoffs?

— Wordsmith in Wilmington

Dear Wordsmith,

Never say "layoffs." Here is the approved lexicon:

• Fit and focus initiative (we fired people, and we're proud of the alliteration)
• Operational excellence transformation (we fired people and hired McKinsey)
• Driving long-term shareholder value (we fired people and announced a $90 million buyback the same afternoon)

That last one is my personal favorite. Nothing says "we had to make difficult decisions" quite like authorizing $90 million to buy back our own stock approximately 14 minutes after the WARN Act notices went out. The optics are immaculate.

---

Dear Brock,

Be honest. Did any of you actually plan for the post-COVID environment, or are you all just panicking in unison?

— Skeptic in Schaumburg

Dear Skeptic,

How dare you. We are executing with discipline against a dynamic macro environment.

Also yes.

---

Dear Brock,

What's the final step? How do I actually land the next CEO gig?

— Almost There in Austin

Dear Almost There,

Here's the secret nobody tells you. Once you've successfully "right-sized" a company into a smaller, sadder version of itself, you don't get fired. You get promoted to the search.

You'll receive a generous severance, a non-disparagement clause, and a glowing LinkedIn post from your board chair using the phrase "after a successful transformation, [Brock] has decided to pursue his next chapter." Within 60 days, a private equity firm will offer you a portfolio company that needs to be — wait for it — fit and focused.

The cycle continues. The buybacks compound. And somewhere, a Series B founder is reading this column and taking notes.

Godspeed, you magnificent disruptors.

— Brock

---

Brock Hammerstein is the CEO of VelocirAuto Synergistics™. He is currently between layoffs.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Such knowledge being shared.