You Don’t Need a CxO — Until You Do
- Merve Kagitci Hokamp
- Aug 3
- 4 min read
Startups are built on extremes.
You’re either scrappy or bloated.
You’re doing it all yourself or over-hiring too soon.
You’re staying lean… until everything breaks.
I work with a lot of founders and scaling teams, and this comes up all the time:
“Do I really need a C-level hire right now?”
“Shouldn’t I just hire executors and stay lean?”
“Or do I need someone who can own a function with me?”
Here’s the truth: there’s no one-size-fits-all. But there is a point where what got you here won’t get you any further—and you can’t “founder your way” through it forever.
Let’s break it down.
Why the “Just Me + AI” Model Isn’t Enough
Let’s talk about the new fantasy: the one-person unicorn.
“One-person unicorns will be a thing, thanks to AI.”
And yes — AI can give you leverage. You can automate ops, generate code, manage content, run experiments… But what AI can’t do is lead.
It doesn’t push back on your assumptions.
It won’t build culture.
It won’t hold the commercial roadmap while you’re on a plane raising your next round.
AI will scale your output. But it won’t scale your leadership.
The Trap: “I just need more doers”
Early on, it’s all about execution.
Hire scrappy, high-energy generalists. Move fast. Get things out the door. Makes sense.
But founders fall into the trap of thinking more execution = more progress.
What they get is more people asking:
“What should I do next?”
You’re still the one making every decision. Writing the playbook while running the plays. Which means… you haven’t scaled.
As Y Combinator puts it, if you’re still in every meeting and every decision, you haven’t scaled. You’ve replicated yourself — poorly.
So… Do You Really Need a CxO?
Let’s say this clearly:
❌ You don’t need a full-time CxO with a massive salary and equity package just to look mature.
✅ But you do need leverage. And that doesn’t mean only hiring executors.
There’s a middle ground. And it’s often the smartest move:
→ A fractional CxO: someone with big-company experience, part-time scope, and deep expertise.
→ A Chief of Staff: not an admin—your strategy operator and bandwidth expander.
→ An executive advisor or board member: paid to push your thinking, not just show up once a quarter.
→ A high-agency generalist: smart, adaptable, and capable of growing into a leadership role.
These roles give you what you’re really after:
→ Judgment.
→ Strategic support.
→ Breathing room.
What’s the Cost of Waiting?
Founders hesitate because of cost, optics, and control. But the cost of waiting is hidden—and real.
The First Round Capital State of Startups report found that nearly 60% of founders regret not hiring senior talent earlier, especially in product, finance, and operations.
The Economist calls it “founder drag”—the moment when a founder’s deep involvement starts doing more harm than good. As the business grows, the role evolves — but many founders don’t. They stay too close to everything, and their over-involvement becomes a bottleneck, not a boost.
If you’re still holding the reins on every major decision, you’re the ceiling.
Not because you’re not brilliant. But because there’s no space to scale brilliance when it’s trapped inside one person.
What to Ask Yourself
If you’re considering a senior hire but unsure what you really need, pause and ask:
Do I need better execution—or better thinking?
Am I constantly the fallback for strategy, hiring, investor comms, and team leadership?
Would a sharp partner —even one day a week— free me up to think ahead again?
Are my most important projects stuck in my brain because no one else has the full context?
Am I making trade-offs between speed and quality because I don’t have the right leadership in place?
Are my 1:1s with team members energizing — or just one more thing on the list?
How much time do I lose daily to context switching between high-stakes decisions, team issues, and investor demands?
Have I turned into the company’s emotional buffer, strategic brain, and execution engine — all at once?
If I stepped away for two weeks, what would break? What would pause?
And finally:
Is my resistance to hiring a senior leader about cost — or about control?
Final Thought
Your job isn’t to do everything. It’s to build the people, systems, and judgment that allow things to get done without you.
You might not need a full C-suite yet. But you need to stop being the only person holding the map. Because if you're the only one who knows where you're going, you're also the only one who can get lost.
Hi, I’m Merve 👋
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