The Courage to Hire Someone Better Than You

The Courage to Hire Someone Better Than You

The best Founders are world-class at building products.
But when it’s time to scale, the game changes — and so does the job.

The Founder who closes the first 10 deals may not be the one who can build a team, lead through scale, and manage a national launch.

And here’s what separates the top 10% of CEOs in Life Sciences:
They’re willing to bring in commercial leaders who are better at that part of the business than they are.

This Isn’t Weakness — It’s Leadership

You don’t have to give up control of your company.
You just have to let go of owning everything.

Great CEOs stay focused on:

• Building the executive team
• Raising capital
• Protecting culture and vision
• Guiding strategy
• Driving key relationships

They don’t waste time trying to run Sales and Marketing — they hire someone who can do it better.

That starts by evaluating whether your current commercial leader can scale with the business.

What That Looks Like in Practice

Sometimes that means replacing the VP of Sales with a true CCO.
Other times, it means giving a first-time VP a great Marketing Manager and coaching support.

But the goal is the same:
Shift from doing to scaling.

You need someone who can:

• Build systems that generate pipeline
• Develop talent
• Run commercial planning with the CFO
• Align with the Executive Leadership Team
• Earn trust with the Board

Here's how to know when it’s time to elevate your VP or bring in a true CCO.

What We’ve Learned

At Alder Brooks, we’ve seen Founders accelerate growth the moment they made one bold decision:
To stop being the commercial hero — and hire someone better.

Because leadership isn’t about being the best at everything.
It’s about building the team that gets your company to the next stage.

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