Cameron Herold
Founder, COO Alliance · 2 appearances on the record.
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Herold is the former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, where he helped scale the business from $2 million to $106 million in revenue. He is the founder of the COO Alliance and has authored several business books, including Double Double and Meetings Suck.
22statements → 6claims → 2claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 2.14/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →
1 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
6 assertions · 1 opinion · 12 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Cameron argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Herold: Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein does not manage finance or engineering
“And I interviewed another COO recently, Harley Finkelstein from Shopify and Harley doesn't run finance at all. He doesn't run engineering. That's under Tobias, but Harley's very sales and marketing and culture and operations and biz dev.”
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Cameron Herold on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Cameron Herold said on Mixergy that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Herold: Hiring for attitude over experience caps company growth at 10 percent
“The days of hiring people for attitude and training for skill, the days of hiring the kind of master all trades or jack of all trades, master of none that gets you seven to 10% growth, but it doesn't get you the hyper growth.”
Herold: Zip2 seed investors deemed Elon Musk 'unbackable' and preferred Kimbal
“And two years later, I was a reference in Elon and their very first round of funding for zip too. They had one employee and I had to explain why to back Kimble must because no one wanted to back Elon cause he was unbackable. He dropped out of aeronautical engi…”
Herold: True entrepreneurs are born with necessary traits, not made
“Entrepreneurs have to be born with the entrepreneurial traits, and then they can be nurtured. But I don't think you can take a person and make them an entrepreneur. You're either entrepreneurial or you're not. And some of that is the craziness. It is the ADD, …”
Herold: Ivy League student founders should accept 2.8 GPAs, not drop out
“If you're at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale, you stay in school, you finish, but I want you to not go after a four point O be okay with getting a 2.8 for the first time in your life.”
Herold: Startup title inflation gives C-level titles to unqualified young employees
“20 years ago to get a C level title, you had to be a major player at a major company. And about 10 years ago, we started giving away titles as well as equity, as well as compensation to Gen Y who are asking for big titles. And we've had title creep in a big wa…”
Herold: 'Hire for attitude, train for skill' yields only modest growth
“If you hire for attitude and train for skill, you get seven percent growth, but if you hire for attitude and proven skill set, That's where you get the incremental growth. A true a player has done the job before.”
Herold: A true power COO works to make the CEO iconic
“The true power COO wants to make the CEO iconic.”
Herold: 40-person entrepreneurial startups suffer from C-suite title creep
“Nowadays we've had title creep where like to have a CMO or a CRO or a CT, like God, those were titles reserved for the fortune 100 or the fortune 500. We've had a lot of title creep down into these entrepreneurial companies where you've got 40 employees and yo…”
Herold: CEOs without an executive assistant are acting as one
“If you don't have an assistant, you are one. And I often get CEOs will talk about wanting to hire a second-in-command And the first thing they need to do is hire a really kickass executive assistant to get a lot of this stuff off their plate to free them up fo…”
Herold: A COO's role must complement what the founder delegates
“When you're looking to hire a second in command, it really has to be a true yin and yang relationship for you. So you've got to take a look at the stuff that's on your plate that you love to do, that you get energized from, that you're really, really good at. …”
Herold: Visionary founders need COOs with high Kolbe Follow Through scores
“What you're looking for in a COO is someone who is a very high second and first number. Their second number should be the highest. Their first number should be second highest. So you want someone who's a high follow through, which is putting systems in place b…”
Herold: A legitimate Chief Operating Officer earns $300,000 to $400,000 annually
“A true COO, you're usually three to 400,000 a year. You know, I was three 2010 years ago. It got junk.”
Herold: Job postings should repel bad fits to attract the right talent
“Write it like an ad that pushes some people away and magnetizes people towards you.”
Herold: Kolbe index profiles show CEOs are 'Quick Starts', COOs 'Fact Finders'
“In fact, we use some profiles at the COO Alliance where we profile all the CEOs and the COOs that are members and everyone's Colby profile that is the entrepreneur or high quick starts. All the COOs are very high fact finders and follow throughs. They're just …”
Herold: Hired Kimbal Musk and Peter Rive as painting franchisees in 1993
“I hired Kimball Musk to be a franchisee for mine. I hired his cousin. No, Elon's brother. Brother. Okay. And then I also hired his cousin, Peter Reeve, who built solar city. They both were franchisees for me in 1993.”
Herold: I told Uber's founder at Burning Man that Uber was stupid
“In fact, I told the founder of Uber camp years ago when we were burning man together, that it was a stupid idea because I just didn't understand Uber.”
Herold: CEOs must monitor organizational ripple effects of a new COO
“Your job in the first 90 days is to watch the ripples As they're getting up to speed, you have to watch for all the ripple effects that they cause. Most people miss that. They're so worried about getting the answer, the CEO up to speed that they miss all the t…”
Herold: Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein does not manage finance or engineering
“And I interviewed another COO recently, Harley Finkelstein from Shopify and Harley doesn't run finance at all. He doesn't run engineering. That's under Tobias, but Harley's very sales and marketing and culture and operations and biz dev.”
Herold: Decision filters streamline project delegation using five success criteria
“The decision filter is a one pager that has you outline what the project looks like at perfect or at complete. It shows the five success criteria. It shows the ROI. It shows whether you're going to make money or make people happier. It's a great way to hand of…”
Herold: 1-800-GOT-JUNK? grew from 14 to 3,100 employees during his tenure
“When I went in to start one 800 got junk or to grow it, they had 14 employees. When I left six and a half years later, we had 3100 employees system wide.”
Appearances (2)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| #1559 Cameron Herold coaches me on hiring (so I don’t collapse at my desk) | Feb 14, 2018 | 22m |
| #1524 When does a startup founder need a COO? | Nov 22, 2017 | 30m |