Of the Very Successful SaaS Companies I am reasonably close to, I’d say the CEOs break into two groups:
- Very Smart. (say, “top 10% of class” smart)
and
2. Insanely Smart. (they often dropped out, btw)
But one thing is constant: their teams are very, very smart.
A great CEO can and in fact seeks out to hire folks smarter than her. So truly great CEOs often assemble management teams that, as a group, are smarter than the CEO herself. And often, a top group of engineers that are smarter than her.
I think you need to be at least pretty smart and incredibly driven. Everything is just too competitive otherwise.
But most important is recruiting. If you can recruit the smartest and the best in the world, that is much more important than your own IQ.
