core BU and then the odds are pretty solid you’ll become a CEO candidate if you kill it. Even if you don’t get the nod you’ll get other CEO offers (see, e.g., Marissa Mayer) and other great opportunities (e.g., Sheryl Sandberg). My uber-point: the key as an internal candidate at least is getting to the penultimate management level (VP or whatever is the second-to-highest level below CEO) as soon as possible (because people notice those that rise quickly), get as much P&L responsibility as possible and exceed expectations (whatever they are). Also, on a related point: often you’ll notice the fastest way to become an “internal” candidate is to get acquired and excel after the acquisition. The CEO and top execs of successful acquisitions rocket to the top of the org chart (they are often given higher titles than they would get if the product was developed internally) and often inherently run higher-growth parts of the business. They get into the CEO conversation relatively quickly if they maintain momentum and run something of material scale faster than true internal candidates and if the company is a bit stale the acquired guys are very successful -- they get the air of the “new blood” that the org needs. At least in my experience not that many real candidates get there so your statistical odds are decent if you can just find a way to make it to the penultimate level of management and then just kill it, no matter how. 6. How old is too old to start a startup? First, you need to give it a full 24 month commitment to hit Initial Traction. 6 months isn’t enough. 12 isn’t. It’s going to take you 9-12 months just to get the product right and another 6-12 to get any material revenues. Can you “afford” to commit for 24 months just to get to something? If not, you are too “old”. Even if you are just 22. Slack went from $0 to $12m in ‘14 but it wasn’t founded on 1/1/14. It took them a year to get an MSP and it was really founded as a very different company many years earlier. And you might not be Slack. In any event, 12 months won’t cut it. Secondly, you have to be able to commit to 8,760 hours a year. 24 x 365. Not, to being SAASTR.COM 6