How to Be a Great CEO?

A Lesson from Bing Gordon

I’ve always looked up to Steve Jobs and Satoru Iwata as role models. I often wish they were still around so I could learn from them directly.

So when I had the chance to build a personal relationship with Bing Gordon — cofounder of Electronic Arts and a board member of companies like Amazon, Duolingo, and Take-Two Interactive — I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Visiting him at his home and learning from his experience has been a true privilege. Naturally, one of the first questions I asked was:

“How can I become a great CEO?”

His answer was simple, and it has shaped how I’ve operated ever since.

A four-point framework. Clear. Focused. Practical.

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Improve Product-Market Fit

At this stage, Nex has found product-market fit (PMF).

But Bing made one thing very clear:
Finding PMF is not enough — we must keep improving it.

Many startups find initial success, then stall. Some miss technology shifts. Some fail to evolve their product. Others see their economics degrade as they try to grow.

Companies with improving product-market fit look very different:

• Word of mouth becomes the primary growth driver

• They earn a leading share of voice in their category

• Network effects begin to take hold

• The product keeps getting better, and the moat keeps widening — often at a compounding rate

I’ve started to see early signs of this at Nex. A growing share of our customers hear about Nex from friends and family first. That’s the product pulling its own weight.

“Improving PMF is the CEO’s #1 responsibility,” Bing emphasized.

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Scale the Leadership Team

A CEO is ultimately judged by the quality of their executive team.

Bing shared a simple scoring system:

• Hall of Fame: 5

• Delivers what they set out to do: 4

• Industry average: 3

A great CEO builds an executive team that averages 4.25 or higher.

It’s about recruiting world-class talent and growing leaders from within.

What does “Hall of Fame” mean? Bing shared a few examples:

• A HoF CMO builds a household brand over a decade

• A HoF CRO consistently beats plan by 20%

• A HoF CTO builds enduring, category-defining technology

And one important trait across all of them:

They develop at least two future leaders who can step into their role.

That last point changed how I think about leadership. It’s not just about delivering results. It’s about building the next generation of leaders — so the company can continue to thrive without you.

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Scale the Organization

Scaling an organization is not about headcount. It’s about clarity.

Clarity of:

• Why we exist — the mission

• How we operate — the values and culture

• What we build — the product

At Nex, we believe games can do a lot of good for society.

Our mission is to connect friends and families through active play. We do this by building remarkable hardware, software, and content, and by serving a dedicated customer base for the long term.

As we grow, I’ve learned that misalignment rarely comes from bad intent — it comes from a lack of clarity.

Scaling means aligning a growing team around that clarity so decisions compound instead of fragment.

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Never Run Out of Money

This one is simple, but non-negotiable.

Stay measured. Stay responsible. Always have enough cash.

We’ve come close before. Those moments leave a mark.

Never run out of money, and you earn the right to keep building.

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I’ve been thinking about these four points a lot over the past few months.

But instead of overthinking it, I decided to fully commit — to execute against them, and to regularly share progress with Bing and the team. I shared my first progress update in our last town hall.

I believe that if I can become a great CEO, we can build the foundation for Nex to become a 100-year company.

Building a 100-year company is not a single breakthrough.

It’s a compounding process — improving product-market fit, strengthening the team, aligning the organization, and staying alive so it all has the chance to matter.

Bing has joined our board. In his words, helping improve the success rate of entrepreneurs — and supporting the next generation of CEOs — is what makes him happy.

Learning from him is a privilege. It’s one of the most meaningful parts of the journey.

From this point forward, this is the bar I hold myself to.