---
id: ins_alina-vandenberghe-recruiting-process-transparency
title: 'Communication is the leverage skill that turns founder-CEO into co-CEO'
operator: Alina Vandenberghe 🌶️
operator_role: Co-founder & co-CEO @Chili Piper 🔥 Here I talk about lessons I learned to jumpstart my career from intern to SVP. And to grow a company from 0 to almost $1Bn
source_url: http://chilipiper.com/post/cmo-lessons
source_type: thread
source_title: 'Lessons after 12 months of CMO-ing'
source_date: 2026-04-10
captured_date: 2026-05-04
domain: [hiring]
lifecycle: []
maturity: applied
artifact_class: framework
score: { originality: 3, specificity: 3, evidence: 2, transferability: 3, source: 3 }
tier: B
related: []
raw_ref: raw/linkedin/reactions/linkedin-reactions-2026-04-10.md
---

# Communication is the leverage skill that turns founder-CEO into co-CEO

## Claim

After 12 months as acting CMO at Chili Piper with no formal marketing training, the biggest learning was a step-change in communication skill, going from a geek who only understood code and UX to someone writing books and articles. Communication is what unlocks the move from co-founder to co-CEO of real impact.

## Mechanism

Marketing forces a builder to translate product truth into outside-in language. Repeating that translation across landing pages, decks, and articles compounds into clearer thinking, which scales authority inside the company because every team starts trusting your framing of the problem.

## Conditions

Holds for technical founders willing to write publicly and own the narrative. Fails when communication work is delegated entirely to a CMO without the founder doing reps themselves.