The best startup CEOs do these 13 things better than everyone else

REUTERS/Rashid Umar Abbasi

Running a startup is hard.

But the ones that do well usually have a great CEO.

We went through Quora to find out what the best startup CEOs do to stand out from the rest.

They are good at both hiring AND firing.

"Whenever you find a really great CEO you find someone who has a knack for hiring. That means selling other people on your dream or your business. Especially when it doesn't seem all that important or seems very risky. I used to work for a CEO who was awesome at hiring, but couldn't fire anyone. Doomed the business. Many of the best CEOs get others to follow no matter what." — Robert Scoble, futurist at Rackspace

Being street smart is more important than being book smart.

"Getting out and understanding customers is far more important than book smarts or computer research." — Mark Suster, partner at Upfront Ventures

Put your self-interest behind.

"Most entrepreneurs have a healthy dose of self-interest. However, serially successful startup leaders place their stakeholders' well being before their own personal gain. Situations inevitably arise in which key executives could covertly self-deal and enhance their financial outcomes at the expense of their fellow employees and investors. Consistent winners resist this temptation." — John Greathouse, entrepreneur, investor, and professor