Lol, my old startup had a great Ivory tower CEO. We ran out of runway after he continually chased any shiny ball that the wind brought him. No monetary plans, no concept of what a usable product could be, just lots and lots of vision, and vague descriptions of implementations to the team.

That doesn't disqualify your statement, but it does highlight that - if that is correct, a COO is needed to put some sanity on the Ivory goals.

Then again, I was working for a startup. I guess that was a success (~25M funding before fizzling), as far as startups are concerned.. lol.