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X1's Path to Product-Market Fit — How the Consumer Credit Card Company Pulled off a Pandemic Pivot
Product

X1's Path to Product-Market Fit — How the Consumer Credit Card Company Pulled off a Pandemic Pivot

In our "Paths to Product-Market Fit" series, X1 founder and CEO Deepak Rao sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share the dramatic story of how his company pivoted during the pandemic and found product-market fit with a bold launch strategy.
Clay's unconventional path to $1.25B: Rethinking GTM, pricing, and enterprise sales | Varun Anand

Clay's unconventional path to $1.25B: Rethinking GTM, pricing, and enterprise sales | Varun Anand

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Live Tinted’s Path to Product Market Fit: How to Build a Loyal and Passionate Community Before You Even Have a Brand
Product

Live Tinted’s Path to Product Market Fit: How to Build a Loyal and Passionate Community Before You Even Have a Brand

Live Tinted co-founder and CEO Deepica Mutyala sits down with First Round Partner Todd Jackson for a behind-the-scenes look at how she built a loyal and powerful customer base long before she ever had a product to sell.
What if the lean startup methodology isn’t the only way to scale? #startup #founder #tech #podcast

What if the lean startup methodology isn’t the only way to scale? #startup #founder #tech #podcast

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Quiet signals can tell you everything—if you know where to look. #startup #founder #tech

Quiet signals can tell you everything—if you know where to look. #startup #founder #tech

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When 3 engineers can't support 1,000 customers anymore #founder #startup #startups

When 3 engineers can't support 1,000 customers anymore #founder #startup #startups

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Building a $4B data platform: Inside dbt Labs' unconventional path | Tristan Handy (Founder & CEO)

Building a $4B data platform: Inside dbt Labs' unconventional path | Tristan Handy (Founder & CEO)

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How Gitlab thinks about #marketing as an open-source product #gitlab #software #opensource

How Gitlab thinks about #marketing as an open-source product #gitlab #software #opensource

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Developer relations doesn't end when a company goes public #gitlab #opensource #products #software

Developer relations doesn't end when a company goes public #gitlab #opensource #products #software

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Building products isn’t linear—and it’s never as clean as the frameworks suggest #startup #products

Building products isn’t linear—and it’s never as clean as the frameworks suggest #startup #products

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Not everyone needs to copy Steve Jobs' leadership style #stevejobs #founder #podcast

Not everyone needs to copy Steve Jobs' leadership style #stevejobs #founder #podcast

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Pay attention when users hack your product in unexpected ways #podcast #technology #startup #figma

Pay attention when users hack your product in unexpected ways #podcast #technology #startup #figma

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For the founder's notepad:
"If you personally want to grow as fast as your company, you have to give away your job every couple months." – Molly Graham
“Asking ‘Why can't this be done sooner?’ methodically, reliably and habitually can have a profound impact on the speed of your organization.” – Dave Girouard
“End every meeting or conversation with the feeling and optimism you’d like to have at the start of your next conversation with the person.” – Chris Fralic
“Focus is doing things with a clear intention. It doesn’t mean you charge single-minded toward a goal. It means you pay rapt and incremental attention to how you need to turn the rudder on a project.” – Fidji Simo
“It’s essential to grow with the company — rather than having the company grow around you.” – Cristina Cordova 
“You have to be impatient with shipping, but patient with your career.” – James Everingham
“‘I trust you, make the call’ might be the six most powerful words you can hear from a manager.” – Sean Twersky
“Your job as a CEO is to build fire departments, not put out fires.” – Sam Corcos 
“Can you say with confidence that each report would want to be on your team again? If you aren’t sure that the answer is yes, it’s probably no — much like how if you have to ask, ‘Am I in love?’ you’re probably not.” – Julie Zhuo 
“People can get addicted to yak shaving. An effective engineering generalist knows when to move on. Pay attention to whether they used their time wisely, not just the results.” – Mike Krieger 
“It sounds so simple to say that bosses need to tell employees when they're screwing up. But it very rarely happens.” – Kim Scott
“You’ll know you understand the customer problem enough when you can predict 75% of what a customer tells you. Keep having these conversations until three-quarters of it is stuff you already know.” – Christina Cacioppo
“I have a rule: no company swag until the business has at least $250K of revenue or 250k users. Until then, you don’t get to “feel” the benefits of having started a company.” – Gagan Biyani
“The business model ends up becoming the business. It’s equally important as the market you’re going after and the product that you build.” – Jay Simons 
“If speed is the yin, the yang is prioritization. You can’t be fast if you don’t know what’s important.” – Jaleh Rezaei
“If you treat your connections as a kind of personal ATM you use for frequent withdrawals, you’ll quickly be disappointed (and overdrawn).” – Karen Wickre 
“Delighting the customer always yields better returns than countering or copying a competitor. It’s just a lot harder to do.” – Andy Rachleff 
“When you’re a founder, every moment you’re not writing code or getting users, you need to be making a conscious choice: Is whatever you’re doing worth your time?” – Alexis Ohanian
“‘Why would a customer not want this?’ is often a far more interesting question than why they would.” – Rick Song
“When you leave the planning process wondering if you put too many resources behind a single bet, that’s the bet that ends up succeeding. Bold ideas need bold resourcing.” – Lenny Rachitsky and Nels Gilbreth
“Treat customer development as a one-on-one with a direct report — you just want to ask the hard questions.” – Ryan Glasgow
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