Engineering

Box’s VP Engineering on Biohacks For A Better Career

If your morning or nightly routine sounds about as far removed from your work life as you can get, think again. Biohacks, from blue-light blocking glasses to morning sessions in a sauna, add up — and can help you navigate not just your job, but a long, productive career.

Product

Our 6 Must Reads If You're Hiring a Product Manager

Over the years, we've collected a trove of advice on how to hire the best product professionals. Now, we want to package it all together so you can get smart and take action fast.

Management

To Grow Faster, Hit Pause — and Ask These Questions from Stripe’s COO

Claire Hughes Johnson is the woman overseeing Stripe's rocketship ascent. Here, she shares a list of questions that any startup can use to guide hyper-growth.

Engineering

The Best Advice We Overheard at First Round's CTO Unconference

Our second annual CTO Unconference brought together 160+ of the sharpest technical leaders we know. Here's a rundown of some of the best tactics we heard them share.

Management

A Field Guide to Identifying and Integrating Independent Board Members

Amazon veteran Michelle Wilson serves as an independent board member for Pinterest, Okta and Zendesk. From how to find independent board members to when to bring them on, here's what she tells startups that ask about this critical board role.

Management

Don't Play with Dead Snakes — Kill Projects Before They Kill You

DNAnexus CEO Richard Daly on how they tripled revenue by killing and scorching the earth under 'Dead Snake' projects.

Management

Dear PMs, It's Time to Rethink Agile at Enterprise Startups

Flatiron Health's CMO and SVP Product Strategy Ogi Kavazovic explains how traditional PM practices break down at B2B companies, and what they can do instead.

People & Culture

How Instacart Uses Data to Craft A Bespoke Comp Strategy

When searches for talent are competitive and condensed, startups have a need for speed that makes freestyle negotiations or plug-and-play comp data resources attractive. But that's not how it has to go down.

Sales

Start Up on the Right Foot — Build a Customer Advisory Board

Sales leader Peter Kazanjy on creating a group that will ensure you're building a product your customers want, need and will buy.

Fundraising

How Zapier Pulled Off Its One-and-Done Approach to Fundraising

Zapier CEO and Co-founder Wade Foster is a fundraising contrarian. But he doesn't think he should be. He shares how it's possible to approach financing as a boost — not a crutch — and ways to approach key business decisions early on to keep the itch to fundraise at bay.

Sales

This Sales Plan Moves the Needle on Every Success Metric

Derek Draper builds high-performance sales teams. His secret: a documented, bulletproof plan broken into stages and actions.

People & Culture

How to Become Insanely Well-Connected

Chris Fralic is a world-class super-connector. Here's how the long-time First Round Partner has methodically built bonds spanning years and careers.