• Articles
  • Curated Reads
  • Paths to PMF
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • Sign In
  • Articles
  • Curated Reads
  • Paths to PMF
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • Sign In
All Product Fundraising Starting Up Management Engineering PR & Marketing Must-reads People & Culture Design Sales
The challenges companies face when #hiring new #executive leaders

The challenges companies face when #hiring new #executive leaders

PQ-B-k8BL34
Should you 'build' or 'buy' leadership talent? #executive #hiring

Should you 'build' or 'buy' leadership talent? #executive #hiring

Q2eVSUvLnDo
Clay’s Path to Product-Market Fit — A 7-Year 'Overnight Success'

Clay’s Path to Product-Market Fit — A 7-Year 'Overnight Success'

In the earliest days of building, the founder is the company. Their fingerprints are pressed across every nook and cranny of the business — each decision, hire and product feature. Most early-stage investors will tell you (us included) that the strength of the founding team is the single most important factor
Vanta's Path to Product-Market Fit — Solve the Customer’s Problem, Then Write Code
Product

Vanta's Path to Product-Market Fit — Solve the Customer’s Problem, Then Write Code

Vanta founder and CEO Christina Cacioppo sits down with First Round Partner Todd Jackson for an inside look at all the unconventional moves in the company’s first few years — from creating a new category to signing the first 600 customers without a proper website.
What makes (or breaks) executive hires | A deep dive with Eeke de Milliano (Stripe)

What makes (or breaks) executive hires | A deep dive with Eeke de Milliano (Stripe)

Sm_rijf_2D0
The Inside Story of How This Startup Turned a 216-Word Pitch Email into a $2.6 Billion Acquisition

The Inside Story of How This Startup Turned a 216-Word Pitch Email into a $2.6 Billion Acquisition

Looker went from a single customer to more than 1700, from a small, scrappy team in Santa Cruz to a 700-person company spanning eight offices around the globe. Now on the heels of its acquisition by Google, co-founders Lloyd Tabb and Ben Porterfield, CEO Frank Bien, and first investor Bill Trenchard
Retool’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons for Getting to 100 Happy Customers, Faster
Product

Retool’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons for Getting to 100 Happy Customers, Faster

In our "Paths to Product-Market Fit" series, Retool founder and CEO David Hsu sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share how the internal tools company hypothesized, tested and iterated its way to 100 happy customers
How to get customers to demo your product back to you #founder #startup

How to get customers to demo your product back to you #founder #startup

twG95A4bkoU
In the 0 to 1 sales journey, find your ideal customers’ town square — and go hang out with them

In the 0 to 1 sales journey, find your ideal customers’ town square — and go hang out with them

ctdN9odud3g
If you’re building ahead of the market, your beta sign-ups won’t always turn into long-time users

If you’re building ahead of the market, your beta sign-ups won’t always turn into long-time users

xyUqhD_Sxr8
Fresh Off IPO, Upstart’s CEO Shares Why the Startup Isn’t a Typical Success Story

Fresh Off IPO, Upstart’s CEO Shares Why the Startup Isn’t a Typical Success Story

Upstart was founded by three individuals who barely knew each other, was forced to make a company-saving pivot, and flew under the radar in Silicon Valley for the past 8 years — but this once-scrappy startup just went public.
First time founders obsess over dominating a market, but is this the right approach? #founder

First time founders obsess over dominating a market, but is this the right approach? #founder

6AkMrp50W-k
  • About
  • Articles
  • Curated Reads
  • Paths to PMF
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • Glossary
  • Sign in
  • Sign In
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
Shuffle

Published by