All of our Customer focused articles

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

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

Clay co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin sits down with First Round Partner Todd Jackson for a behind-the-scenes look at how he grappled with narrowing Clay’s scope and tactics for landing on the right ICP.
From Flagship Back to Fledgling: Lessons on Going Multi-Product From an Early Stripe PM

From Flagship Back to Fledgling: Lessons on Going Multi-Product From an Early Stripe PM

In this exclusive interview, Tara Seshan shares nine lessons from her playbooks for going multi-product, drawing on examples from both Stripe and Watershed.
The Startup’s Guide to Customer Advocacy: How to Get Closer to Your Champions

The Startup’s Guide to Customer Advocacy: How to Get Closer to Your Champions

Customer advocacy is more than just case studies. Kalina Bryant (formerly of Asana, Talkdesk and Marketo) shares tactical advice for turning customers into advocates, with tailored pointers for startups on a budget.
Counterintuitive Lessons on How to Get Better as You Scale, From Twilio’s Jeff Lawson

Counterintuitive Lessons on How to Get Better as You Scale, From Twilio’s Jeff Lawson

13 years after Twilio first launched, CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson opens up about the peaks and valleys to share a set of unconventional company building lessons on how to get better as you scale — from introducing new products and refining go-to-market strategies to focusing annual planning.
This VP is Doing Things Differently in the Product Org — Here’s His Playbook

This VP is Doing Things Differently in the Product Org — Here’s His Playbook

As the VP of Product at Divvy, Tyler Hogge shares his tips for truly empowering your product managers to deliver outcomes, including aligning with revenue teams and adding variable comp.
From Instant Pot to Instagram: Critical Lessons in Startup Community Building

From Instant Pot to Instagram: Critical Lessons in Startup Community Building

Bailey Richardson (an early Instagram hire and current partner at People & Company) has studied ordinary people who started extraordinary communities. Here, she shares the nuts and bolts of how startups should approach community building, highlighting eight valuable lessons on how the best communiti
From Zero to IPO: How Growth Needs to Evolve at Every Startup Stage

From Zero to IPO: How Growth Needs to Evolve at Every Startup Stage

There's no one-size-fits-all growth advice. Brian Rothenberg, former VP of Growth at Eventbrite, breaks down the three broad phases of the startup lifecycle. For each phase, he identifies key targets that startups should aim for to kick their growth strategy to the next level.
Mastering the Art of the Outcome: How Guru Turned Customer Success Into a Company Cornerstone

Mastering the Art of the Outcome: How Guru Turned Customer Success Into a Company Cornerstone

At Guru, customer success is at the center of every aspect of company-building, from product design to sales strategy. Co-founder and CEO Rick Nucci shows how a relentless dedication to outcomes gives startups a competitive edge.
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