• 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
20 Underrated Qualities to Look for in Candidates — And 50+ Interview Questions to Suss Them Out
People & Culture

20 Underrated Qualities to Look for in Candidates — And 50+ Interview Questions to Suss Them Out

We've rounded up a curated set of attributes you may be overlooking in your hiring process — and the interview questions you can use to surface them.
A UX Research Crash Course for Founders — Customer Discovery Tips from Zoom, Zapier & Dropbox
Starting Up

A UX Research Crash Course for Founders — Customer Discovery Tips from Zoom, Zapier & Dropbox

Zoom’s Jane Davis answers all of your tricky customer development questions, creating a highly tactical guide for founders flying solo on UX research as they explore startup ideas, validate concepts, iterate on prototypes, and troubleshoot common product problems.
“Get Off the Floor” and Other Career Advice from Microsoft, Looker, Reddit & Twitter
Engineering

“Get Off the Floor” and Other Career Advice from Microsoft, Looker, Reddit & Twitter

Nick Caldwell's resume includes an enviable list of companies — Microsoft, Reddit, Looker and Twitter. He shares his biggest lessons from each for a crash course in finding success across different company cultures, scales & functions.
8 Product Hurdles Every Founder Must Clear — This PM-Turned-Founder Shares His Playbooks
Product

8 Product Hurdles Every Founder Must Clear — This PM-Turned-Founder Shares His Playbooks

Repeat PM turned first-time founder Ryan Glasgow addresses the tough product questions every founder faces, from segmenting the market and iterating on early MVPs, to finding product/market fit and spinning up a second product.
The Chief People Officer as PM: Rethinking The Systems & Tools That Run the Company
People & Culture

The Chief People Officer as PM: Rethinking The Systems & Tools That Run the Company

Credit Karma's Colleen McCreary views her role not as the CEO of culture or happiness, but rather the product manager of the systems and tools that run the company. Here's her advice for approaching compensation, rewards and recognition, performance management, and internal comms with a fresh perspe
The Startup Happiness Formula — This 3X Founder Shares His Approach to Figuring Out What to Build Next
Starting Up

The Startup Happiness Formula — This 3X Founder Shares His Approach to Figuring Out What to Build Next

Repeat founder Waseem Daher, co-founder and CEO of Pilot, has founded three startups with the same group of co-founders. He pays particular attention to Pilot’s first year — including validating the idea, choosing an ICP, and outlining the product roadmap for a company that can go the distance.
12 Frameworks for Finding Startup Ideas — Advice for Future Founders
Starting Up

12 Frameworks for Finding Startup Ideas — Advice for Future Founders

Hoping to start a company someday? We’ve gone back through our archives to surface the best advice on problem selection from first-time entrepreneurs and repeat-founders.
When it Comes to These Company Building Blocks, Borrow From Others — Advice From Thumbtack’s CEO
People & Culture

When it Comes to These Company Building Blocks, Borrow From Others — Advice From Thumbtack’s CEO

As Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta tells it, sometimes your company is a special flower, and sometimes you should borrow from others. He shares his advice for how to tell the difference.
An Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent His First Two Years of Company-Building
Starting Up

An Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent His First Two Years of Company-Building

Sam Corcos, co-founder & CEO of Levels, tracked exactly how he spent the two years since founding the company for a rare inside look at being a startup leader.
Better Meetings Make for Better Days — 20 Tactical Ideas to Try Out With Your Team
Management

Better Meetings Make for Better Days — 20 Tactical Ideas to Try Out With Your Team

We're spending more time in meetings than ever. The sharpest folks we've interviewed share their best tips for making sure this time is well spent.
The 30 Best Bits of Advice We’ve Heard on Our Podcast (So Far)
Management

The 30 Best Bits of Advice We’ve Heard on Our Podcast (So Far)

As our new podcast crosses the 30-episode mark, we've listened back to each one and plucked out our favorite pieces of advice shared by startup leaders at companies like Notion, Lambda School, Plaid, and Segment. Whether you're a long-time listener or haven't pressed play yet, we hope you find a new
The 25 Micro-Habits of High-Impact Managers
Management

The 25 Micro-Habits of High-Impact Managers

Sharp folks from across the First Round community share the small habits that great managers do, including delivering feedback with care, opening up about failure, and sending praise up the chain.
  • About
  • Articles
  • Curated Reads
  • Paths to PMF
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • 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