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Why Qualitative Market Research Belongs in Your Startup Toolkit — and How to Wield it Effectively
PR & Marketing

Why Qualitative Market Research Belongs in Your Startup Toolkit — and How to Wield it Effectively

Qualitative market research is the catalyst for creativity that not enough startups are taking advantage of. Jesse Caesar demystifies qual, outlines the questions that qual's uniquely positioned to tackle and shares how startups at any stage can add this powerful resource to their toolkits.

How to Size and Assess Teams From an Eng Lead at Stripe, Uber and Digg
Engineering

How to Size and Assess Teams From an Eng Lead at Stripe, Uber and Digg

Will Larson has developed a framework for the optimal size and state of engineering teams—not only so managers can lead them in a highly efficient and effective way, but with a deeply empathetic and ethical approach.

Our Top 6 Pieces of Career Wisdom for New Grads (and Everyone Else Too)
People & Culture

Our Top 6 Pieces of Career Wisdom for New Grads (and Everyone Else Too)

Graduation is an opportunity to reflect on your progress and recommit to your professional goals. In the spirit of graduation season, we gathered our best advice on how to design a fulfilling career — for new grads and seasoned operators alike.

So You Think You’re Ready to Hire a Marketer? Read This First.
PR & Marketing

So You Think You’re Ready to Hire a Marketer? Read This First.

As First Round’s Marketing Expert in Residence, Arielle Jackson often helps early-stage founders navigate the search for a full-time marketer of their own. From the when and the why to the who and the how, Jackson offers a crash course on every aspect of the marketer hiring process.

Empathy-Driven Development: How Engineers Can Tap into This Critical Skill
Engineering

Empathy-Driven Development: How Engineers Can Tap into This Critical Skill

Andrea Goulet is determined to change the way that the tech industry talks about empathy. After teaching us how to conquer technical debt, the CEO of Corgibytes returns to the Review to explain why empathy is technical skill, and how engineers can leverage this powerful tool in their practice.

Make Friends With the Monster Chewing on Your Leg, and Other Tips for Surviving Startups
Management

Make Friends With the Monster Chewing on Your Leg, and Other Tips for Surviving Startups

After telling us to 'Give Away your Legos,' Molly Graham is back to dig deeper into tactics for handling the emotional rollercoaster of scaling startups. Here, she shares the strategies she used at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Quip and Facebook to keep her head on straight and defang three common

Our 6 Must Reads for Honing Focus and Managing Your Time
Management

Our 6 Must Reads for Honing Focus and Managing Your Time

How do you find focus in a world of competing priorities? Operate with intention. We share the Review's six best strategies for resisting distraction, boosting productivity and making every minute meaningful.

The Secrets to Designing a Curiosity-Driven Career
Management

The Secrets to Designing a Curiosity-Driven Career

Zainab Ghadiyali's extraordinary career has taken her from nonprofit work in Peru to life as Product Lead at Airbnb. With tactical advice on building transferable skills and beating impostor syndrome, she shows entrepreneurs how to embrace the unconventional path and forge a career fueled by curiosi

Founder Exposed: Opening Up About Startup Failures and Vulnerability
Management

Founder Exposed: Opening Up About Startup Failures and Vulnerability

Jeff Wald knows firsthand that behind every startup success story is a stack of seldom discussed defeats. The investor and three-time founder opens up about why leaders should embrace vulnerability, and offers tools for extracting lessons from failure and getting back in the game.

The Essential Questions That Have Powered This Top Silicon Valley Manager’s Career
Management

The Essential Questions That Have Powered This Top Silicon Valley Manager’s Career

After over a decade spent leading teams, Facebook VP of Product Design Julie Zhuo firmly believes that questions are a manager’s best tool. Here, she shares the essential questions she's used to build trust, improve 1:1s and make sure feedback is heard.

Defining Growth Design: The Guide to the Role Most Startups are Missing
Design

Defining Growth Design: The Guide to the Role Most Startups are Missing

Angel Steger serves as our guide on a trek to better understand the still developing speciality of growth design. She shares lessons learned from her roles leading the function at Dropbox and Pinterest, and outlines tactics for early-stage startups looking to source, interview and onboard growth des

Navigating the Leap from Big Tech to Startups — Advice from a Former Google and Flipkart Exec
Management

Navigating the Leap from Big Tech to Startups — Advice from a Former Google and Flipkart Exec

Punit Soni cut his teeth as a product leader at large companies such Google, Motorola and Flipkart before venturing out on his own to found Suki, a healthcare startup. Here, he shares his observations on the differences between the two experiences, noting what surprised him, what he felt unprepared

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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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