• 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 Best Approach to the Worst Conversation: "You're Fired"
Management

The Best Approach to the Worst Conversation: "You're Fired"

Michael Lopp has headed up People Operations at both Palantir and Pinterest. Here, he explains how to fire people the right way.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Startup Storytelling
PR & Marketing

The Seven Deadly Sins of Startup Storytelling

Andy Smith specializes in the intersection between psychology, social media and marketing. Here, he shows how to tell a great brand story.

How to Make OKRs Actually Work at Your Startup
Management

How to Make OKRs Actually Work at Your Startup

Swipely CEO Angus Davis shares how his company deployed OKRs to grow past 50 employees and $1 billion in sales.

What It Takes to Grow Your Startup 500% in Months
Management

What It Takes to Grow Your Startup 500% in Months

Angel investor and seasoned consultant Paul Arnold on how to introduce organization that will accelerate your startup.

Rap Genius Explains Why Worse is Better
Product

Rap Genius Explains Why Worse is Better

Tom Lehman, Co-Founder of Genius, talks about the real value of MVPs and why it's good to build bad sometimes.

From Zero to 10,000 Clients in Two Years Using Channel Partners
Sales

From Zero to 10,000 Clients in Two Years Using Channel Partners

Alex Rampell, CEO of TrialPay, shares how startups can land vital channel partnerships that open up doors to many more customers.

The Five Mistakes Startups Make When Building for Mobile
Product

The Five Mistakes Startups Make When Building for Mobile

Farhan Thawar of Pivotal Labs busts common myths about mobile development and offers best practices that can save startups time and money.

Asana’s Justin Rosenstein on the One Quality Every Startup Needs to Survive
Management

Asana’s Justin Rosenstein on the One Quality Every Startup Needs to Survive

Asana Co-founder Justin Rosenstein on the critical need for clarity within startups and how to achieve it as you scale.

This Product Prioritization System Nabbed Pandora 70 Million Monthly Users with Just 40 Engineers
Product

This Product Prioritization System Nabbed Pandora 70 Million Monthly Users with Just 40 Engineers

Pandora CTO Tom Conrad explains how Pandora picks the most important features to build with its limited engineering power.

Unlocking the Power of Stable Teams with Twitter’s SVP of Engineering
Management

Unlocking the Power of Stable Teams with Twitter’s SVP of Engineering

Chris Fry, former SVP Engineering at Twitter, talks about how forging strong teams is vital to building a long-lasting company.

The Brain Hacks Top Founders Use to Get the Job Done
Management

The Brain Hacks Top Founders Use to Get the Job Done

Sought-after executive coach Katia Verresen shares the tips and tricks you can use to be as effective as possible.

Six Friction-Free Ways to Help Your Network Help You
People & Culture

Six Friction-Free Ways to Help Your Network Help You

Networking expert Patrick Ewers provides six powerful tips for forging connections that can advance your goals and richen your life.

  • 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