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The 5 Early Mistakes That Almost Killed This Founder’s Startup — and How He Survived
Starting Up

The 5 Early Mistakes That Almost Killed This Founder’s Startup — and How He Survived

Ranker CEO Clark Benson readily admits that he made mistakes that almost destroyed the company. Here, he lists what not to do.

This Startup Built Internal Tools to Fuel Major Growth — Here’s Their Approach
Product

This Startup Built Internal Tools to Fuel Major Growth — Here’s Their Approach

As CEO of Percolate, Noah Brier knew he needed to get his rapidly growing company aligned. Building their own tools worked magic.

This Woman Has Landed Millions of App Installs — How She Does It
PR & Marketing

This Woman Has Landed Millions of App Installs — How She Does It

Tamara Steffens specializes in driving user acquisition and has it down to a science. Here, she says what startups must do to gain traction.

What I Learned the Hard Way Building an eCommerce Site
Product

What I Learned the Hard Way Building an eCommerce Site

Tindie CTO Julia Grace has thought through every part of the online buying experience. Here's how she broke it apart to optimize each step.

Square Started Small and Won Big with This PR Strategy
PR & Marketing

Square Started Small and Won Big with This PR Strategy

Square is used by entrepreneurs everywhere. But how can one company reach such a wide audience? Their PR expert Khobi Brooklyn tells all.

Your Product Demo Sucks Because It's Focused on Your Product
Product

Your Product Demo Sucks Because It's Focused on Your Product

Demoing products is Rob Falcone's bread and butter. Now he wants to pass the wisdom of his experience along so others can demo better.

An Inside Look at a Flat Organization That Serves Millions
Management

An Inside Look at a Flat Organization That Serves Millions

Gumroad adopted a flat management structure by accident, but it's still working great. Founder Sahil Lavingia explains why flat is better.

This is How You Build Partnerships to Make Your Startup Better, Faster, Stronger
Sales

This is How You Build Partnerships to Make Your Startup Better, Faster, Stronger

Founder Greg Hong's startup, Reserve, depends on great relationships with restaurants. Here's how he forges strong partnerships.

Mechanize Your Hiring Process to Make Better Decisions
People & Culture

Mechanize Your Hiring Process to Make Better Decisions

Hiring the best is hard because there's so much human variation. Amazon's Anurag Gupta shares a system that always raises the bar.

Looking for Love in All The Wrong Places - How to Find a Co-founder
Starting Up

Looking for Love in All The Wrong Places - How to Find a Co-founder

Steve Blank explains how entrepreneurs can use a tool called the Business Model Canvas to find the ideal co-founder for their startup.

The 30 Best Pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs in 2014
Management

The 30 Best Pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs in 2014

A comprehensive list of the top pieces of advice we heard in 2014 from people who are the very best at what they do.

Looking to Scale Your Sales? Seven Bullets to Dodge
Sales

Looking to Scale Your Sales? Seven Bullets to Dodge

Upshift Partners Founder Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski lists the 7 deadly sins of sales that can tank your company before you even have traction.

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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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