All of our Scaling articles

Product

User-First Monetization — Lessons from Instagram and Strava

James Quarles played a crucial role in creating Instragram's multi-billion dollar business model. Now CEO of Strava, he's sharing the fundamentals of healthy monetization for startups.

Management

Lean Startup’s Eric Ries on How to Make ‘Gatekeepers’ a Source of Power and Speed

As companies add 'gatekeeper' functions like Legal, Finance, IT and Compliance, they tend to slow way down. But they don't have to. Here's how to lay the right foundation.

Product

17 Product Managers Who Will Own the Future of NYC Tech — and the 9 Frameworks They’ll Use to Do It

Last year, First Round hosted a seminar of 17 rising star product managers in NYC, taught by some of the best product leaders in the tech industry. Here's who they are and what they learned.

PR & Marketing

Our 6 Must Reads on Content Marketing

Exceptional content marketing — and its accompanying, loyal audience — takes time to build. Here are six tips to help you start creating resonant and enduring content today.

Management

Our 6 Must Reads for Scaling Yourself as a Leader

To succeed in tech, you have to grow not just your skills, but also your energy, your time management, and your approach to work. This is a good place to start.

Management

Our 6 Must Reads if You’re at a Startup With 30+ People

Startups are always evolving, but something transforms them between 30-50 employees. Here's what the Review's experts have to say about navigating that particular inflection point more smoothly.

Management

To Grow Faster, Hit Pause — and Ask These Questions from Stripe’s COO

Claire Hughes Johnson is the woman overseeing Stripe's rocketship ascent. Here, she shares a list of questions that any startup can use to guide hyper-growth.

Management

Don't Play with Dead Snakes — Kill Projects Before They Kill You

DNAnexus CEO Richard Daly on how they tripled revenue by killing and scorching the earth under 'Dead Snake' projects.

Management

Dear PMs, It's Time to Rethink Agile at Enterprise Startups

Flatiron Health's CMO and SVP Product Strategy Ogi Kavazovic explains how traditional PM practices break down at B2B companies, and what they can do instead.

Fundraising

How Zapier Pulled Off Its One-and-Done Approach to Fundraising

Zapier CEO and Co-founder Wade Foster is a fundraising contrarian. But he doesn't think he should be. He shares how it's possible to approach financing as a boost — not a crutch — and ways to approach key business decisions early on to keep the itch to fundraise at bay.

Management

From Burning Millions to Turning Profitable in Seven Months — How HotelTonight Did It

HotelTonight went from a monthly burn of $2.5 million to profitability — in just over two quarters. Now a year since that milestone, CEO and Co-founder Sam Shank shares the tactics and lessons that helped the company execute the impressive turnaround.

People & Culture

Fighting Factions: How Startups Can Scale Without Mutiny

Between them, eero's David Loftesness and BCG Digital Ventures' Alexander Grosse have held engineering leadership roles at Twitter, SoundCloud, Amazon/A9, issuu and Nokia. Throughout their careers, they’ve noted a silent force that can be particularly damaging to a fast-growing company: factions.