All of our Starting Up articles

How Talent Teams Can Better Weather Boom-and-Bust Cycles — Advice from Two Decades at Gem, Facebook, and Robinhood

How Talent Teams Can Better Weather Boom-and-Bust Cycles — Advice from Two Decades at Gem, Facebook, and Robinhood

Richard Cho has led talent acquisition teams at large tech firms for the better part of two decades. He’s collected the lessons he’s learned from operating in both hiring booms and busts, offering a thoughtful guide on how startup talent teams can do more — with less.
How to Sell Your Startup: The Complete Guide to Running an M&A Process as a Founder

How to Sell Your Startup: The Complete Guide to Running an M&A Process as a Founder

As a repeat founder, Daniel Debow has successfully sold three different startups. He reveals his no-nonsense playbook for other startup founders on how to run an M&A process from top to bottom.
Small Habits Co-Founders Can Hang On to as They Build the Plane While Flying It

Small Habits Co-Founders Can Hang On to as They Build the Plane While Flying It

Labelbox’s Manu Sharma and Brian Rieger have turned a decade-long friendship into a lasting business partnership, scaling the AI developer tool startup since co-founding it together in 2017.
The Tactical Guide to Making Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies

The Tactical Guide to Making Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies

The First Round team has been lucky to work with retired poker player and decision-making expert Annie Duke in a special capacity these past few years. Here, we open-source some of the advice she gives to help founders face down uncertainty and make better decisions.
23 Tactical Company Building Lessons, Learned From Scaling Stripe & Notion

23 Tactical Company Building Lessons, Learned From Scaling Stripe & Notion

From Stripe to Notion, Cristina Cordova has worked on some of the biggest products in tech. She shares tactical tidbits on what she’s learned about about scaling companies and shaping your career.
The Company-Building Cornerstones Every Founder Needs to Focus On — Advice From HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah

The Company-Building Cornerstones Every Founder Needs to Focus On — Advice From HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah

Dharmesh Shah has spent the last 15 years as co-founder & CTO of HubSpot. He pinpoints the inflection points and key decisions that other founders face in the early days, from choosing a co-founder to crafting the culture, and shares unconventional advice.
Finding Language/Market Fit: How to Make Customers Feel Like You’ve Read Their Minds

Finding Language/Market Fit: How to Make Customers Feel Like You’ve Read Their Minds

After more than a decade of running B2B growth teams at PayPal and investing at 500 Startups, Matt Lerner now spends his days helping early-stage startups with growth. He's seen firsthand how changes in a handful of words can yield jaw-dropping differences in conversion.
The Minimum Viable Testing Process for Evaluating Startup Ideas

The Minimum Viable Testing Process for Evaluating Startup Ideas

The traditional approach is to do some customer research, throw an MVP out there as fast as possible, and hope it hits. After being early at three startups that achieved over $1M in run-rate in their first six months of going live, Gagan Biyani has landed on an approach that’s quite different.
Advice for the Pre-Product-Market Fit Days — This Founder’s Playbook for Pivoting with Purpose

Advice for the Pre-Product-Market Fit Days — This Founder’s Playbook for Pivoting with Purpose

CEO Tara Viswanathan shares her biggest lessons from the early years of building Rupa Health — including how to pivot your way into the right product and build the winning team.