# First Round
> Tactical advice for founders and startup leaders — from interview questions and tips for new managers, to how to find a co-founder and product-market fit.
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- [If you're a startup's first people leader:](https://review.firstround.com/if-youre-a-startups-first-people-leader.md) - How to make HR your company's secret weapon from the beginning
- [If you're an engineering leader:](https://review.firstround.com/if-youre-an-engineering-leader.md) - Advice for making the leap from IC to manager
- [If you're seeking to improve as a manager:](https://review.firstround.com/if-youre-seeking-to-improve-as-a-manager.md) - A manager’s journey can often feel like a lonely uphill climb in the dark. This advice lights the path forward.
- [If you're thinking about starting a company:](https://review.firstround.com/if-youre-thinking-about-starting-a-company.md) - Advice for pressure-testing ideas, finding a co-founder, and all you need to know before taking the founder's leap.
- [If you're transitioning from scrappy founder to established CEO:](https://review.firstround.com/if-youre-transitioning-from-scrappy-founder-to-established-ceo-2.md) - How to step up as your startup's leader
- [If you're transitioning from scrappy founder to established CEO:](https://review.firstround.com/if-youre-transitioning-from-scrappy-founder-to-established-ceo.md) - How to step up as your startup's leader
- [Tip Jar](https://review.firstround.com/tip-jar.md)

## Posts
- [Why Plaid’s COO cold-calls new hires | Eric Sager (COO of Plaid)](https://review.firstround.com/executive-function-eric-sager-coo-plaid.md) - In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Eric Sager, COO of Plaid, following stints as CRO of Bluevine and Head of Sales at Square.
- [How Supabase became the essential infrastructure for the AI era | Paul Copplestone (Co-founder, CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/how-supabase-became-the-essential-infrastructure-for-the-ai-era-paul-copplestone-co-founder-ceo.md) - In this episode of In Depth, Brett sits down with Paul Copplestone, co-founder and CEO of Supabase, the open-source Postgres platform now serving more than seven million developers. Before Supabase, Paul launched a Thumbtack-style marketplace in Southeast Asia and co-founded an office-management st…
- [Listen: Figma’s CMO thinks safe marketing is risky](https://review.firstround.com/listen-figmas-cmo-thinks-safe-marketing-is-risky.md) - Brand lessons from the Opendoor and Dropbox alum
- [How to build a beloved tech brand | Sheila Joglekar Vashee (CMO, Figma)](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-build-a-beloved-tech-brand-sheila-joglekar-vashee-cmo-figma.md) - In today's conversation, Brett sits down with CMO of Figma, Sheila Joglekar Vashee. Previously the second marketing hire at Dropbox, where she helped scale the company past $1 billion in revenue, she now leads marketing at Figma fresh off its IPO.
- [What it’s like to work at Applied Intuition, the quietly dominant AI company](https://review.firstround.com/what-its-like-to-work-at-applied-intuition-the-quietly-dominant-ai-company.md) - From the POV of an early engineer turned Deputy CTO
- [Firsthand: Seven Years Inside Applied Intuition, the Quietly Dominant Physical AI Company](https://review.firstround.com/firsthand-applied-intuition.md) - I joined Applied Intuition as a new-grad engineer back in early 2019, when it was just a handful of us working above a bar on Murphy Ave in Sunnyvale. Today I'm Deputy CTO of the company (that now has over 1,000 engineers). Here's why I've stayed all these years.
- [Listen: Why AI makes great salespeople matter even more](https://review.firstround.com/listen-why-ai-makes-great-salespeople-matter-evemore.md) - Learn from an elite GTM leader
- [Why old-school sales work still wins in the AI era | Graham Moreno (Head of GTM, Parallel)](https://review.firstround.com/why-old-school-sales-work-still-wins-in-the-ai-era-graham-moreno-head-of-gtm-parallel.md) - In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Graham Moreno, Head of GTM at Parallel Web Systems.
- [How to make your AI brand stand out (when everything else feels the same)](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-make-your-ai-brand-stand-out-when-everything-else-feels-the-same.md) - A playbook from First Round’s Head of Brand & Product Marketing
- [“AI-Powered” Isn’t a Position](https://review.firstround.com/positioning-playbook-for-ai-products.md) - A playbook for building a distinctive brand when too many AI products sound the same, look the same and have the same positioning.
- [Why founders should bet on first-time executives | Praveer Melwani (CFO, Figma)](https://review.firstround.com/why-founders-should-bet-on-first-time-executives-praveer-melwani-cfo-figma.md) - In this latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Praveer Melwani, CFO at Figma. Praveer joined Figma in 2017 as the company's first business operations and finance hire —when the team was around 30 people and not yet charging for the product.
- [From the inside: What it's like to work at Clay](https://review.firstround.com/from-the-inside-what-its-like-to-work-at-clay.md) - A personal essay from the company’s tenth employee.
- [Firsthand: How I Bet On Clay (And It Bet On Me)](https://review.firstround.com/firsthand-clay.md) - I joined Clay as one of its earliest employees and a reluctant marketing hire. This is how, over the last three years, we built a role around my strengths as a storyteller, scaled past $100M ARR, and created a brand that startups study.
- [Why great product leaders should stop obsessing over the roadmap | Diya Jolly (CPO & CTO of Xero)](https://review.firstround.com/why-great-product-leaders-should-stop-obsessing-over-the-roadmap-diya-jolly-cpo-cto-of-xero.md) - Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero unpacks her three-bucket framework for delegating decisions, why the most important part of a CPO’s role is to drive team-wide ambition, and why the best executives need to spend half their time thinking, not doing.
- [Inside Artemis' "AI vs AI" war | Shachar Hirshberg & Dan Shiebler (Co-founders, Artemis)](https://review.firstround.com/inside-artemis-ai-vs-ai-war-shachar-hirshberg-dan-shiebler-co-founders-artemis.md) - In this episode of In Depth, First Round Partner Josh Kopelman sits down with Shachar Hirshberg and Dan Shiebler, co-founders of Artemis, the AI-native security platform that just emerged from stealth with $70M in combined seed and Series A funding.
- [You don't know Lenny Rachitsky](https://review.firstround.com/you-dont-know-lenny-rachitsky.md) - Read our in-depth profile
- [Scaling DoorDash to market dominance | Christopher Payne (Former COO, DoorDash)](https://review.firstround.com/scaling-doordash-to-market-dominance-christopher-payne-former-coo-doordash.md) - In this latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Christopher Payne, who spent a decade as President and COO at DoorDash, helping scale the company from roughly 70 employees to the dominant food delivery platform in the US. Before DoorDash, Christopher held senior operating roles a…
- [What really motivates Lenny Rachitsky?](https://review.firstround.com/what-really-motivates-lenny-rachitsky.md) - Read our in-depth profile
- [Reluctantly Influential: Inside Lenny Rachitsky’s Demandingly Chill Life](https://review.firstround.com/reluctantly-influential-inside-lenny-rachitskys-demandingly-chill-life.md) - With millions of subscribers across platforms, Lenny Rachitsky is one of the most prolific people in tech media. But what drives him — and what keeps him up at night — is a story most people don’t know.
- [The most politically dangerous role in the C-suite | Katie Burke (COO, Harvey)](https://review.firstround.com/the-most-politically-dangerous-role-in-the-c-suite-katie-burke-coo-harvey.md) - In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Katie Burke, who recently became COO of Harvey after joining as Chief People Officer. Before Harvey, Katie spent 11 years in HR leadership at HubSpot, where she built one of tech's most distinctive cultures.
- [What nobody tells engineers about becoming a CEO | Jay Kreps (Co-founder and CEO, Confluent)](https://review.firstround.com/what-nobody-tells-engineers-about-becoming-a-ceo-jay-kreps-co-founder-and-ceo-confluent.md) - Jay Kreps is the co-founder and CEO of Confluent, the company built around Apache Kafka — the open-source data streaming platform he originally built while at LinkedIn.
- [How fixing 401(k) the hard way led Guideline's founder to a major exit](https://review.firstround.com/how-fixing-401-k-the-hard-way-led-guidelines-founder-to-a-major-exit.md) - Inside Guideline's path to PMF
- [Guideline's Path to Product-Market Fit — The Early Decisions That Powered Its Acquisition by Gusto](https://review.firstround.com/guidelines-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Ten years after shaking up the retirement fund industry for SMBs, Guideline has been acquired by Gusto. Here, co-founder Kevin Busque shares the early-stage decisions and pivots that put the startup on the path to success.
- [Listen: Why crazy deadlines produce better products than strategy docs](https://review.firstround.com/listen-why-crazy-deadlines-produce-better-products-than-strategy-docs.md) - Vanta CPO Jeremy Epling is on Executive Function
- [The product wisdom every CPO should ignore | Jeremy Epling (CPO, Vanta)](https://review.firstround.com/executive-function-jeremy-epling-cpo-vanta.md) - In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett is joined by Jeremy Epling, CPO of security and compliance platform Vanta. Jeremy details his career journey, unpacking what it took to make the jump from tenured Microsoft executive to startup CPO.
- [Building Zipline: From launch disaster to drone-delivery giant | Keller Cliffton (Co-founder, CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/building-zipline-from-launch-disaster-to-drone-delivery-giant-keller-cliffton-co-founder-ceo.md) - Keller Cliffton is the co-founder and CEO of Zipline, the world's largest commercial autonomous delivery system, which today serves 5,000 hospitals across multiple countries and saves an estimated 17,000 lives per year.
- [Stop asking “What’s your biggest pain point?” in customer discovery](https://review.firstround.com/stop-asking-whats-your-biggest-pain-point-in-customer-discovery.md) - The discovery question that uncovered a billion-dollar startup idea
- [Serval's Path to Product-Market Fit — Win Enterprise Buyers by Treating Them Like Consumers](https://review.firstround.com/servals-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Notes from an AI founder taking a swing at a hundred-billion-dollar incumbent.
- [Listen: Snowflake’s former CRO on scaling from $0 to $3.5B (and surviving 4 CEOs)](https://review.firstround.com/listen-snowflakes-former-cro-scaling-0-35b-surviving-4-ceos.md) - Chris Degnan joins Executive Function.
- [Snowflake’s first sales hire on scaling from $0 to $3.5B | Chris Degnan (Former CRO, Snowflake)](https://review.firstround.com/executive-function-chris-degnan-cro-snowflake.md) - Chris Degnan was the first sales hire at Snowflake and spent 11 years scaling the company from zero to $3.5 billion in revenue as its CRO, working alongside four different CEOs and learning from each one.
- [Do you really need a forward deployed engineer?](https://review.firstround.com/do-you-really-need-a-forward-deployed-engineer.md) - A founder’s guide to building an FDE team
- [So You Want to Hire a Forward Deployed Engineer: How to Know If You Need One and How to Get the Role Right](https://review.firstround.com/so-you-want-to-hire-a-forward-deployed-engineer.md) - Founders and operators who’ve successfully built forward deployed engineering teams share the nuances that make this idiosyncratic role work, along with advice for hiring your own team.
- [Listen: Most CROs are salespeople. Vanta’s CRO says that's changing](https://review.firstround.com/listen-most-cros-are-salespeople-vantas-cro-says-thats-changing.md) - Stevie Case joins Executive Function
- [Why 90% of CROs will fall behind in the next 2 years | Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta)](https://review.firstround.com/executive-function-stevie-case-cro-vanta.md) - Stevie Case is the CRO of Vanta, the trust management platform serving everyone from founders to Fortune 100 CISOs. A former pro-video gamer who stumbled into sales through a mentor's bet, Stevie has built one of the most unconventional paths to the C-suite in tech.
- [Listen: Why Rippling’s VP of Design thinks speed improves quality](https://review.firstround.com/listen-why-ripplings-vp-of-design-thinks-speed-improves-quality.md) - Ryan Lucas joins Executive Function
- [Figma is not the source of truth | Ryan Lucas (VP of Design, Rippling)](https://review.firstround.com/figma-is-not-the-source-of-truth-ryan-lucas-vp-of-design-rippling.md) - In the second Executive Function episode, Brett sits down with Ryan Lucas, VP of Design at Rippling. Before Rippling, Ryan led design at Retool and co-founded multiple startups, bringing a rare founder's perspective to design leadership. A trained industrial designer, Ryan traces the roots of moder…
- [A new podcast from First Round: How the top 0.001% of scaleup execs operate](https://review.firstround.com/a-new-podcast-from-first-round-how-the-top-0-001-of-scaleup-execs-operate.md) - Listen to the first episode with Vercel’s COO
- [Executive Function: Building systems that can make decisions without you | Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel)](https://review.firstround.com/executive-function-jeanne-dewitt-grosser-coo-vercel.md) - In the first Executive Function episode, Brett sits down with Jeanne De Witt Grosser, Chief Operating Officer at Vercel. Before Vercel, Jeanne spent nearly a decade at Stripe, where she built and scaled global revenue teams and led product partnerships.
- [Mastering the skill of company-building, from Applied Intuition’s founder](https://review.firstround.com/mastering-the-skill-of-company-building-from-applied-intuitions-founder.md) - The $15B vehicle intelligence company’s origin story
- [Applied Intuition’s Path to Product-Market Fit — The $15B Founder’s Formula for a Winning Company](https://review.firstround.com/applied-intuitions-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Co-founder and CEO Qasar Younis lays out the personal and business moves he's made to build a company only he could start.
- [What cold-calling from a closet taught Gusto’s founder about PMF](https://review.firstround.com/gustos-path-to-product-market-fit-newsletter.md) - A laser focus on what customers really want paid off.
- [Gusto’s Path to Product-Market Fit — How Listening to Customers Built a $9.6B Company](https://review.firstround.com/gustos-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Cold-calling from a walk-in closet taught Tomer London how to recognize what PMF really feels like.
- [The unconventional growth levers that made Canva a $42B company](https://review.firstround.com/canvas-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Early evangelists and an ambitious SEO strategy
- [Canva’s Path to Product-Market Fit — How a Two-Hour Founder Date Led To a $42B Design Platform](https://review.firstround.com/canvas-path-to-product-market-fit-2.md) - Cameron Adams goes deep on finding early evangelists, the unconventional tactics that led to massive growth, and more.
- [The best company building advice we heard in 2025](https://review.firstround.com/the-best-company-building-advice-we-heard-in-2025.md) - The 13th edition of our annual roundup is here
- [The 30 Best Pieces of Company Building Advice We Heard in 2025](https://review.firstround.com/the-30-best-pieces-of-company-building-advice-we-heard-in-2025.md) - A roundup of the standout startup wisdom we collected last year.
- [The most honest lessons about the path to product-market fit](https://review.firstround.com/the-most-honest-lessons-about-the-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Featuring founders from Gusto, Mercury, Meter and more
- [Notion put an engineer in sales to build better AI tools](https://review.firstround.com/notion-put-an-engineer-in-sales-to-build-better-ai-tools.md) - This week on Applied Intelligence, we learn how an AI engineer at Notion joined the sales team for a month to understand their challenges and build better tools to solve their problems. Context Before Code: How Notion Put an AI Engineer on the Sales Floor to Discover What Actually Needed Building H…
- [Building Meter for decades, not an exit | Anil Varanasi (Co-founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/building-meter-for-decades-not-an-exit-anil-varanasi-co-founder-and-ceo.md) - Anil Varanasi is the co-founder and CEO of Meter, which provides full-stack networking infrastructure as a service for businesses.
- [The merger playbook: A founder’s firsthand story of the deal that beat the odds](https://review.firstround.com/the-merger-playbook-crossbeams-ceo-breaks-down-every-detail-of-the-deal-that-worked-2.md) - And how it changed the trajectory of both companies
- [The Merger Playbook: Crossbeam’s CEO Breaks Down Every Detail of the Deal That Worked](https://review.firstround.com/the-merger-playbook.md) - A founder's firsthand account of how he merged with a competitor to materially change the trajectory of his company.
- [Listen: How this two-time billion-dollar founder wins in the enterprise](https://review.firstround.com/listen-how-this-two-time-billion-dollar-founder-wins-in-the-enterprise.md) - GTM lessons from Jyoti Bansal
- [How Harness runs 16 “startups within a startup” at scale | Jyoti Bansal (Co-founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/how-harness-runs-16-startups-within-a-startup-at-scale-jyoti-bansal-co-founder-and-ceo.md) - Jyoti Bansal is the co-founder and CEO of Harness, the software delivery platform used by thousands of engineering teams. He previously founded AppDynamics, which he led from inception to a multibillion-dollar acquisition by Cisco.
- [The process I've used to name dozens of companies](https://review.firstround.com/the-process-ive-used-to-name-dozens-of-companies.md) - A note from the essay's author
- [What’s in a Name? A Lot, Actually. Here’s How to Pick the Right One For Your Company](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-pick-company-name.md) - A playbook for picking a name that actually fits your company (and all the logistics that come with naming you may not be thinking about).
- [The other PMF: how personality-message fit helps founders communicate better](https://review.firstround.com/the-other-pmf-how-personality-message-fit-helps-founders-communicate-better.md) - The 30-second prep habit, learning to read a room, and more
- [The Other PMF: Wes Kao’s Framework for Founders Who Want to Communicate — and Lead — Better](https://review.firstround.com/the-other-pmf-wes-kaos-personality-message-fit-framework-for-founders.md) - Tactical advice for founders on mastering “personality-message fit": leaning into your natural communication style.
- [How to build a company you’ll run forever | Zack Kanter (Founder and CEO of Stedi)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/how-to-build-a-company-youll-run-forever-zack-kanter-founder-and-ceo-of-stedi.md)
- [How a high school dropout built one of the world’s most-used developer tools](https://review.firstround.com/how-a-high-school-dropout-built-one-of-the-worlds-most-used-developer-tools.md) - From bootstrapping to a $3B company
- [Sentry's Path to Product-Market Fit — A High School Dropout Turned an Open-Source Project into a $3B Company](https://review.firstround.com/sentrys-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - From Burger King shifts to a billion-dollar business, Sentry co-founder and CPO David Cramer shares his lessons for early stage founders.
- [When founders should quit as head of product — and hire the first PM](https://review.firstround.com/when-founders-should-quit-as-head-of-product-and-hire-the-first-pm.md) - 4 heuristics for deciding when it’s time
- [When Should You Stop Clinging to Product and Hire Your First PM? Advice From a Founder and CPO](https://review.firstround.com/when-to-hire-your-first-pm.md) - Saumil Mehta outlines a framework for early-stage founders on timing the first product manager hire.
- [The trap of weak product-market fit — lessons from Mercury’s founder](https://review.firstround.com/the-trap-of-weak-product-market-fit-lessons-from-mercurys-founder.md) - Inside the fintech unicorn’s path to product-market fit
- [Mercury’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Do the Hard Part First](https://review.firstround.com/mercurys-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Serial founder Immad Akhund shares what he's learned about finding product-market fit from his fourth act, Mercury.
- [Economic moat](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/economic-moat.md) - An economic moat is a durable competitive advantage that protects a company's profits and market share from competitors over time. It allows a business to sustain pricing power, profitability and long-term value even as rivals try to close the gap.
- [Operating Leverage](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/operating-leverage.md) - Operating leverage measures how changes in sales volume affect operating income based on your company's cost structure — specifically the mix of fixed costs versus variable costs. It is a crucial tool for predicting how changes in revenue affect profitability
- [OKRs](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/okrs-meaning.md) - OKRs, or objectives and key results, are a simple, lightweight way to translate strategy into measurable work — so every team knows how their daily work rolls up into high-level goals. Use them to set a few ambitious objectives, define outcomes and align the company.
- [Burn Rate](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/burn-rate.md) - Burn rate measures how quickly a startup spends its cash reserves before reaching positive cash flow or profitability. For early-stage companies, it's one of the clearest indicators of financial health and survival.
- [Go hard early: How lessons from Verkada shaped Serval's AI agents for IT teams | Jake Stauch (Founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/go-hard-early-how-lessons-from-verkada-shaped-servals-ai-agents-for-it-teams-jake-stauch-founder-and-ceo.md)
- [The compensation rules to follow (and break), according to experts](https://review.firstround.com/the-compensation-rules-to-follow-and-break-according-to-experts.md) - Compensation leaders from Clay, Google and Instacart share the rules early-stage founders can break — and the few they should actually follow.
- [What Early Stage Founders Should Know About Comp: The Rules To Break (And A Few You Should Actually Follow)](https://review.firstround.com/what-early-stage-founders-should-know-about-comp-the-rules-to-break-and-a-few-you-should-actually-follow.md) - There’s no shortage of advice on how to structure compensation. Here’s how to know which of it applies to you — with insights from Clay, Google and Instacart.
- [The pivot that paid off: How fal found explosive growth in generative media | Gorkem Yurtseven (Co-founder and CTO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/the-pivot-that-paid-off-how-fal-found-explosive-growth-in-generative-media-gorkem-yurtseven-co-founder-and-ceo.md)
- [Pivot (meaning in business)](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/pivot-meaning-business.md) - A business pivot is a fundamental strategic shift where you change a core component of your company — like your product, business model or target market — to better align with customer needs and market conditions.
- [Run Rate](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/run-rate.md) - Run rate is a financial forecasting metric that projects a company's future performance by extrapolating its current revenue over a longer period of time, usually an entire year. For startups, it's a quick way to estimate annual revenue based on limited data.
- [Lifetime Value](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/lifetime-value.md) - Lifetime value (LTV), also called customer lifetime value (CLV or CLTV), is a metric that estimates the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire duration of their time as a customer.
- [Gross Margin](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/gross-margin.md) - Gross margin is the percentage of revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods sold (COGS). It's a financial metric that shows how efficiently a company turns each dollar of revenue into profit before accounting for operating expenses.
- [Bootstrapping](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/what-is-bootstrapping-business.md) - Bootstrapping means funding a startup through customer revenue, personal savings, credit cards or other self-generated resources instead of raising from external capital sources, like venture capital firms or angel investors.
- [How to avoid a co-founder breakup before Series B](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-avoid-a-co-founder-breakup-before-series-b.md) - Rituals to strengthen the most important relationship in your startup
- [Renew Your Co-Founder Vows — and Other Tactics for Strengthening the Most Important Relationship in Your Startup](https://review.firstround.com/five-practices-to-strengthen-your-co-founder-relationship.md) - Executive coach and interpersonal dynamics expert Rachel Lockett shares five practices to strengthen the most important relationship in your startup.
- [Inside Warp’s coding by prompt mandate (and how the CEO follows it too)](https://review.firstround.com/inside-warps-coding-by-prompt-mandate-and-how-the-ceo-follows-it-too.md) - Every coding task starts with a prompt — even the CEO’s
- [Freemium](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/freemium.md) - The Freemium Business Model combines “free” and “premium:” a company offers a basic version of its product indefinitely at no cost, while advanced features, services, or capacity are locked behind a paid upgrade.
- [Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/gross-merchandise-value-gmv.md) - Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) is the total value of all merchandise sold through a platform over a specific period. It’s a raw measure of sales activity calculated before subtracting fees, expenses, discounts or returns.
- [Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/key-performance-indicators-kpis.md) - Key performance indicators (KPIs) are focused measurements that track progress against business objectives. They distill performance into a small set of trackable signals that show whether a company, team or project is on course to meet its strategic plan.
- [Churn Rate](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/churn-rate.md) - Churn rate measures the percentage of customers or accounts that cancel or fail to renew within a given period. For subscription businesses, it’s one of the clearest signals of customer retention, recurring revenue stability and long-term growth potential.
- [Beta Testing](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/beta-testing.md) - Beta testing is the stage where real users test a nearly finished software product in a production environment before its official release. It’s the final checkpoint to uncover bugs, validate usability and confirm market readiness.
- [Founders, you’re missing this key step on the path to product-market fit](https://review.firstround.com/founders-youre-missing-this-key-step-on-the-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - A research toolkit for the discovery phase
- [Go Deep to Build Fast: A Research Thinking Toolkit to Speed Up the Discovery Phase](https://review.firstround.com/a-research-toolkit-for-the-discovery-phase.md) - UX research expert Jeanette Mellinger shares a toolkit for deeper discovery of your customers, your team and yourself.
- [Technical Debt](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/technical-debt.md) - Technical debt is the implied cost of additional work created when a team prioritizes faster delivery over the most achievable or maintainable solution.
- [Cash Runway](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/cash-runway.md) - Cash runway, sometimes called financial runway, is the amount of time a startup can continue operating before running out of money. It measures how long a company’s cash can support operations given its current spending rate and available resources.
- [ARPU](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/arpu.md) - ARPU, or average revenue per user, measures how much revenue a company generates from each customer over a specific period. It’s one of the clearest indicators of how effectively a business is monetizing its user base.
- [Break-Even Point](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/break-even-point.md) - The break-even point (BEP) is when a company’s total revenue exactly equals its total costs. It’s the moment when sales cover both fixed expenses (like rent and salaries) and variable costs (like raw materials and shipping).
- [Growth Hacking](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/growth-hacking.md) - Growth hacking is the multidisciplinary practice of identifying and improving key business metrics quickly and meaningfully.
- [How Brex is building an AI-first operations org](https://review.firstround.com/how-brex-is-building-an-ai-first-operations-org.md) - Changing roles, workflows and skills around AI
- [Why Sierra built a design partnership program on “hard mode”](https://review.firstround.com/why-sierra-built-a-design-partnership-program-on-hard-mode.md) - Sierra’s first GTM hire, breaks down every step of their playbook.
- [The Hard Way Pays Off: Inside Sierra’s Design Partner Strategy](https://review.firstround.com/sierra-design-partnership.md) - Instead of chasing low-friction pilots, Sierra asked design partners to pay, commit time and co-build — converting 100% of these partners into customers.
- [Net Revenue Retention (NRR)](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/net-revenue-retention-nrr-definition.md) - Net Revenue Retention (NRR) measures how much recurring revenue you retain and expand from existing customers over a set period, usually a year.
- [K-factor](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/k-factor-virality.md) - K-Factor (also called the virality coefficient) measures how many new users each existing user or customer brings in over a defined time period.
- [ARR](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/arr.md) - Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the amount of predictable subscription revenue a company expects to generate in a year.
- [Scalability](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/scalability-meaning-business.md) - Scalability is how a business, product, process or system grows under increased demand while maintaining performance.
- [Stealth Mode](https://review.firstround.com/glossary/stealth-mode.md) - A stealth mode startup is a company that deliberately avoids public visibility while developing its product and operations.
- [Saying yes to everything: How customer obsession built Samsara | Kiren Sekar (CPO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/saying-yes-to-everything-how-customer-obsession-built-samsara-kiren-sekar-cpo.md)
- [Idea validation tactics they won’t teach you in business school](https://review.firstround.com/idea-validation-tactics-they-wont-teach-you-in-business-school.md) - How founders from Linear, Mercury and other startups found conviction before the build
- [Is Your Startup Idea Any Good? Borrow These Validation Tactics from the Founders of Linear, Mercury and More](https://review.firstround.com/unconventional-tactics-for-validating-your-startup-idea.md) - Founders share the unconventional ways they found conviction in their startup ideas.
- [Starting an education giant in a “bad market” | ClassDojo’s story | Sam Chaudhary (Co-founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/starting-an-edtech-giant-in-a-bad-market-classdojos-story-sam-chaudhary-co-founder-and-ceo.md) - Sam Chaudhary is the co-founder and CEO of ClassDojo, a multi-product education platform used in 95% of U.S. schools and over 180 countries globally to connect teachers, students, and families. In this episode, Sam shares the full arc of building ClassDojo, from early skepticism about education and…
- [What your startup does (and doesn’t) need to come out of stealth](https://review.firstround.com/what-your-startup-does-and-doesnt-need-to-come-out-of-stealth.md) - A launch plan from Figma’s first marketer
- [How to Launch Your Startup Out of Stealth, from Figma's First Marketer](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-launch-your-startup-out-of-stealth.md) - Claire Butler joined Figma six months before its public launch and helped bring the design product out into the world. Here, she defangs the launch process, outlining all the steps you need to take to get ready now.
- [Scale smarter, not bigger: Inside Linktree’s internal AI adoption playbook](https://review.firstround.com/scale-smarter-not-bigger-inside-linktrees-internal-ai-adoption-playbook-2.md) - How Linktree kept headcount steady at 190 while boosting shipping velocity and AI adoption
- [From Chrome extension to $5B platform | Postman’s journey | Abhinav Asthana (Co-founder & CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/from-chrome-extension-to-5b-platform-postmans-journey-abhinav-asthana-co-founder-ceo.md)
- [How to use your industry outsider status to your advantage](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-use-your-industry-outsider-status-to-your-advantage.md) - Product-building lessons from a Twitter PM turned healthcare founder
- [To Learn a New Market, Start by Building Your Product — Tactics From a Twitter PM Turned Healthcare Founder](https://review.firstround.com/to-learn-a-new-market-start-by-building-your-product.md) - Color co-founder and CEO Othman Laraki built a billion-dollar company in an industry he had zero professional experience in. Here, he shares four product-building tactics that helped him learn the healthcare industry.
- [How Canva leveraged unconventional growth levers to grow to $42B | Cameron Adams (Co-founder & CPO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/how-canva-leveraged-unconventional-growth-levers-to-grow-to-42b-cameron-adams-co-founder-cpo.md) - Cameron Adams is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Canva, the design platform valued at $42B as of July 2025
- [Don’t ship your pitch deck to your website](https://review.firstround.com/dont-ship-your-pitch-deck-to-your-website.md) - How to translate investor talking points into a marketing story
- [Don’t Ship Your Pitch Deck to Your Website. Here’s How to Translate Your Story for Customers](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-adapt-your-pitch-deck-into-your-website.md) - Your customers don’t want to read your pitch deck. Marketing expert Emily Kramer explains how to turn your investor talking points into your website messaging.
- [Twitter's former CEO on rebuilding the web for AI | Parag Agrawal (Co-founder and CEO of Parallel)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/twitters-former-ceo-on-rebuilding-the-web-for-ai-parag-agrawal-co-founder-and-ceo-of-parallel.md) - Parag Agrawal is the co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny.…
- [Inside Owner’s zigzag path to a billion-dollar business](https://review.firstround.com/inside-owners-zigzag-path-to-a-billion-dollar-business.md) - Dropping out of high school. A six-figure Minecraft server. A failing dog grooming business. A pandemic pivot.
- [The Story Behind Owner’s Pivots to a Billion-Dollar Business](https://review.firstround.com/owners-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Owner co-founder and CEO Adam Guild shares his unique entrepreneurial journey, featuring a six-figure Minecraft server, his mom's failing dog grooming business and a 180-degree pandemic pivot.
- [Ignoring Silicon Valley advice to build a $3B fintech unicorn | Immad Akhund (Co-founder and CEO of Mercury)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/lessons-from-mercury.md) - Immad Akhund is the CEO and co-founder of Mercury, a digital banking platform that’s become the go-to financial infrastructure for startups.
- [Inside the ex-YC partner’s $15B self driving car company | Qasar Younis](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/inside-the-ex-yc-partners-15b-self-driving-car-company-qasar-younis.md) - Qasar Younis is the co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a leading vehicle intelligence platform that raised $600M at a $15B valuation in June 2025. Before Applied Intuition, Qasar was the COO and a group partner at Y Combinator, and earlier founded TalkBin, which was acquired by Google.
- [Why Linear puts craft above all metrics](https://review.firstround.com/why-linear-puts-craft-above-all-metrics.md) - Inside the company’s slow and deliberate path to product-market fit
- [Linear’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Quality and Craft > Speed and Scale](https://review.firstround.com/linears-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Linear CEO and co-founder Karri Saarinen unpacks the $1.25B company's slow and deliberate path to product-market fit.
- [What Braintrust got right about product-market fit | Ankur Goyal (Founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/what-braintrust-got-right-about-product-market-fit.md) - Ankur Goyal is the founder and CEO of Braintrust, an end-to-end platform for building AI apps. Before that, he founded Impira, a data management platform that was acquired by Figma, where he went on to lead the AI team..
- [How Carta saves 3,500+ hours per month using AI agents](https://review.firstround.com/how-carta-saves-3-500-hours-per-month-using-ai-agents.md) - An 11-min task completed in seconds
- [A new publication from First Round: Applied Intelligence](https://review.firstround.com/a-new-publication-from-first-round-applied-intelligence.md) - Learn how companies are actually using AI, and the results they’re experiencing
- [Stop playing customer success hero. Here’s how to build your first team.](https://review.firstround.com/stop-playing-customer-success-hero-heres-how-to-build-your-first-team.md) - From hiring to metrics to first systems to set up
- [The Founder’s Guide to Building a V1 of Customer Success](https://review.firstround.com/founders-guide-building-customer-success.md) - A CS leader who has built the function from the ground up shares where founders should start — from how to hire to the most important metrics to track.
- [How Gusto built a $9.5 billion company by identifying a burning problem](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/how-gusto-built-a-9-5-billion-company-by-identifying-a-burning-problem.md) - Tomer London is the co-founder and CPO of Gusto, the $9.5B payroll and HR platform serving 400K+ businesses. Inspired by his dad’s clothing shop in Israel, he set out to build better tools for small business owners.
- [How to go from random wins to repeatable revenue](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-go-from-random-wins-to-repeatable-revenue.md) - A formula for sales repeatability
- [How rejecting conventional wisdom grew Sentry to a $3 billion company | David Cramer (Co-founder and CPO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/building-sentry.md) - David Cramer is a self-taught engineer who dropped out of high school in 9th grade and managed a Burger King. He worked hard and rejected conventional wisdom to co-found Sentry, the leading open-source error monitoring tool used by over 90,000 companies.
- [Can you be a good micromanager?](https://review.firstround.com/can-you-be-a-good-micromanager.md) - How to toggle between details and delegation
- [Is All Micromanagement Bad? Here's How the Best Startup Leaders Balance Details and Delegation](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-be-a-good-micromanager.md) - Founders and execs from Apple, Rippling, Carta and more share their strategies for altitude shifting as a manager.
- [Inside Linear: Why craft and focus still win in product building | Karri Saarinen (Co-founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/inside-linear-why-craft-and-focus-still-win-in-product-building.md) - Karri Saarinen is the co-founder and CEO of Linear, the project management tool built for high-performance software teams. Since its founding in 2019, Linear has achieved a valuation of $1.25B and now counts companies like OpenAI, Ramp and Vercel as customers..
- [Rent-an-exec: Should you hire a fractional leader?](https://review.firstround.com/rent-an-exec-should-you-hire-a-fractional-leader.md) - A fractional COO explains
- [Should You “Rent” an Exec for Your Startup? A Fractional COO Weighs In](https://review.firstround.com/fractional-exec-hiring-guide.md) - A veteran strategy and ops leader turned fractional COO walks us through why, when and how early-stage founders can tap fractional execs to learn and grow faster.
- [Inside Figma's human-centered approach to building AI](https://review.firstround.com/inside-figmas-human-centered-approach-to-building-ai.md) - From determining success metrics to structuring qualitative feedback
- [The Art of Evals: How Figma Put People at the Center of Its AI Product](https://review.firstround.com/figma-ai-eval-process.md) - Building, testing and validating with human craft and creativity.
- [How Wes Kao coaches founders to influence, lead and get what they want | Wes Kao (Executive coach, co-founder of Maven)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/how-wes-kao-coaches-founders-to-communicate-more-effectively.md) - Wes Kao is an executive coach, advisor and instructor, best known for her newsletter on high-impact communication, and for co-founding course platform Maven and the AltMBA with Seth Godin..
- [How to hang on to conviction in an emerging market: Braze's long game to PMF](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-hang-on-to-conviction-in-an-emerging-market-brazes-long-game-to-pmf.md) - The origin story of the now publicly traded company
- [How to Build for a Market That Doesn’t Exist Yet — Braze’s Path to Product-Market Fit](https://review.firstround.com/brazes-path-to-pmf.md) - The Braze founding team shares all the early moves they made to lay the path to IPO.
- [How to spot the wrong customer before they burn your roadmap](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-spot-the-wrong-customer-before-they-burn-your-roadmap.md) - How Vanta, Clay, Retool & more startups found their ICP
- [Thinking about becoming a founder? Here’s how to emotionally prepare](https://review.firstround.com/thinking-about-becoming-a-founder-heres-how-to-emotionally-prepare.md) - A psychologist’s advice on preparing to take the founder leap
- [Thinking About Taking the Founder Leap? Here’s How to Prep for the Emotional Gauntlet](https://review.firstround.com/preparing-for-anxiety-of-becoming-a-founder.md) - How to start building your emotional toolkit for the founder journey ahead, with advice from psychologist Dr. Emily Anhalt.
- [From reluctant founder to $2B valuation: The story of Persona | Rick Song (Co-founder and CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/from-reluctant-founder-to-2b-valuation-the-story-of-persona-rick-song-co-founder-and-ceo.md)
- [How to make craft your moat](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-make-craft-your-moat.md) - How Stripe, Linear, Square & more top companies operationalize taste
- [The Unsung Ingredient in Stripe, Square and Linear’s Success: Taste](https://review.firstround.com/stripe-square-linear-product-taste.md) - Tactical advice for weaving craft into your product and operationalizing taste.
- [How to build and grow the human side of your engineering org](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-build-and-grow-the-human-side-of-your-engineering-org.md) - Lessons from Apple, Palantir and Slack
- [Mastering the Human Side of Engineering: Lessons from Apple, Palantir and Slack](https://review.firstround.com/engineering-lessons-apple-palantir-slack.md) - Apple engineering leader Michael Lopp gives tactical advice for managers on how to empower individual engineers — and become better leaders themselves.
- [From weekend project to Fortune 10 adoption](https://review.firstround.com/from-weekend-project-to-fortune-10-adoption.md) - How this founder closed millions in ARR with no sales hires
- [From Weekend Project to Fortune 10 Adoption — Reducto's Path to Product-Market Fit](https://review.firstround.com/reductos-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Adit Abraham, co-founder and CEO of Reducto, shares how he closed millions in ARR and a Fortune 10 customer with no sales hires.
- [How a weekend hack became a multimillion-dollar AI startup | Adit Abraham (Co-founder & CEO at Reducto)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/how-a-weekend-hack-became-a-multimillion-dollar-ai-startup-adit-abraham-co-founder-ceo-at-reducto.md)
- [1Password’s growth story | How they went from bootstrapped to $6B company | Jeff Shiner (CEO)](https://review.firstround.com/podcast/1passwords-growth-story-how-they-went-from-bootstrapped-to-6b-company-jeff-shiner-ceo.md)
- [Inside Superhuman’s onboarding strategy: from human-led to self-serve](https://review.firstround.com/inside-superhumans-onboarding-strategy-from-human-led-to-self-serve.md) - An extremely detailed look at building and scaling onboarding
- [Obsessing Over Onboarding for 10+ Years — The Architect of Superhuman's Onboarding Shares His Playbook](https://review.firstround.com/superhuman-onboarding-playbook.md) - Superhuman became known for its unique approach to onboarding: a highly-personalized, white-glove, human-led experience. Superhuman's Gaurav Vohra, startup advisor and growth leader, gives us a detailed look at how he built and scaled the program.
- [From two-person consultancy to $4.2B software business — dbt Labs’ Path to PMF](https://review.firstround.com/from-two-person-consultancy-to-4-2b-software-business-dbt-labs-path-to-pmf.md) - Co-founder Tristan Handy shares the startup’s unconventional backstory
- [How dbt Labs Built a $4.2B Software Business out of a Two-Person Consultancy](https://review.firstround.com/dbt-labs-path-to-product-market-fit.md) - Tristan Handy, CEO and co-founder of dbt Labs, shares the unorthodox moves he made to transform a Philly-based consultancy into a billion-dollar SaaS powerhouse.
- [A playbook for running “founder-led” growth](https://review.firstround.com/a-playbook-for-running-founder-led-growth.md) - You're not ready for a Head of Growth — yet.
- [You’re Not Ready for a Head of Growth: Run This Founder-Led Growth Playbook Instead](https://review.firstround.com/founder-led-growth-playbook.md) - Founders are responsible for figuring out how their business is going to grow. Use these tactics — specifically designed for founders — to uncover your most impactful growth levers.
- [Square’s former CEO on the two crucial components of org design](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-design-your-org-2.md) - Building a structure to enable scale.
- [How to Intentionally Design Your Org, From Square’s Former CEO](https://review.firstround.com/how-to-design-your-org.md) - Former Square CEO, AWS's first GM and 12-year Microsoft veteran, Alyssa Henry, walks us through the two crucial considerations for organizational design — your business and your people — and how to connect them.
- [The Pivot to Product-Market Fit: How Plaid, Clay, Lattice & Other Startups Broke Out](https://review.firstround.com/the-pivot-to-product-market-fit.md) - For many startups, the secret to finding product-market fit lies in the pivot. Here’s how these founders knew it was time to change directions.
- [A playbook for building deep tech startups](https://review.firstround.com/a-playbook-for-building-deep-tech-startups.md) - When traditional startup advice falls short
- [Building a Deep Tech Company? Most Startup Advice Doesn’t Apply — Read This Instead](https://review.firstround.com/building-a-deep-tech-company-most-startup-advice-doesnt-apply-read-this-instead.md) - Learn from Loyal founder Celine Halioua’s rigorous approach to milestone-based planning, fundraising and multi-product strategy.

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