998 Posts Found

A big part of having the grit to survive the startup process is this: How much doubt can you absorb? How long are you willing to be misunderstood? How long are you willing to be wrong, or think that you’re wrong, yet keep working on it anyway?

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael Grinich | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Founders are quick to ask for constructive feedback. But I recommend they also ask for positive feedback, too. Ask your team what they think you’re doing well or in what ways they feel supported. What kind of milestones can they not wait to get to? Why are they most excited to work at the company?

Content: Quotation | Author: Emily Anhalt | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

A mistake founders often make is assuming that because they need less validation along the way, no one on the team needs gratification either.

Content: Quotation | Author: Emily Anhalt | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The cold hard truth about working in scaling companies is that people, and in most cases, top performers, are going to leave. The question for managers shouldn’t be how to prevent this natural growing pain from happening, rather the focus should shift to: What are you doing to prepare for it?

Content: Quotation | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources

Saumil Mehta outlines a framework for early-stage founders on timing the first product manager hire.

Content: Article | Author: Saumil Mehta | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Harvard’s Paul Gompers, University of British Columbia’s Will Gornall, Chicago Booth’s Steve Kaplan, and Stanford’s Ilya A. Strebulaev surveyed 885 institutional venture capitalists, posing dozens of questions. They find that big investors almost always cite a management team for their willingness to invest. Venture capitalists also say that deal selection is the most important factor in making winning investments.

Content: Article | Authors: Brian Wallheimer, Ilya A. Strebulaev, Paul Gompers, Steve Kaplan, Will Gornall | Source: University of Chicago | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

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.

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Human Resources

People think you find product-market fit once and then you’re good. In our experience, you find product-market fit for one customer segment or for one product, and then you need to continuously find product-market fit for new products that you launch or for new customer segments that you’re entering into.

Content: Quotation | Author: Laura Behrens Wu | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The Mack Institute’s Corporate Venturing Report presents a data-driven analysis of how corporations are engaging with startups today. Based on a systematic review of the world’s 500 largest companies, it reveals a corporate venturing landscape defined by structured, mutually beneficial partnerships. These collaborations enable corporations and startups to access new technologies, build business ecosystems, and tackle complex challenges.

Content: Article | Authors: Claudio Garcia, Gary Dushnitsky, Serguei Netessine, Valery Yakubovich | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management, Strategy

Before you can become a “growth machine” you need to become a learning machine. The first overarching goal is to turn your startup into an instrument for discovering your big growth levers.

Content: Quotation | Author: Matt Lerner | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management

When you do founder-led sales you’re not just learning how to sell your product, you’re learning how to tell a story. This is essential to sell the vision to investors or to candidates you’re trying to hire.

Content: Quotation | Author: Shensi Ding | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

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.

Content: Article | Author: Emily Kramer | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Sam Corcos, co-founder & CEO of Levels, shares a detailed look into exactly how he spent 5 years building the company, with reflections on what changed in the transition from very early-stage to scale up.

Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up article. Corcos first published something similar after only two years building Levels. See An Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sam Corcos | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Productivity / Work Tips

We always talk about scaling companies, but companies are just collections of people. If you’re not really thoughtful about them and what they need to succeed, it’s going to be hard to succeed as a company.

Content: Quotation | Author: Claire Hughes Johnson | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management, Organizational Behavior

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was that when you’re starting a company, you often think you’re picking an idea, but you’re really picking a customer. It’s actually pretty easy to change your idea, but it’s way harder to change the customer you’re serving.

Every time you change customers, you leave all this learning on the table and start from scratch. Whereas … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Abhishek Agrawal | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Expert advice from Dropbox, Figma and Stripe on timing your first sales hire, finding the right candidate profile and creating effective onboarding to successfully transition from founder-led sales to a scalable revenue team.

Content: Article | Author: Meka Asonye | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Hiring, Human Resources, Marketing / Sales

Not all investors are created equal. Entrepreneurs should look for ones who share their vision.

Content: Article | Authors: Jeffrey Eschbach, Seb Murray | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

The great myth of entrepreneurship is that the founder’s path will get you all the autonomy, validation and recognition that you’re craving. It won’t — definitely not right away, and often not at all.

Content: Quotation | Author: Emily Anhalt | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

As a founder, instead of thinking, “Can I do this by myself?” you should be thinking “Do I have to do this by myself? Or would someone else benefit by taking this on?”

Content: Quotation | Author: Emily Anhalt | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Founders work for 10 years like no one else will so they can live a life no one else can. They take smaller salaries and sacrifice relationships for the 1% chance that their company will exit.

Content: Quotation | Author: Emily Anhalt | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship