462 Posts found for Source: First Round Review

For most of my interviews, I actually ask very little about how they would solve a particular problem. When it comes to questions like “What was the hardest challenge you’ve ever faced?’ often a lot of candidates have canned answers. Instead, I focus on the incentives. What do they care about? What motivates them? What drives them? If it’s an hour-long interview, I’ll spend 40 … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rick Song | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Hiring, Human Resources

“Why would a customer not want this?” is often a far more interesting question than why they would. When you’re working on a product idea, there’s a thesis for why you believe you’re right and it’s really easy to constantly confirmation bias yourself into believing it’s the optimal decision. But once you can also find the counterpoint, the scenario where you’re wrong, you can start … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rick Song | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Since 2013, First Round Review has committed itself to an annual ritual, one that serves as an opportunity to both take stock and remind ourselves of that early promise to stay tactical. Each time we turn the page to the new year, we comb through every article we published over the last one to concentrate the standout tactics into one actionable guide of advice. As … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management

We’ve built out job architectures, which we call a job framework because we don’t want it to be a ladder where people feel like they have to go directly up. Instead you want people to feel like they can maybe take a path somewhere else or do something else, and that would still be career growth.

Content: Quotation | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Human Resources

I think a lot about how we are telling our story and our narrative inside of the company, but also equally important, how are we telling that narrative outside of the company? It’s incredibly important that those two things match, because if they don’t, you’re going to run into issues on either side. If they don’t match, then internally people will get their information or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Colleen McCreary | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior, Public Relations

What some investors say is that the only problem you can’t fix is the problem of market size. But most folks’ intuition about how big a market or a problem is typically quite off

Content: Quotation | Author: Waseem Daher | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

OKRs only work if there is a ritual of reviewing progress and holding owners accountable for hitting their goals.

Content: Quotation | Author: Kevin Fishner | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

While I definitely agree that people are your most important asset, I’ve noticed that most content doesn’t talk as much about the systems. While early employees are of course a driving factor for the company culture, they’re only half the equation. The other half is the foundational systems. The comparison I like to draw is the nature versus nurture debate. Both your genes and your … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Kevin Fishner | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Language/market fit is the most under-appreciated concept for early-stage startups. For starters, most founders are focused on finding product/market fit, zeroing in on the right set of features to match their prospects’ needs. Moreover, fine-tuning language seems like “marketing,” which is usually seen as a later priority, not step zero. Lastly, people also don’t tend to like going out of their comfort zone — and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Matt Lerner | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Marketing / Sales

Just think of a business as a process. It can be a complicated process, but essentially, it spits up outputs like revenue and profit, numbers of customers, and growth rates. To be a good operator, you can’t just focus on those output metrics — you need to identify the controllable input metrics. […] If you do the things you have control over right, it’s going … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Colin Bryar | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

Most people are actually trying pretty darn hard, and they have good intentions. So when we ran into an issue or a problem, [Jeff] Bezos would always ask, ‘Do we have a mechanism in place so it doesn’t happen again? Because if this high-performing or well-intentioned person tripped up, there’s probably a process that we need to fix.

Content: Quotation | Author: Colin Bryar | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Great meetings don’t just happen, they’re meticulously crafted. At its best, an executive meeting strengthens the bonds of your leadership team, surfaces mission-critical problems facing the business, and carves out plans for the future. But as you wade into the executive meeting waters, there are waves that can toss you around.

The executive team’s time is worth a lot, so it’s a shame to waste it. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Communication, Management, Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

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If I ask you to take one for the team now, next time I’m giving you what you want. I always put the business first in the short-term and the employee first in the long-term. […] Meaning, when there’s that misalignment, I’m not going to let that misalignment last too long.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jean-Denis Grezè | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Management

If you’re a hiring manager, this is the perfect time to check in and rededicate yourself to running an even better process, whether that’s by doubling down on your existing approach or trying out new hiring tactics that break the mold. In particular, there’s an opportunity to reconsider the very qualities you’re hunting for.

Over the years, we’ve interviewed hundreds of startup leaders, collecting their go-to … [ Read more ]

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

If a manager gives me a task, I like to say, “Here’s all the other priorities on my plate — where does this new task fall?”

Content: Quotation | Author: Rosa Hamalainen | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Career, Management

People often wonder how startup CEOs spend their time. Sam Corcos, the co-founder and CEO of Levels, shares a little about how he spent his time for the first two years, backed up with data. The goal? For folks out there with hopes to become a startup CEO, you can get a behind-the-scenes deep dive into how you might actually spend your time on the … [ Read more ]

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

If you want to quit because you want to do something else or it’s not for you anymore, that’s a good reason. People aren’t going to work at your company forever. But if you’re quitting because the environment is driving you crazy, as CEO that’s something I can control and shape.

Content: Quotation | Author: Steve El-Hage | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Be very thoughtful about who’s in the interview loop, and make sure everybody in the loop has veto power. If you don’t care what somebody thinks, don’t put them on the panel. And if you do care what they think, make sure that you empower them to have responsibility in the process.

Content: Quotation | Author: Steve El-Hage | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Hiring, Human Resources

Before a founder starts building their castle, they have to make sure they’ve picked the right piece of land. To help aspiring builders survey potential plots, we’ve gone back through our archives to surface the best advice from first-time entrepreneurs and repeat-founders. The 12 tactics they share here offer more concrete tips for reverse-engineering these fabled eureka moments, whether you’re in the wide-open ideation phase, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship