Brandy Cerne

Artificial invitation mechanisms (i.e refer a friend) are not PLG. Sustainable growth from the product comes from built in in natural product-led acquisition. Don't start a startup where you need to go through someone else to get users.

Pivotal moments often happen when you inject more risk, new information, or create upside in an otherwise stable situation. This is why people talk about a sequence of key events precipitated by changing new jobs, meeting a new mentor, launching products, moving across the country, etc. These are moments of great change, and thus, tremendous... See more

A traffic jam is often the first sign that some strategy is reaching its expiration date. Early on, a successful strategy has few proponents because the strategy isn't successful yet . There are few people on the highway because there is no way to know yet whether that highway is going to get you where you want to go.

But as it becomes more apparent... See more

10x work happens at the frontier of knowledge, away from the routine. It’s where no one knows anything. In my industry, in tech, the technology frontier often has hype, excitement, and opportunity, but not enough people to do the work. The status hierarchy hasn’t been set, nothing’s been written down, and it’s unclear to anyone what will work. As a... See more

There’s lots of work on what’s called time affluence, the subjective sense that you have some free time. The simple act of giving myself a break — two to five minutes to catch my breath between tasks — makes me feel less time-famished. Studies would suggest that just changing that sense of time famine can have a disproportionate impact on... See more

This is what a healthy culture feels like. Expectations were high but I knew that I had the support and environment to deliver on those expectations. I wanted to be around other people because I needed them to do great work. This is similar to what Brie Wolfson had to say about why she put up with intense demands at Stripe: “it felt good to care... See more