In those very, very early days you want people who are there for the mission above all. You’re looking for passion, enthusiasm, and mindset. And you’re looking for seed crystals. Seed crystals are people who are so good and so well loved that they can almost single-handedly build large parts of your org.

As CEO, you spend almost all your time on people problems and communication. You’re trying to navigate a tangled web of professional relationships and intrigues, listen to but also ignore your board, maintain your company culture, buy companies or sell your own, keep people’s respect while continually pushing yourself and the team to build somethin

Try to see the situation from their point of view—talk about their fears and your own concerns out loud, reframe your thoughts so they can hear the feedback, understand the goals, clear up ambiguities or concerns.

“Don’t tell me what’s so special about this object. Tell me what’s different about the customer journey.”

In the end, there are two things that matter: products and people. What you build and who you build it with.

They created a V1 product, scaled it for V2, then optimized the business in V3.

That’s what you’re looking for when you’re young, when you think you know everything then suddenly realize you have no idea what you’re doing: a place where you can work as hard as you can to learn as much as you can from people who can make something great. So even if the experience kicks your ass, the force of that kick will propel you into a new

To withstand a complete lack of true work/life balance requires a clear organizational strategy. You need to prioritize. It’s important to have everything you need to think about written down and have a plan for when and how you’ll bring it up with your team. Otherwise it will swirl around in your brain endlessly, killing any meager chance you have

School has not prepared you to be successful for the rest of your life. Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continually until you learn how to screw up a little bit less.