Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World

Finally, and perhaps most broadly, in a design review of the first version of Moz Analytics, one of our software tools,

The classic funnel optimization promoted by many marketers has this peculiar idea that we must race to turn as many visitors as we can into paid customers and that any missed opportunity represents a flaw in our marketing process.

do not attempt to raise money or talk to potential investors without reading Brad Feld’s superb, transparent, and surprisingly fun-to-read guide Venture Deals.

The problem with MVPs, and with the “something > nothing” model, is that if you launch to a large customer base or a broad community, you build brand association with that first version.

What criteria should be applied to people we hire, those we promote, and those we let go? What makes someone a good person versus a bad person? How should hard-to-resolve conflicts be handled at our organization? What’s your preferred form of communication and why? What enables you to deliver your best work? What stops you from it?

What traits and behaviors should be rewarded and recognized in our employees? Which ones should be discouraged?

Ask questions during skip levels (meetings where a senior manager meets with team members who report to the managers below them) with engineers that go beyond identifying problems and into concrete solutions. For example, asking, “What good development practices did your last company have that you don’t see in play here?” surfaces best practices.

let’s be real: phone calls are terrifying). This approach has been historically uncommon

One final, unorthodox tip: if possible, build your expertise before you build your network, and build your network before you build your company. Each one leads elegantly into the next.