Navigating New Waters: 10 Tips for First-Time Founder Success

most founders tend to remain high-level when the topic of culture comes up. For starters, there are tons of reads on why culture matters, but strikingly few on how to actually architect it. “We all understand what it means to some extent, but it's rarely defined or broken down. There are frameworks for product/market fit or founder-led sales, but w... See more

Being a founder requires constant calibration between arrogance and humility, optimism and pessimism. You need the arrogance to believe that you have something important to say, but the humility to know most people won’t care. You need the optimism to convince yourself and others (employees, investors, customers) to believe in you. But you need pes... See more

Being a founder requires constant calibration between arrogance and humility, optimism and pessimism. You need the arrogance to believe that you have something important to say, but the humility to know most people won’t care. You need the optimism to convince yourself and others (employees, investors, customers) to believe in you. But you need pes... See more

• Don’t be afraid to zig when others zag. Canva made contrarian but conviction-driven decisions like staying private longer, avoiding outside leadership hires, and building a Swiss Army Knife product when conventional wisdom favored single-purpose tools. Staying true to your vision can be a key advantage.

• Canva employees have coaches, rather than

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