Startup Systems
systems that power startups
Startup Systems
A startup’s biggest competition isn’t an established player, it’s inertia.
The 100 Best Bits of Advice From 10 Years of First Round Review
the way that you execute ends up really mattering. That was the second learning. The third is just focus.
Building high-performing teams | Melissa Tan (Webflow, Dropbox, Canva)
The demands of a startup are dizzying. To anchor yourself, you must schedule time to write things down.
The 100 Best Bits of Advice From 10 Years of First Round Review
The early days are exciting. Customers are seen and heard and served. Variations are created and value is produced as problems are solved.
In the early days, the most celebrated employees are the ones who figure out what someone needs and then determines a way to fill that need.
Once the organization gains traction, it’s possible that a short-term profit maximizer will join the team. They push to treat the customers as replaceable flanges, almost identical, income opportunities to be processed. And the employees? They are expenses, not part of a team.
It can seem like the fastest way for a stable business to increase profits is simply to remove some sticks. Process more flanges with fewer expenses. Lower overhead, measure the easy stuff, do it faster.
We spend too much time dealing with shaky towers. The resilience of people connecting, of organizations evolving, of service and clarity and generative work is far too important to be threatened by a few hustlers who insist on measuring the wrong thing.
There are a few dimensions of PMF that are in tension with each other, requiring deliberate tradeoffs at each level . There isn’t just one element to emphasize above all else. And importantly, there are different times in a company’s lifespan where founders need to intentionally prioritize one over another.
The 4 Levels of PMF
Product-market fit always starts with the customer. And Dan Olsen’s PMF framework starts from the bottom up.
Michael Houck • Resilient Founders Always Have A Move
Product-market fit progresses in levels . It’s not a binary state where you have it and you’re golden, or you don’t and you’re not on the path. But it’s also not a vague spectrum or fuzzy sliding scale, where you can’t be sure where you’re at.
The 4 Levels of PMF
Conventional hiring processes are designed to recruit the most skilled people to fill a specific role at the right price. The experience can feel dehumanizing — it’s laden with unwritten rules, negotiation, posturing, and indirect communication (if you’re lucky) through recruiters.
The process, at its core, is a transaction of resources. It’s not... See more
The process, at its core, is a transaction of resources. It’s not... See more
Sharan Bal • Hiring Humans, Not Resources
The first thing to do when thinking about starting a project, before you invest in systems design, infrastructure or fancy tools, is to practice getting some customers. And the second thing to do is to find out what it’s like to delight or disappoint those customers.
Customer traction is just about the only thing all successful organizations have in... See more
Customer traction is just about the only thing all successful organizations have in... See more