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
Momentum is Everything
Most founders implicitly realize that in order to get a startup off the ground you need to will it into existence and keep momentum high.
This is good for the startup but it’s also essential for the founder — when momentum is high most founders feel more optimistic about what they’re building, which is obvious to anyone they’re... See more
Most founders implicitly realize that in order to get a startup off the ground you need to will it into existence and keep momentum high.
This is good for the startup but it’s also essential for the founder — when momentum is high most founders feel more optimistic about what they’re building, which is obvious to anyone they’re... See more
Superhuman
“Working on a startup is like riding a broken bicycle. You have to both ride and fix it at the same time.”
How We're Working Without Managers at Buffer
The Jenga situation
seths.blog
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.
Simplicity is difficult because most of us are overcompensating for uncertainty. Adding something is easy. But removing something is hard, because it requires conviction. It’s easier to hedge against uncertainty, entertain multiple paths, and dilute your focus than to develop a strong opinion about what to exclude.
Things I'm thinking about
You can do what's called the board mission pledge where the people on your board are required as a condition of being on your board to pledge that they'll use their business judgment under Delaware law to support the mission, not just the narrow interest of shareholders. You can build, we call it an LTSPV, which is basically a financing instrument ... See more
Reflections on a movement | Eric Ries (creator of the Lean Startup methodology)
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 fi... See more
The process, at its core, is a transaction of resources. It’s not fi... See more
Sharan Bal • Hiring Humans, Not Resources
What sort of bicycle?
seths.blog
Little decisions compound and then anchor systems.
Our commitment to defending sunk costs keeps those systems long after they’re no longer serving a purpose.
Replacing bad systems with bad systems
seths.blog
The network effect is sticky and hard to overcome, and as we move the internet of things from our phones to just about everything we touch, it’s worth thinking about resilience, flexibility and the reason we need something in the first place.
Often, we end up compromising about our compromises, maximizing for the wrong outcomes and getting hooked on a new system that forgot what the original system was even for.
When a system is new, few are watching, so a handful of people with intent can design it and optimize it. As it gains in scale and impact, it calcifies at the same time that new tech arrives to codify the decisions that were made when the conditions were very different.