Startups

I stepped away from Heap last month, after nine fantastic years. Here are some things I wish I could tell my 2013 self. I was excited to write some code, and I had no idea what was in store on the path to 350+ people and a transformative product.

I was at Amzn early '00s when we lost 95% of our market cap. Later at FB I negotiated a down-round in '09, and then in '12 our stock dropped 50% post-IPO. I was on the board of a public company that went bankrupt (Borders) and a start-up that went under (Hello). Some lessons:

Startup strategic planning: + Set a goal for rev/traffic/x that is 3 mos out + Figure out the top 3-5 driver metrics (eg, leads, sales mtgs, churn) needed to hit the goal + Pick the top 3 activities w high confidence to achieve the driver... See more