Startups

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:

If you're the CEO of a fast-growing startup, the mistake you'll make in the next year that you'll regret most will probably be a hiring mistake. Possibly hiring someone established, which you'll feel you should do now you're getting big, and which VCs will strongly encourage.

Before I decide to do something, my first question is: “What problem are we solving?” 9 times out of 10, answering that question shows me: 1) It’s not really a problem (so I can ignore it) 2) What I was planning on doing wasn’t the best way to solve... See more

If you notice something at your company below standards and don't fix it or make sure someone else does, you have set a new standard. Complaining about it does not count as fixing it. If someone gets upset/tells you to stay in your lane, they've set an even worse new standard.