Cognitive Overhead is Your Product’s Overlord — Topple it With These Tips
Google Photos' Product Lead David Lieb cut his teeth on an app that allowed users to swap contact information by physically bumping phones. Drawing from Bump and other startups, Lieb shows how user...
View ArticleStartups, Software Development and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance
LaunchDarkly CEO and Co-founder Edith Harbaugh biked solo across the U.S. in the summer of 2007. A decade later, her lessons from the road — from ways to grind through long stretches to how to approach...
View ArticleAmazon’s Friction-Killing Tactics To Make Products More Seamless
Amazon director Kintan Brahmbhatt, who's helped develop and refine the product strategy behind the Alexa and Amazon Music, explains the ways in which friction can live in your product, throwing...
View ArticleSix Steps to Superior Product Prototyping: Lessons from an Apple and Oculus...
Engineering phenom Caitlin Kalinowski has worked on everything from the Oculus Touch to the MacBook Air. Here, she shares her playbook and philoisophy for product design and prototyping. Continue...
View ArticleFrom C++ to the C-Suite: How Software Engineering Made Me A Better Executive
For most software engineers, career development is a choice between managing more code or more developers. Here, Sailthru President and CEO Neil Lustig makes the case for jumping out of those two lanes...
View ArticleHow Chewse Operationalized Transparency — Starting With Salaries
Chewse CEO Tracy Lawrence shares how she's made open salaries work at her startup — and how it has transformed it. She runs through tactics and rubrics that help intangibles such as transparency and...
View ArticleWhy You Need Two Chiefs in the Executive Office
Influitive CEO Mark Organ explains how a chief of staff can power up a CEO to superhuman status. Here, he details a roadmap to hiring and training for this critical role. Continue reading at First...
View ArticleWarning: This Is Not Your Grandfather’s Talent Planning
So you've heard of radical candor by now, right? That's just one of many tools you'll need to be a better boss, according to Candor, Inc. co-founder Kim Scott. You also must master the different modes...
View ArticleLessons in Tenacity from the Co-Founder of Foursquare
Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley has been doggedly pursuing an idea for over a decade across a few startups. Here, he shares the different types of tenacity it takes to turn a new concept into a...
View ArticleeBay’s First Chief Diversity Officer on Humanizing Diversity and Inclusion
Damien Hooper-Campbell is on a mission to generate more authentic, effective conversations about diversity and inclusion. Here's how you can join him. Continue reading at First Round Review »
View ArticleCredit Karma's CEO Built a Sexy Brand in an Unsexy Category with No PR Firm...
Kenneth Lin was determined to make Credit Karma a compelling brand in a boring industry, but he had to be scrappy about it too.Continue reading at First Round Review »
View ArticlePlanGrid's Playbook for Startups to Crack Big, Established Industries
PlanGrid is changing the way the construction industry has operated for years. CEO Tracy Young describes the scrappy strategy that made them a catalyst.Continue reading at First Round Review »
View ArticleI’m Sorry, But Those Are Vanity Metrics
After three decades of leading data teams at companies like LiveOps, Netscape and ReadyForce, Looker founder and CTO Lloyd Tabb's biggest learning isn’t what you would expect — or want to hear: You’re...
View ArticleFighting Factions: How Startups Can Scale Without Mutiny
Between them, eero's David Loftesness and BCG Digital Ventures' Alexander Grosse have held engineering leadership roles at Twitter, SoundCloud, Amazon/A9, issuu and Nokia. Throughout their careers,...
View ArticlePivot Survival Tactics from Kabam's 3 Near-Death Triumphs
Kabam executed three tough about-faces to eventually sell for $800M. CEO Kevin Chou shares the keys that made this possible.Continue reading at First Round Review »
View ArticleWhy Chefs and Soldiers Make the Best Product Managers
Eaze CEO Jim Patterson has a theory that military and kitchen experience are solid indicators of great PMs. Here's why and what startups can look for to hire better.Continue reading at First Round...
View ArticleHow to Become Insanely Well-Connected
Chris Fralic is a world-class super-connector. Here's how the long-time First Round Partner has methodically built bonds spanning years and careers.Continue reading at First Round Review »
View ArticleFrom Burning Millions to Turning Profitable in Seven Months — How...
HotelTonight went from a monthly burn of $2.5 million to profitability — in just over two quarters. Now a year since that milestone, CEO and Co-founder Sam Shank shares the tactics and lessons that...
View ArticleThis Sales Plan Moves the Needle on Every Success Metric
Derek Draper builds high-performance sales teams. His secret: a documented, bulletproof plan broken into stages and actions.Continue reading at First Round Review »
View ArticleHow Zapier Pulled Off Its One-and-Done Approach to Fundraising
Zapier CEO and Co-founder Wade Foster is a fundraising contrarian. But he doesn't think he should be. He shares how it's possible to approach financing as a boost — not a crutch — and ways to approach...
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