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Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

1207 points by dy 8y ago

extralego 8y ago
obsolete since GDPR
- basejumping 8y ago
  why?
aytekin 8y ago
Great insights. This should have probably been posted on Medium though. Google Docs have horrible reading experience.
- fefb 8y ago
  I just got a copy to my Drive, and I saved as epub where I can read as an ebook.
  - monkeydust 8y ago
    Nice! Will do that.
- wiennat 8y ago
  Medium also have horrible reading experience, at least for non-login users.
deedubaya 8y ago
> “If we were to make you the following offer (state the offer in full detail, including cash, equity, benefits, etc), would you accept?” If they say yes, then make them offer. This is most effectively done on a paper note, passed between classmates, so that there is plausible deniability if they say no /s
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  This is a funny tactic because it should not work with a thoughtful negotiator. "If we were to make the offer" is de-facto an offer, it's just not official, and though there might be a legal difference between an 'if we made it' and 'actual offer' ... for all intents and purposes, it's the same. It's the start of the negotiation. A half-smart negotiator would simply say: "Yes, if you included moving expenses" or whatever they would say otherwise.
endlessvoid94 8y ago
Does anyone have a PDF of this? Google docs has disabled most functionality due to traffic volume.
- chrisparton1991 8y ago
  You should be able to print it as a PDF via Chrome.
  - gnicholas 8y ago
    Chrome's PDF printing function gives you an image PDF, even if the content is entirely text. So it's not searchable and is larger than a text PDF (which Firefox will give you). I've uploaded a version here, which I don't think requires cookies or block incognito: https://app.box.com/s/6mbbf3x1625uhcrm6t7tbld4jy1tnkjv https://app.box.com/s/6mbbf3x1625uhcrm6t7tbld4jy1tnkjv
    - lighttower 8y ago
      Thank you for this link. Works
    - ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
      Yesterday Internet Explorer is today's Chrome. I moved to firefox few months ago and never looked back at Chrome.
      - godzillabrennus 8y ago
        Amen. I’ve been converting folks back to Firefox and helping them setup containers for Facebook and LinkedIn. I hope Firefox integrates social media containers in by default in future releases.
        Hanswurst133742 8y ago
        Any good tutorials on that "setup containers for Facebook and LinkedIn." part you can recommend? Am a Firefox User myself and very interested in getting this to work.
ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
> YCombinator has a near-blanket policy of only accepting co-founder teams (ie- no solo founders), because the data shows that solo founders rarely succeed. The emotional burden is just too high. But YC application FAQ states that this is not true. Although practically speaking from speaking to other startups, I have noticed that only startups with co-founders made it to the final round. This is just based off my experience and talking to other startups
- gkoberger 8y ago
  In my batch, there were definitely a bunch of solo founders. However, they (almost) all had something special about them: a strong existing team, a strong background, or a strong previous startup success.
- ztratar 8y ago
  Very, very few solo founders get into YC. I heard somewhere each batch of companies has about 2 solo founder companies total.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- corry 8y ago
  IMO the bar should be much higher for solo founders. If you have 2 people, then it's twice as many resources to check all the various boxes you need (sales, design, technical, etc) - otherwise the solo person has to credibly be an amazing all-rounder (which is rare). That's the core dynamic IMO... then add on the emotional burden part to that and it makes even more sense. But then again a bad cofounder fit could actually lead to MORE emotional burden too... so obviously it all comes down to specifics.
AndrewWarner 8y ago
Try this link to copy it to your drive so you can read or format it any way you like: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/copy https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...
foobaw 8y ago
This is incredibly insightful and well-written.
- Teeer 8y ago
  > In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. Yep, very insightful. I hope I never work for this guy
  - warent 8y ago
    8 productive hours per day is normal and expected. Are you working part-time or getting paid to browse Reddit?
    - Teeer 8y ago
      > 8-10 Not sure why you bring up Reddit
denverkarma 8y ago
Side tangent, if you’re looking to share a draft book like this with a bunch of people, https://betabooks.co https://betabooks.co is a good option. Specifically designed to handle heavy load of readers and look great on mobile, etc.
- BadassFractal 8y ago
  Wow, that sound super useful. Now I just need to write a book.
- omeid2 8y ago
  There is also https://leanpub.com/ https://leanpub.com/ which I think is a bit more established.
typeliftr 8y ago
I feel like there’s an ‘all or nothing’ attitude recently around starting a business which doesn’t make sense to me. Either you’re making millions and have 100 employees or nothing. I work in a company that has 5-10 employees, nobody is working their ass off and there’s steady income and gradual growth. Our CEO is not a millionaire, but he enjoys his work and the company he works for. There is no plans for fast growth or VC funding. Can anyone explain to me where does this obsession with VC funding and huge growth come from? I feel like if you grow your company by more then 50% YOY you will end up with a totally different company culture, and you might end up hating your own company.
- TwelveNights 8y ago
  To me it just feels as though the "get rich or die trying" mentality is something more alluring to people, whereas success stories from slow, steady growth makes more sense but is less hyped.
  - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
    It's partly about the drama. Long hours, millions or billions in cash, high risk, high reward - it's so much more exciting than building a steady business that pays its way and keeps some number of people gainfully employed while providing a genuinely useful product/service.
- smt88 8y ago
  I agree with you and see your point, but many businesses (especially B2C and high-tech) can't get to profitability without millions in venture capital. Venture capital is high-risk and high-reward, and investors won't gamble millions without a chance for a massive return. Massive returns usually happen at large scale. If you want more companies like yours and fewer like, say, Twitter, then venture capital would need to be a charity.
  - ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
    Why also explains why "World Changing" investors are investing in "meme chats" and "gif keyboards". Gavin Belson is not a fictitious character; he is literally the snapshot of a typical investor.
chrisparton1991 8y ago
I'm about a quarter way through this book and I'm enjoying it so far. This line, however, didn't resonate with me: > To encourage 8-10 productive hours, serve dinner 8-10 hours after morning stand-up. As a person who enjoys life outside of work, the idea of having a job where they were serving me dinner every day is baffling. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
- askafriend 8y ago
  You don’t have to eat it. They serve dinner every day where I work. I simply go home earlier than that. Nothing happens. It’s quite simple really. On days where I happen to need to stay late, it’s a really nice convenience. For people who go to the gym after work and come back to eat, they save money by grabbing a quick dinner meal at work.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    "You don’t have to eat it." Yes, but there's an inherent, almost clear expectation in this treatise that you do in fact, 'eat it' or at least stay those hours. If you're staying >10 hours at the office the least they can do is get you dinner, but when it starts to be a cultural expectation it's going to be a long term problem. The way most equity is shared - if you are working 10-12 hours a day and the company is not growing wildly, i.e. looking like a Unicorn - it's probably not worth it, and you've drunk too much koolaid. Koolaid and hard work are good, but I think the goal is kind of 'self aware Koolaid' ...
    - askafriend 8y ago
      Speaking from personal experience, no there simply isn't this weird expectation you seem to want to impose. Every place I've worked at has had free food. People take it when it's convenient for them. They leave it when they want to do something else. Most parents never stay for dinner. And guess what, everything is fine. There's no cultural crisis...
mephitix 8y ago
This is a fantastic resource. >> ...the data shows that solo founders rarely succeed. The emotional burden is just too high. I am a solo founder and yeah, I completely agree with this. I severely underestimated the emotional burden of going it alone. I am in a much better state now, but it was definitely a struggle. If I had to do it over again this is the main thing I would change - be more open towards and work harder towards finding a co-founder.
- danieltillett 8y ago
  I am a solo founder and I have been a non-solo founder in the past and being a solo-founder is 100x better. I think it depends on the type of person you are and what is important to you.
  - rejschaap 8y ago
    I think it boils down to something like A solo founder who ticks all the boxes will beat an equally skilled team every time Most people don't tick all the boxes, so generally speaking you are better off starting with a co-founder
- chatmasta 8y ago
  The biggest advantage of a co-founder IME is that you balance each other's waves. When one of you has a down week, the other can have an up week. If you're a solo founder and you have a down week, the whole company has a down week. This balance keeps progress consistent.
rcfox 8y ago
> In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. So, are people expected to be in the office for 12+ hours a day? Nobody is 100% productive from the moment they step in the door, every day. The fact that the author even wrote the number 10 here makes me a bit angry. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through, does he have a section on employee burnout?
- arsenico 8y ago
  You definitely should read the whole thing with more attention to this aspect - getting productive hours out of employees is an extremely difficult task, but it does pay off big time. This can be achieved with the "fun" environment at work, with meals at the office, with very clear goals and alignment on those goals, with a bigger ambition in mind, with creative compensation schemes, flexible hours, remote work schemes, and with a lot of other things. That's why there are "managers" (not necessarily) CEOs who can get this productivity out of people, and those who cannot.
  - rcfox 8y ago
    I'm all for it if an employer wants to make it more attractive to stay at the office. I have fun at work, I eat with my coworkers most days, and I'm not out the door at the 8-hour marker. However, as it's worded, there's an implied "problem" with an employee if they're not actively engaged with work for 10 hours a day. Between meetings, chatty coworkers, meals, coffee breaks, and just periodic mental fatigue, I think 5-6 hours of productivity is a much more feasible goal for an 8-hour work day.
    - solatic 8y ago
      > meetings If the meetings are productive meetings and not hour-long Facebook-browsing snoozefests, then yes, meeting attendance is a form of productivity > chatty coworkers Get rid of the open floor plan, allow for remote work, other strategies to promote the proverbial butts-in-seats instead of milling about the water cooler > meals Delivered to the office > Coffee breaks Why coffee machines of whichever kind (Keurig, Nespresso, superautomatic espresso machines) pay for themselves. The point is that OP's point is that good management reduces (not eliminate, that's impossible) distractions, to promote higher productivity.
sus_007 8y ago
While there are many books out there with excellent and relevant knowledge for the founding CEO... I'd love to know some of your's book suggestions for aspiring Tech Founder-CEO.
- FeynmanThomas 8y ago
  Recommended: "Before The Startup" by Paul Graham - http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html
tail_risk 8y ago
> the data shows that solo founders rarely succeed Where is the data on this? The only public exit / ipo yc has had to date was a solo founder.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  A crude look at Crunchbase apparently indicates that 'one founder is best' and 'four founders is worst'. [1] Though it's not exactly a scientific assessment, the numbers do paint a rough picture. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/
  - justinzollars 8y ago
    Applied (and was interviewed) to YC with 3 co-founders. It was a total disaster. If I ever do it again I will be a solo founder and I'll hire those I need.
    - siddharthdeswal 8y ago
      Can you give more detail please?
      - justinzollars 8y ago
        Sure. TLDR People have different motivations. You don't need to "find a co-founder" in order to check some box in your application process. If you do feel the need to apply with a team, don't split the equity evenly and define a very clear leader. Also, Plan on most of your team just giving up if you are rejected (despite what they say today). I applied with friends who who I knew for a year AND had worked with on a few apps. I was surprised when they quit after we were rejected. Your biggest problem is finding a product market fit and defining a customer. If you can do this you can certainly hire all the help you need.
- segmondy 8y ago
  All the millionaires and billionaires I know in real life are solo founders.
skrebbel 8y ago
I read the comments before clicking the link, and found myself agreeing with commenters who complained about this line: > In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. I almost dismissed the book as a "yet another VC-driven, work-your-people-to-burnout story" but really, there's more to that. I've found it an excellent read so far and it's very concise, it wastes zero space on nonsense. I realized that I don't have to agree with everything an author writes to be able to get value out of a book. Warmly recommend you check it out.
- throwawayqdhd 8y ago
  I track my productivity very assiduously. For some tasks, such as writing, it is next to impossible to be productive for more than 5-6 hours/day. Your brain gives up after a while.
  - baby 8y ago
    As a founder you would probably spend more time on calls and other administrative tasks that don’t require much brain energy. That’s how you end up doing long hours.
    - rizzin 8y ago
      However constantly switching contexts between different tasks is also very taxing...
      - DenisM 8y ago
        The idea is two spend first half of the day braining and second half doing busy work. Also championed by pg: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
      - throwawayqdhd 8y ago
        I've taken to waking up at 6 to get a couple of hours of solid "brain work" before I start the day
oldandlesswise 8y ago
An interesting article; i was reading the replies to this. So here is my take. A UK 40++ entrepreneur. I have been there and done that - made good £££ from the first boom in 2000. Since then tried a couple of startups all of which failed, for one reason or another. Sadly we did burn through quite a lot of investor £££ in the process and gained no personal value other than experience. What I think I have learned is that building a small business with around 5-10 people and making a regular salary of £200k a year is a much more enjoyable existence than trying for the millions and never quite getting there. Working for a large corp, contracting etc is depressing (other than doing it abroad which was fun for a few years and allowed me to travel in my 30's). We now have a funky office, a very tight team of devs. I guess in some ways I modelled on what Joel did. After everything, I have learned "bootstrap" + "lifestyle business" is the best route to have a happy and productive life. Our business is a digital agency - mostly wordpress sites for SME market, a few apps etc. Its regular and good money. it is no way as interesting as some of the "startup" ideas we tried over the years, but no VC still on my shoulder anymore :)
- austenallred 8y ago
  > What I think I have learned is that building a small business with around 5-10 people and making a regular salary of £200k a year is a much more enjoyable existence than trying for the millions and never quite getting there. But what if you get there?
  - mooreds 8y ago
    Would you rather have a 1% chance of $100M/year or a 99% chance of $200k/year? If all one thinks about is the math, they'd take the chance at 100M, because it is a higher number when multipled by the probability. But you can't pay a mortgage with a probability, and some folks want a mortgage (or other lifestyle features).
    - austenallred 8y ago
      But are you sure your math is right? How do you know those are the percentages? Me personally, I know I’ll be able to pay a mortgage one way or another, so I’d prefer to shoot for high impact. When you’re running the hopefully-$100m-company you can still pay yourself a six figure salary. It’s not all binary.
philippz 8y ago
Printed it, will read it on the next flights, thanks!
casca 8y ago
Download as .doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/export?format=doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...
- lihaciudaniel 8y ago
  Thank you very much, i'm going to give it a listen.
- vonseel 8y ago
  Thank you! Original link was not working for me on iOS.
- casca 8y ago
  Download as html: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/export https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...
- achairapart 8y ago
  Thank you, works as .epub as well: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/export?format=epub https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...
sah2ed 8y ago
The book mentions "Percentage of tickets closed" as a metric by which engineering should be evaluated, which IMO is incredibly short-sighted. The Google Doc has all editing disabled at the moment, but does anyone know if the author would welcome improvements to the text?
- asafira 8y ago
  THey mention a more nuanced metric further down --- do you still feel it's a poor metric?
  - sah2ed 8y ago
    Would you mind quoting the relevant bit? I'm on mobile at the moment. My problem with including it at all is that, as he said in a preceding chapter, he is in a unique position to shoot down myths that technical founders believe about VCs and the converse, so the book presents a great opportunity to do the same about the myth of closed tickets as an engineering metric, particularly since it is largely well-written and will reach a much wider audience than his coaching may permit.
    - koverda 8y ago
      I believe this is the relevant bit: " As we learn from Andy Grove, former Intel CEO and author of the book High Output Management, it is also important to define and track counter-metrics to provide necessary context, because metrics are sometimes optimized to a fault. For example, engineering tickets will vary in importance, so if your engineers have closed the critical tickets, they’re doing better than if they close most tickets but only the easiest ones. Similarly, if the half of candidates that accept your job offers are less skilled than the half that decline, then you’re doing worse than the raw percentage indicates. "
Draiken 8y ago
> In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. Am I the only one that immediately thought about employees as the Clueless on the Gervais Principle[1]? It looks to me like they need to sell this dream of exiting big for people to sacrifice everything for the company. However everyone forgets how absurdly low the chances of winning the lottery is. It's essentially the carrot on the stick. Maybe I'm wrong and it's easy to win on this "game"? I'd love to see some data on how many actually become millionaires after killing themselves on the startup grinder. [1]: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/
codingdave 8y ago
If you study coaching, or organizational development techniques, you'll find that most practices are consultative -- defining goals, as well as how the coach/consultant will work with an individual or organization. You then evaluate where the person/org is at, where they want to go, and develop various plans and interventions to get there. I point this out because this document skips all that. It says so in the first page - this is written by someone who targets young founders in SV. Quite a narrow niche. This document is one specific playbook, for that specific niche. Sure, young founders in SV may want this. And if you do, too, the info is good for you. But there is more than one way to run a company, more than one desired outcome, and more than one set of answers in what you should be doing.
Nokinside 8y ago
Requiring proposals and updates written down is a good idea. If you allow people to bring up an issue or proposal that they have not already written up in the meeting, someone always comes up with idea on the spot, and tries argue it as something well thought. If they are clever people they can throw the whole meeting off. For the loudest voice in the room problem, speaking order that starts from the most junior and ends with the most senior member is the best (I think it's sometimes used in military). When junior members speak first it's easier for them when the boss has not given his opinion.
- EGreg 8y ago
  The Jewish Sanhedrin used it 2000-3000 years ago, starting from the most junior people.
  - bytematic 8y ago
    Interesting, I never thought about the merits. Rome would have a very different history if they did this, I would love to know that alternative
  - taneq 8y ago
    Some good psychology in that. If you start with the most senior people, then the couple of people who are clearly officially leaders will talk and then everyone else thinks they're next in the pecking order and will trainwreck it. If the only way to talk is to admit that you're more junior than everyone else who hasn't spoken, then you won't stick your two bob in unless you actually have something important to say.
    - sp332 8y ago
      Or the most senior people will put an idea forward and all the juniors will spend their time kissing ass and saying what a great idea it is.
      - kolpa 8y ago
        It's the seniors' job to seek out criticism and lead the way to criticizing their own ideas.
ArtWomb 8y ago
Author namechecks Thirteen Days, the harrowing account of the Cuban Missile Crisis and a world on the brink of annihilation. There is also a terrific movie adaptation. In it, Secdef McNamara talks about how the positioning of submarines and aircraft carriers about the open seas is actually a coded language. And by making moves and counter-moves, what the US and USSR are actually doing is communicating intent. Another classic is Ron Howard's Apollo 13. One of the few movies that depict the engineers as heroes. An inspiring watch for the whole team. And Damien Chazelle's upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic might make for a similar outing. Crisis management, perhaps more so than innate technological superiority, can yield distinct competitive advantage. And this is where actually learning from precisely the type of case study found in the YC network makes sense. Knowing that you can stay calm, slow time, take deep breaths, and react rationally because others have dealt with far more on their plate than you ever will. I'll share an anecdote. A small independent media outlet once got wind of a redesign I was working on and reported the story. The client was incensed as they were planning a full marketing rollout and had "lost the narrative". We were still months from launch. But rather than get into a blame game and lose more time. I suggested a soft, beta launch with media blitz immediately. After a week of jamming to polish our working prototypes for general availability, we were public facing, with laudatory feedback and the client appearing on CNBC ;) Weeks later, as it turns out, it was revealed I was in fact the source of the leak. An unscrupulous reporter had called my office posing as a contract employee of the client and asked about a meeting time and place. In replying that it would be at my office that afternoon, they had confirmation that in fact the redesign was in progress!
- firemelt 8y ago
  Sir did u have tldr for this?
Dowwie 8y ago
Who is the author, Matt Mochary? Why should I care what he thinks?
- slap_shot 8y ago
  ...this is literally the first topic covered.... > Who am I? Why am I writing this book? I coach tech startup CEOs (and tech investors) in Silicon Valley, most of whom are young technical founders. They include the CEOs of Coinbase, AngelList, CoinList, TrustToken, Bolt, Shogun, Speechify, etc.
- maximp 8y ago
  I really hope he's related to the very funny Colin Mochrie of Whose Line
maximp 8y ago
> 3. Someday/Maybe: This is the list of things that you one day want to do, but don’t need to get done now (e.g. read a book). Someday/Maybe Schedule a guitar lesson Order the book Getting Things Done by David Allen --- Man, this guy really gets me.
jcbrand 8y ago
> Agenda > > Spouse > > Connect- listen to each other’s day for 5 minutes each I had to laugh at this. Setting aside only 5-10 minutes a day for your closest confidant and life-partner? Good luck with that marriage. One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot, is that they often justify it by telling themselves and others what they'll do once they're financially independent, when in reality you can probably do most of those things now already. Want to travel the world? You can travel worldwide for a year for about $10k to $20k. If you have a wife and family, they're alive now. There's no guarantee they'll be alive even tomorrow, or that you'll be. Delayed gratification and sacrificing some of the present for the future are both definitely good and necessary, but should be done within due measure.
- fsloth 8y ago
  "One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot," There are other reasons as well to work hard. Some people enjoy the prospect of potentially denting the universe a bit. But yes, if financial gratification and financial gratification alone is the goal it's a tad silly.
  - tsunamifury 8y ago
    What you're describing is obsession and it can be even more dangerous that just plain old greed. However I find myself saying the same thing sometimes...
    - irl_zebra 8y ago
      In what way is "enjoy[ing] the prospect of potentially denting the universe a bit" obsession? Are you saying that being motivated by things other than finances is obsessive?
      - tsunamifury 8y ago
        No, but the dent in the universe requires obsession. If you think you can be balanced and accomplish this you don't know the source of that quote.
msaharia 8y ago
Is this book available as a printed book? Would love to buy a copy. I have read disparate parts over the years, but this one is concise and covers a gamut of topics. It might even help in running a research group!
memonkey 8y ago
I just want to say that I really love that they're using the pronoun "she" in the beginning. It is refreshing to hear when most business books are directed using male pronouns.
- ppbutt 8y ago
  "They" would be the proper term.
  - t0mbstone 8y ago
    Yeah, I find it annoying when people presume to refer to an unknown person as 'He" or "She". It's especially annoying when a writer randomly alternates genders throughout their document. Pandering much? The solution is the firmly established use of the singular "They": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they The singular "They" has literally been used in the English language since the 14th century, and its usage is well-understood. Any English teacher who dissuades you from its use should be stripped of their credentials, because "they" are an idiot.
- OJFord 8y ago
  Completely disagree, that was a very awkward sentence, and read better as 'their' or even 'the' in that particular case. 'her company' for the abstract founder's business is just as wrong as 'his'.
golemiprague 8y ago
why it speaks in a female language, her she etc? if we have to assume the gender wouldn't it make sense to use him he because the vast number of CEOs are identified as male?
j45 8y ago
Parts of this book feel like a secret playbook that has been shared. Thanks for that.
shock 8y ago
> Hire an x-CEO to come in as a “1 day a week CEO” to implement this system. She should be able to do so in 6-8 weeks. Have her then watch you run the system for 2 weeks to ensure that you are doing it correctly. I was under the impression that the accepted gender-neutral pronoun to use in this case would be "they". Any idea why "she"/"her" is used? Is this a new phenomenon?
subashp 8y ago
Amazing write up. I have been through it (now in a second startup) and can relate to most of it. This is like the book I can read as summary of my journey through startup world.
tgb29 8y ago
Thanks for the book! The succinct and direct style of writing makes it easier for me to read. And for some reason, I like reading it from Google Docs.

1207 points by dy 8y ago

extralego 8y ago

obsolete since GDPR

basejumping 8y ago
why?

aytekin 8y ago

Great insights. This should have probably been posted on Medium though. Google Docs have horrible reading experience.

fefb 8y ago
I just got a copy to my Drive, and I saved as epub where I can read as an ebook.
- monkeydust 8y ago
  Nice! Will do that.
wiennat 8y ago
Medium also have horrible reading experience, at least for non-login users.

deedubaya 8y ago

> “If we were to make you the following offer (state the offer in full detail, including cash, equity, benefits, etc), would you accept?” If they say yes, then make them offer. This is most effectively done on a paper note, passed between classmates, so that there is plausible deniability if they say no /s

sonnyblarney 8y ago
This is a funny tactic because it should not work with a thoughtful negotiator. "If we were to make the offer" is de-facto an offer, it's just not official, and though there might be a legal difference between an 'if we made it' and 'actual offer' ... for all intents and purposes, it's the same. It's the start of the negotiation. A half-smart negotiator would simply say: "Yes, if you included moving expenses" or whatever they would say otherwise.

endlessvoid94 8y ago

Does anyone have a PDF of this? Google docs has disabled most functionality due to traffic volume.

chrisparton1991 8y ago
You should be able to print it as a PDF via Chrome.
- gnicholas 8y ago
  Chrome's PDF printing function gives you an image PDF, even if the content is entirely text. So it's not searchable and is larger than a text PDF (which Firefox will give you). I've uploaded a version here, which I don't think requires cookies or block incognito: https://app.box.com/s/6mbbf3x1625uhcrm6t7tbld4jy1tnkjv https://app.box.com/s/6mbbf3x1625uhcrm6t7tbld4jy1tnkjv
  - lighttower 8y ago
    Thank you for this link. Works
  - ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
    Yesterday Internet Explorer is today's Chrome. I moved to firefox few months ago and never looked back at Chrome.
    - godzillabrennus 8y ago
      Amen. I’ve been converting folks back to Firefox and helping them setup containers for Facebook and LinkedIn. I hope Firefox integrates social media containers in by default in future releases.
      - Hanswurst133742 8y ago
        Any good tutorials on that "setup containers for Facebook and LinkedIn." part you can recommend? Am a Firefox User myself and very interested in getting this to work.

ganeshkrishnan 8y ago

> YCombinator has a near-blanket policy of only accepting co-founder teams (ie- no solo founders), because the data shows that solo founders rarely succeed. The emotional burden is just too high. But YC application FAQ states that this is not true. Although practically speaking from speaking to other startups, I have noticed that only startups with co-founders made it to the final round. This is just based off my experience and talking to other startups

gkoberger 8y ago
In my batch, there were definitely a bunch of solo founders. However, they (almost) all had something special about them: a strong existing team, a strong background, or a strong previous startup success.
ztratar 8y ago
Very, very few solo founders get into YC. I heard somewhere each batch of companies has about 2 solo founder companies total.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
corry 8y ago
IMO the bar should be much higher for solo founders. If you have 2 people, then it's twice as many resources to check all the various boxes you need (sales, design, technical, etc) - otherwise the solo person has to credibly be an amazing all-rounder (which is rare). That's the core dynamic IMO... then add on the emotional burden part to that and it makes even more sense. But then again a bad cofounder fit could actually lead to MORE emotional burden too... so obviously it all comes down to specifics.

AndrewWarner 8y ago

Try this link to copy it to your drive so you can read or format it any way you like: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/copy https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...

foobaw 8y ago

This is incredibly insightful and well-written.

Teeer 8y ago
> In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. Yep, very insightful. I hope I never work for this guy
- warent 8y ago
  8 productive hours per day is normal and expected. Are you working part-time or getting paid to browse Reddit?
  - Teeer 8y ago
    > 8-10 Not sure why you bring up Reddit

denverkarma 8y ago

Side tangent, if you’re looking to share a draft book like this with a bunch of people, https://betabooks.co https://betabooks.co is a good option. Specifically designed to handle heavy load of readers and look great on mobile, etc.

BadassFractal 8y ago
Wow, that sound super useful. Now I just need to write a book.
omeid2 8y ago
There is also https://leanpub.com/ https://leanpub.com/ which I think is a bit more established.

typeliftr 8y ago

I feel like there’s an ‘all or nothing’ attitude recently around starting a business which doesn’t make sense to me. Either you’re making millions and have 100 employees or nothing. I work in a company that has 5-10 employees, nobody is working their ass off and there’s steady income and gradual growth. Our CEO is not a millionaire, but he enjoys his work and the company he works for. There is no plans for fast growth or VC funding. Can anyone explain to me where does this obsession with VC funding and huge growth come from? I feel like if you grow your company by more then 50% YOY you will end up with a totally different company culture, and you might end up hating your own company.

TwelveNights 8y ago
To me it just feels as though the "get rich or die trying" mentality is something more alluring to people, whereas success stories from slow, steady growth makes more sense but is less hyped.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  It's partly about the drama. Long hours, millions or billions in cash, high risk, high reward - it's so much more exciting than building a steady business that pays its way and keeps some number of people gainfully employed while providing a genuinely useful product/service.
smt88 8y ago
I agree with you and see your point, but many businesses (especially B2C and high-tech) can't get to profitability without millions in venture capital. Venture capital is high-risk and high-reward, and investors won't gamble millions without a chance for a massive return. Massive returns usually happen at large scale. If you want more companies like yours and fewer like, say, Twitter, then venture capital would need to be a charity.
- ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
  Why also explains why "World Changing" investors are investing in "meme chats" and "gif keyboards". Gavin Belson is not a fictitious character; he is literally the snapshot of a typical investor.

chrisparton1991 8y ago

I'm about a quarter way through this book and I'm enjoying it so far. This line, however, didn't resonate with me: > To encourage 8-10 productive hours, serve dinner 8-10 hours after morning stand-up. As a person who enjoys life outside of work, the idea of having a job where they were serving me dinner every day is baffling. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

askafriend 8y ago
You don’t have to eat it. They serve dinner every day where I work. I simply go home earlier than that. Nothing happens. It’s quite simple really. On days where I happen to need to stay late, it’s a really nice convenience. For people who go to the gym after work and come back to eat, they save money by grabbing a quick dinner meal at work.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  "You don’t have to eat it." Yes, but there's an inherent, almost clear expectation in this treatise that you do in fact, 'eat it' or at least stay those hours. If you're staying >10 hours at the office the least they can do is get you dinner, but when it starts to be a cultural expectation it's going to be a long term problem. The way most equity is shared - if you are working 10-12 hours a day and the company is not growing wildly, i.e. looking like a Unicorn - it's probably not worth it, and you've drunk too much koolaid. Koolaid and hard work are good, but I think the goal is kind of 'self aware Koolaid' ...
  - askafriend 8y ago
    Speaking from personal experience, no there simply isn't this weird expectation you seem to want to impose. Every place I've worked at has had free food. People take it when it's convenient for them. They leave it when they want to do something else. Most parents never stay for dinner. And guess what, everything is fine. There's no cultural crisis...

mephitix 8y ago

This is a fantastic resource. >> ...the data shows that solo founders rarely succeed. The emotional burden is just too high. I am a solo founder and yeah, I completely agree with this. I severely underestimated the emotional burden of going it alone. I am in a much better state now, but it was definitely a struggle. If I had to do it over again this is the main thing I would change - be more open towards and work harder towards finding a co-founder.

danieltillett 8y ago
I am a solo founder and I have been a non-solo founder in the past and being a solo-founder is 100x better. I think it depends on the type of person you are and what is important to you.
- rejschaap 8y ago
  I think it boils down to something like A solo founder who ticks all the boxes will beat an equally skilled team every time Most people don't tick all the boxes, so generally speaking you are better off starting with a co-founder
chatmasta 8y ago
The biggest advantage of a co-founder IME is that you balance each other's waves. When one of you has a down week, the other can have an up week. If you're a solo founder and you have a down week, the whole company has a down week. This balance keeps progress consistent.

rcfox 8y ago

> In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. So, are people expected to be in the office for 12+ hours a day? Nobody is 100% productive from the moment they step in the door, every day. The fact that the author even wrote the number 10 here makes me a bit angry. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through, does he have a section on employee burnout?

arsenico 8y ago
You definitely should read the whole thing with more attention to this aspect - getting productive hours out of employees is an extremely difficult task, but it does pay off big time. This can be achieved with the "fun" environment at work, with meals at the office, with very clear goals and alignment on those goals, with a bigger ambition in mind, with creative compensation schemes, flexible hours, remote work schemes, and with a lot of other things. That's why there are "managers" (not necessarily) CEOs who can get this productivity out of people, and those who cannot.
- rcfox 8y ago
  I'm all for it if an employer wants to make it more attractive to stay at the office. I have fun at work, I eat with my coworkers most days, and I'm not out the door at the 8-hour marker. However, as it's worded, there's an implied "problem" with an employee if they're not actively engaged with work for 10 hours a day. Between meetings, chatty coworkers, meals, coffee breaks, and just periodic mental fatigue, I think 5-6 hours of productivity is a much more feasible goal for an 8-hour work day.
  - solatic 8y ago
    > meetings If the meetings are productive meetings and not hour-long Facebook-browsing snoozefests, then yes, meeting attendance is a form of productivity > chatty coworkers Get rid of the open floor plan, allow for remote work, other strategies to promote the proverbial butts-in-seats instead of milling about the water cooler > meals Delivered to the office > Coffee breaks Why coffee machines of whichever kind (Keurig, Nespresso, superautomatic espresso machines) pay for themselves. The point is that OP's point is that good management reduces (not eliminate, that's impossible) distractions, to promote higher productivity.

sus_007 8y ago

While there are many books out there with excellent and relevant knowledge for the founding CEO... I'd love to know some of your's book suggestions for aspiring Tech Founder-CEO.

FeynmanThomas 8y ago
Recommended: "Before The Startup" by Paul Graham - http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html

tail_risk 8y ago

> the data shows that solo founders rarely succeed Where is the data on this? The only public exit / ipo yc has had to date was a solo founder.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
A crude look at Crunchbase apparently indicates that 'one founder is best' and 'four founders is worst'. [1] Though it's not exactly a scientific assessment, the numbers do paint a rough picture. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/
- justinzollars 8y ago
  Applied (and was interviewed) to YC with 3 co-founders. It was a total disaster. If I ever do it again I will be a solo founder and I'll hire those I need.
  - siddharthdeswal 8y ago
    Can you give more detail please?
    - justinzollars 8y ago
      Sure. TLDR People have different motivations. You don't need to "find a co-founder" in order to check some box in your application process. If you do feel the need to apply with a team, don't split the equity evenly and define a very clear leader. Also, Plan on most of your team just giving up if you are rejected (despite what they say today). I applied with friends who who I knew for a year AND had worked with on a few apps. I was surprised when they quit after we were rejected. Your biggest problem is finding a product market fit and defining a customer. If you can do this you can certainly hire all the help you need.
segmondy 8y ago
All the millionaires and billionaires I know in real life are solo founders.

skrebbel 8y ago

I read the comments before clicking the link, and found myself agreeing with commenters who complained about this line: > In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. I almost dismissed the book as a "yet another VC-driven, work-your-people-to-burnout story" but really, there's more to that. I've found it an excellent read so far and it's very concise, it wastes zero space on nonsense. I realized that I don't have to agree with everything an author writes to be able to get value out of a book. Warmly recommend you check it out.

throwawayqdhd 8y ago
I track my productivity very assiduously. For some tasks, such as writing, it is next to impossible to be productive for more than 5-6 hours/day. Your brain gives up after a while.
- baby 8y ago
  As a founder you would probably spend more time on calls and other administrative tasks that don’t require much brain energy. That’s how you end up doing long hours.
  - rizzin 8y ago
    However constantly switching contexts between different tasks is also very taxing...
    - DenisM 8y ago
      The idea is two spend first half of the day braining and second half doing busy work. Also championed by pg: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
    - throwawayqdhd 8y ago
      I've taken to waking up at 6 to get a couple of hours of solid "brain work" before I start the day

oldandlesswise 8y ago

An interesting article; i was reading the replies to this. So here is my take. A UK 40++ entrepreneur. I have been there and done that - made good £££ from the first boom in 2000. Since then tried a couple of startups all of which failed, for one reason or another. Sadly we did burn through quite a lot of investor £££ in the process and gained no personal value other than experience. What I think I have learned is that building a small business with around 5-10 people and making a regular salary of £200k a year is a much more enjoyable existence than trying for the millions and never quite getting there. Working for a large corp, contracting etc is depressing (other than doing it abroad which was fun for a few years and allowed me to travel in my 30's). We now have a funky office, a very tight team of devs. I guess in some ways I modelled on what Joel did. After everything, I have learned "bootstrap" + "lifestyle business" is the best route to have a happy and productive life. Our business is a digital agency - mostly wordpress sites for SME market, a few apps etc. Its regular and good money. it is no way as interesting as some of the "startup" ideas we tried over the years, but no VC still on my shoulder anymore :)

austenallred 8y ago
> What I think I have learned is that building a small business with around 5-10 people and making a regular salary of £200k a year is a much more enjoyable existence than trying for the millions and never quite getting there. But what if you get there?
- mooreds 8y ago
  Would you rather have a 1% chance of $100M/year or a 99% chance of $200k/year? If all one thinks about is the math, they'd take the chance at 100M, because it is a higher number when multipled by the probability. But you can't pay a mortgage with a probability, and some folks want a mortgage (or other lifestyle features).
  - austenallred 8y ago
    But are you sure your math is right? How do you know those are the percentages? Me personally, I know I’ll be able to pay a mortgage one way or another, so I’d prefer to shoot for high impact. When you’re running the hopefully-$100m-company you can still pay yourself a six figure salary. It’s not all binary.

philippz 8y ago

Printed it, will read it on the next flights, thanks!

casca 8y ago

Download as .doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/export?format=doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...

lihaciudaniel 8y ago
Thank you very much, i'm going to give it a listen.
vonseel 8y ago
Thank you! Original link was not working for me on iOS.
casca 8y ago
Download as html: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/export https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...
achairapart 8y ago
Thank you, works as .epub as well: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/export?format=epub https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...

sah2ed 8y ago

The book mentions "Percentage of tickets closed" as a metric by which engineering should be evaluated, which IMO is incredibly short-sighted. The Google Doc has all editing disabled at the moment, but does anyone know if the author would welcome improvements to the text?

asafira 8y ago
THey mention a more nuanced metric further down --- do you still feel it's a poor metric?
- sah2ed 8y ago
  Would you mind quoting the relevant bit? I'm on mobile at the moment. My problem with including it at all is that, as he said in a preceding chapter, he is in a unique position to shoot down myths that technical founders believe about VCs and the converse, so the book presents a great opportunity to do the same about the myth of closed tickets as an engineering metric, particularly since it is largely well-written and will reach a much wider audience than his coaching may permit.
  - koverda 8y ago
    I believe this is the relevant bit: " As we learn from Andy Grove, former Intel CEO and author of the book High Output Management, it is also important to define and track counter-metrics to provide necessary context, because metrics are sometimes optimized to a fault. For example, engineering tickets will vary in importance, so if your engineers have closed the critical tickets, they’re doing better than if they close most tickets but only the easiest ones. Similarly, if the half of candidates that accept your job offers are less skilled than the half that decline, then you’re doing worse than the raw percentage indicates. "

Draiken 8y ago

> In addition, if people are working less than 8-10 productive hours per day, then they are clearly not being as productive as they could be. Am I the only one that immediately thought about employees as the Clueless on the Gervais Principle[1]? It looks to me like they need to sell this dream of exiting big for people to sacrifice everything for the company. However everyone forgets how absurdly low the chances of winning the lottery is. It's essentially the carrot on the stick. Maybe I'm wrong and it's easy to win on this "game"? I'd love to see some data on how many actually become millionaires after killing themselves on the startup grinder. [1]: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/

codingdave 8y ago

If you study coaching, or organizational development techniques, you'll find that most practices are consultative -- defining goals, as well as how the coach/consultant will work with an individual or organization. You then evaluate where the person/org is at, where they want to go, and develop various plans and interventions to get there. I point this out because this document skips all that. It says so in the first page - this is written by someone who targets young founders in SV. Quite a narrow niche. This document is one specific playbook, for that specific niche. Sure, young founders in SV may want this. And if you do, too, the info is good for you. But there is more than one way to run a company, more than one desired outcome, and more than one set of answers in what you should be doing.

Nokinside 8y ago

Requiring proposals and updates written down is a good idea. If you allow people to bring up an issue or proposal that they have not already written up in the meeting, someone always comes up with idea on the spot, and tries argue it as something well thought. If they are clever people they can throw the whole meeting off. For the loudest voice in the room problem, speaking order that starts from the most junior and ends with the most senior member is the best (I think it's sometimes used in military). When junior members speak first it's easier for them when the boss has not given his opinion.

EGreg 8y ago
The Jewish Sanhedrin used it 2000-3000 years ago, starting from the most junior people.
- bytematic 8y ago
  Interesting, I never thought about the merits. Rome would have a very different history if they did this, I would love to know that alternative
- taneq 8y ago
  Some good psychology in that. If you start with the most senior people, then the couple of people who are clearly officially leaders will talk and then everyone else thinks they're next in the pecking order and will trainwreck it. If the only way to talk is to admit that you're more junior than everyone else who hasn't spoken, then you won't stick your two bob in unless you actually have something important to say.
  - sp332 8y ago
    Or the most senior people will put an idea forward and all the juniors will spend their time kissing ass and saying what a great idea it is.
    - kolpa 8y ago
      It's the seniors' job to seek out criticism and lead the way to criticizing their own ideas.

ArtWomb 8y ago

Author namechecks Thirteen Days, the harrowing account of the Cuban Missile Crisis and a world on the brink of annihilation. There is also a terrific movie adaptation. In it, Secdef McNamara talks about how the positioning of submarines and aircraft carriers about the open seas is actually a coded language. And by making moves and counter-moves, what the US and USSR are actually doing is communicating intent. Another classic is Ron Howard's Apollo 13. One of the few movies that depict the engineers as heroes. An inspiring watch for the whole team. And Damien Chazelle's upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic might make for a similar outing. Crisis management, perhaps more so than innate technological superiority, can yield distinct competitive advantage. And this is where actually learning from precisely the type of case study found in the YC network makes sense. Knowing that you can stay calm, slow time, take deep breaths, and react rationally because others have dealt with far more on their plate than you ever will. I'll share an anecdote. A small independent media outlet once got wind of a redesign I was working on and reported the story. The client was incensed as they were planning a full marketing rollout and had "lost the narrative". We were still months from launch. But rather than get into a blame game and lose more time. I suggested a soft, beta launch with media blitz immediately. After a week of jamming to polish our working prototypes for general availability, we were public facing, with laudatory feedback and the client appearing on CNBC ;) Weeks later, as it turns out, it was revealed I was in fact the source of the leak. An unscrupulous reporter had called my office posing as a contract employee of the client and asked about a meeting time and place. In replying that it would be at my office that afternoon, they had confirmation that in fact the redesign was in progress!

firemelt 8y ago
Sir did u have tldr for this?

Dowwie 8y ago

Who is the author, Matt Mochary? Why should I care what he thinks?

slap_shot 8y ago
...this is literally the first topic covered.... > Who am I? Why am I writing this book? I coach tech startup CEOs (and tech investors) in Silicon Valley, most of whom are young technical founders. They include the CEOs of Coinbase, AngelList, CoinList, TrustToken, Bolt, Shogun, Speechify, etc.
maximp 8y ago
I really hope he's related to the very funny Colin Mochrie of Whose Line

maximp 8y ago

> 3. Someday/Maybe: This is the list of things that you one day want to do, but don’t need to get done now (e.g. read a book). Someday/Maybe Schedule a guitar lesson Order the book Getting Things Done by David Allen --- Man, this guy really gets me.

jcbrand 8y ago

> Agenda > > Spouse > > Connect- listen to each other’s day for 5 minutes each I had to laugh at this. Setting aside only 5-10 minutes a day for your closest confidant and life-partner? Good luck with that marriage. One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot, is that they often justify it by telling themselves and others what they'll do once they're financially independent, when in reality you can probably do most of those things now already. Want to travel the world? You can travel worldwide for a year for about $10k to $20k. If you have a wife and family, they're alive now. There's no guarantee they'll be alive even tomorrow, or that you'll be. Delayed gratification and sacrificing some of the present for the future are both definitely good and necessary, but should be done within due measure.

fsloth 8y ago
"One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot," There are other reasons as well to work hard. Some people enjoy the prospect of potentially denting the universe a bit. But yes, if financial gratification and financial gratification alone is the goal it's a tad silly.
- tsunamifury 8y ago
  What you're describing is obsession and it can be even more dangerous that just plain old greed. However I find myself saying the same thing sometimes...
  - irl_zebra 8y ago
    In what way is "enjoy[ing] the prospect of potentially denting the universe a bit" obsession? Are you saying that being motivated by things other than finances is obsessive?
    - tsunamifury 8y ago
      No, but the dent in the universe requires obsession. If you think you can be balanced and accomplish this you don't know the source of that quote.

msaharia 8y ago

Is this book available as a printed book? Would love to buy a copy. I have read disparate parts over the years, but this one is concise and covers a gamut of topics. It might even help in running a research group!

memonkey 8y ago

I just want to say that I really love that they're using the pronoun "she" in the beginning. It is refreshing to hear when most business books are directed using male pronouns.

ppbutt 8y ago
"They" would be the proper term.
- t0mbstone 8y ago
  Yeah, I find it annoying when people presume to refer to an unknown person as 'He" or "She". It's especially annoying when a writer randomly alternates genders throughout their document. Pandering much? The solution is the firmly established use of the singular "They": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they The singular "They" has literally been used in the English language since the 14th century, and its usage is well-understood. Any English teacher who dissuades you from its use should be stripped of their credentials, because "they" are an idiot.
OJFord 8y ago
Completely disagree, that was a very awkward sentence, and read better as 'their' or even 'the' in that particular case. 'her company' for the abstract founder's business is just as wrong as 'his'.

golemiprague 8y ago

why it speaks in a female language, her she etc? if we have to assume the gender wouldn't it make sense to use him he because the vast number of CEOs are identified as male?

j45 8y ago

Parts of this book feel like a secret playbook that has been shared. Thanks for that.

shock 8y ago

> Hire an x-CEO to come in as a “1 day a week CEO” to implement this system. She should be able to do so in 6-8 weeks. Have her then watch you run the system for 2 weeks to ensure that you are doing it correctly. I was under the impression that the accepted gender-neutral pronoun to use in this case would be "they". Any idea why "she"/"her" is used? Is this a new phenomenon?

subashp 8y ago

Amazing write up. I have been through it (now in a second startup) and can relate to most of it. This is like the book I can read as summary of my journey through startup world.

tgb29 8y ago

Thanks for the book! The succinct and direct style of writing makes it easier for me to read. And for some reason, I like reading it from Google Docs.