Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Monte Carlo, the world's first data observability company. Prior to this role, Jordan spent an incredible 4 years in sales at Segment including as VP of Sales leading a sales team of 50+ Account Executives and leading the first international expansion for the company into Dublin. Before Segment, Jordan was at Dropbox for 4 years leading enterprise sales for Dropbox Business in California.

In Today's Episode with Jordan Van Horn We Discuss:

1.) Entry into the World of Sales:

• How did Jordan make his way into the world of sales first with a vineyard?
• What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways for Jordan from seeing the scaling sales teams at both Segment and Dropbox? How did seeing that impact his mindset?
• What does Jordan know now that he wishes he had known when he entered sales?

2.) The Sales Playbook:

• How does Jordan define "the sales playbook"? What is it not?
• What five core things should the sales playbook help you accomplish?
• Should the founder be responsible for the sales playbook? Can it be created by a Head of Sales?
• How does Jordan advise founders on three signals that now is the right time to bring in a sales hire?
• How does Jordan advise founders on whether the first sales hire should be a rep or a leader?

3.) The Secrets to Pricing and Discounting:

• Why does Jordan not care what price customers pay in the early days? If it is not about ARR, what should teams be optimizing for?
• When does price discipline become important in a company journey? What are the dangers of not having price discipline?
• What two tools do sales leaders have to use in order to create urgency in a deal closing process?
• How should sales leaders think about building multiple champions within a potential customer? At what price point is it worth it?

4.) The Hiring Process:

• How does Jordan structure the hiring process for all new sales hires?
• What are the must-ask questions that Jordan asks all new candidates? What does he want to see in those answers?
• Who else does he bring into the hiring process? At what stage do they get involved? What are they testing for?
• Does Jordan use case studies with candidates? What makes the best? What makes the worst?

5.) The Onboarding:

• What is the ideal onboarding process for new sales reps?
• What should founders do and prep for when onboarding their first sales hires? What materials and recordings should they have ready?
• What are some early signs that a new hire is not working out? How do we measure their impact?
• For enterprise sales, it takes a long time to close new deals, how can one determine effectiveness of new reps when the sales cycle is so long?

Sheel Mohnot is a Co-Founder and General Partner @ Better Tomorrow Ventures, a $225M fund that leads rounds in pre-seed and seed-stage fintech companies globally. Sheel and Jake (his co-founder) invested for many years together before founding BTV and wrote checks into Mercury, Flexport, Ramp, and Hippo Insurance to name a few. As for Sheel, before BTV he ran 500 Fintech for close to 7 years, and before that was a founder, founding two companies, both of which were acquired. If that was not enough, Sheel is also a master at measuring the width of swimming pools and making cameo appearances in music videos with Justin Bieber.

In Todays Episode with Sheel Mohnot We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Venture:

• How Sheel made his way into the world of venture having founded 2 fintech companies?
• Why did no LPs give Sheel money in the early 500 Fintech days? What were some of his biggest lessons from investing in 100s of companies with 500 Fintech?
• How did BTV with Jake come together most recently? What are the biggest differences to Sheel of being a fund manager vs being an investor?

2.) The Power Law:

• How does Sheel define "the power law" in venture capital? What multiple of return would be power law status?
• Given the size of outcome available with these power law returns, how does Sheel approach portfolio construction? Would it not be best to invest in 100s of companies?
• Who does Sheel believe has done the indexing approach best? Why?

3.) Venture Capital has Never Been Less Collaborative:

• Why does Sheel disagree with Harry that venture capital has never been less collaborative?
• Why now, for the first time, are large multi-stage funds taking single-digit ownership?
• Does Sheel agree with Harry it is moronic to have "guaranteed pro-rata"? How does Sheel approach re-investment decision-making? When does he pay up vs not?

4.) The Biggest Wins and Misses:

• What have been Sheel's biggest wins from a cashback and a multiple perspective?
• How did Sheel miss the chance to invest in both Robinhood and Chime early on? What did he not see? How would he have thought differently with the benefit of hindsight?
• How have Sheel's biggest hits and misses impacted how he invests today?

5.) Emerging and Frontier Markets:

• Does Sheel share Harry's concern for the removal of capital from emerging markets?
• Why does Sheel believe that India, South East Asia and LATAM will be fine?
• Why does Sheel believe Pakistan and Africa are most in trouble?
• What advice does Sheel give to his emerging markets founders today?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Sheel's Favourite Book: Enders Game

Marcelo Claure is an entrepreneur and investor who has founded and led some of the world’s most iconic businesses. He is currently the Chairman & CEO of Claure Capital, a newly founded multi-billion-dollar global investment firm. Before this, Marcelo was COO @ Softbank Group, the world’s largest technology investment company.

Bill Gurley is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful funds of the last decade with a portfolio including Uber, Twitter, Dropbox, Modern Treasury, Snapchat, StitchFix, and many more.

Michael Eisenberg spent 15 years as a General Partner @ Benchmark working alongside Bill and the Benchmark partnership. Following Benchmark, Michael co-founded Aleph, one of the leading Israeli venture funds of the last decade.

David Tisch is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Box Group, one of the leading seed focused firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Airtable, Glossier, PillPack, Plaid and many more.

Cyan Banister is one of the most successful and renowned early-stage investors in the last decade. Her portfolio includes the likes of SpaceX, Uber, Affirm, Opendoor Postmates, Niantic and Thumbtack to name a few.

Zach Weinberg is a Co-Founder of Operator Partners, operators funding operators, with no outside LPs, just their own capital.

Luciana Lixandru is a Partner @ Sequoia, one of the world’s most renowned and successful venture firms with Sequoia-backed companies accounting for more than 20% of NASDAQ’s total value.

Jeff Lieberman is the Managing Director @ Insight Partners, one of the leading investing franchises of the last 25 years with their most recent flagship fund announced earlier this year being a staggering $20BN.

Nick Shalek is a General Partner @ Ribbit Capital, specializing in fintech they are one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Robinhood, Coinbase, Revolut, Nubank and more.

Frank Rotman is a founding partner of QED Investors, one of the leading fintech-focused venture firms investing today with a portfolio including the likes of Klarna, Kavak, Quinto Andar, Credit Karma and more.

Geoff Lewis is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Bedrock, now with over $1BN in AUM, Bedrock invests in breakout technology companies that are incongruent with popular narratives.

Justin Fishner-Wolfson is founder and the managing partner of 137 Ventures. Their portfolio includes SpaceX, Wish, Anduril, Flexport, and WorkRise (formerly Rigup) to name a few.

David Sze is a General Partner @ Greylock where he has led some of the firms most notable investments including Facebook, LinkedIn and Pandora.

In Today's Episode We Discuss Price Sensitivity:

1.) How do you assess your relationship to price and price sensitivity?

2.) When is the time to pay up and have less price discipline?

3.) When should we remain disciplined and not pay up for a deal and walk away because of price?

4.) Of the deals you have paid up for, did their growth rate justify the high entry price?

5.) Knowing all you know now on price, how do you advise younger investors today?

Kieran Flanagan is SVP Marketing at HubSpot, where he has helped the business grow internationally, move to a product-led business, quadrupled its marketing demand, and built out its media team, including the acquisition of 'The Hustle.' He is also an advisor and investor in early-stage companies.

In Today's Episode with Kieran Flanagan We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Growth and Marketing:

• How did Kieran make his way into the world of growth and marketing?
• What has been 1-2 of Kieran's biggest lessons from seeing firsthand the hyper-scaling of Hubspot?
• On reflection, how would Kieran summarise both Hubspot's community building attempts and also their product messaging?

2.) Why You Need Growth Hires Pre Product Market Fit:

• What does "growth" mean to Kieran? Where do so many get it wrong?
• Why does Kieran believe that you should have a growth team/people before product market fit? What specifically do they do and work on during this stage?
• Pre PMF, what is the core metric that all startups should focus on? How does it change with time?

3.) Building Your Growth Team:

• What does Kieran believe are the 3 key stages to hiring for growth?
• How should founders determine whether to have external standalone growth teams or integrate them into existing functions?
• What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when hiring for growth?

4.) The Future is Content:

• Why does Kieran believe every great tech brand will have to become a media brand?
• Why is Elon Musk an example of the perfect brand? What has he done right?
• Why does Kieran say that data is the best and worst thing that has happened to marketing?

5.) WTF Really is Community:

• How does Kieran define "community"? What is it? What is it not?
• What makes the best communities? Why do some work and others not?
• Should every company have a community approach? Who does it make sense for?
• Have Hubspot done a good job at community building? On reflection, is there anything that Kieran would have done differently?

Mo Koyfman is the Founder and General Partner @ Shine Capital, who announced earlier this year Shine II, a $200M early-stage fund, and Shine Opportunities I, a $100M vehicle. Prior to founding Shine, Mo was the Managing Member @ Moko Brands where he made angel investments in Coinbase, Polychain, Harry's to name a few. Before Moko, Mo spent over 7 years as a General Partner @ Spark Capital where he made investments in Plaid, Warby Parker, Skillshare and Hivemapper, to name a few. Finally prior to Spark, Mo spent over 5 years at IAC where he oversaw group of companies that included Connected Ventures, parent of Vimeo, CollegeHumor & BustedTees.

In Today's Episode with Mo Koyfman:

1.) From Entrepreneurial Parents to IAC, Spark Capital and Founding Shine:

• How did Mo make his way into the world of venture having worked with Dara Khros, Barry Diller and Jeremy Liew?
• What were some of the biggest takeaways from his time with Barry Diller and IAC?
• How did Mo's time at Spark impact his investing mindset? What did he learn that he took with him to founding Shine?

2.) Investment Firm vs Investment Partnership:

• What are the biggest differences between investment firms and investment partnerships?
• What are the biggest risks founders are taking when they take money from investment firms?
• Mo has very strong beliefs, how does he manage and inspire debates within his firm without shutting down or intimidating younger, less experienced team members?
• What does Mo mean when he says, "firms are great but partners matter".

3.) How To Win in Venture:

• Why does Mo always believe that small funds outperform large funds?
• What have been some of Mo's biggest lessons from Fred Wilson on fund strategy and sizing?
• How much of an emphasis does Mo place on the importance of ownership?
• Why does Mo believe the way to win in venture is to be collaborative?
• Why does Mo believe in the macro conditions we are entering, the landscape is about to become a lot more collaborative?
• Why does Mo believe any firm that says they will always do their pro rata is lying?

4.) The Lessons: Success and Failure:

• What are some of Mo's biggest lessons from his biggest wins, like Plaid at seed?
• That said, why does Mo believe it is so dangerous to try and learn lessons from the wins?
• What failures have been most impactful to Mo? What did he take away from them?
• Why does Mo believe that making great burgers is like building great companies?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Mo's Favourite Book: Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

Sameer Shariff is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Cambly, the company that allows you to become fluent faster through one-on-one video chat lessons with native English tutors. To date, Sameer has raised over $60M with Cambly from the best including Jeremy Levine @ Bessemer, Sarah Tavel @ Benchmark, Monashees, YC and more. Prior to founding Cambly, Sameer spent close to 5 years at Google on the Search Quality team and became the Tech Lead of the Search experiments team helping make experimentation a core part of the launch process.

In Today's Episode with Sameer Sharif We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Startups and Co-Founding Cambly:

• How did Sameer make his way into the world of tech with his joining Google straight out of college?
• What were the 1-2 biggest takeaways from his time at Google? How did it shape his mindset?
• What was the a-ha moment for Sameer with Cambly?

2.) The Trials and Tribulations of Leadership:

• What does "high performance" mean to Sameer in business? How has it changed over time?
• What are the first things to break in a scaling company?
• How do the best companies retain speed and agility with scale?
• What are the single biggest hiring mistakes Sameer has made? What did he learn?

3.) The Fundraise that Led to Cash Flow Positive:

• Why does Sameer think it was so hard to fundraise for Cambly in the early days?
• When they failed to raise their Series A, what 3-4 core decisions did they make to get Cambly to cash flow positive as fast as possible?
• How did Sameer communicate their failed fundraising to the team? How did he do this in a way that rallied the troops and did not worry or scare them?
• What was the tipping point for fundraising to become much much easier for the company?
• Given they have not touched any of their Series A or Series B funds, how does Sameer think about the balance of growth vs profitability?

4.) Marketplace Dynamics 101:

• How did Cambly acquire the first 100 customers on the demand side?
• What is the most challenging dynamic of Cambly; demand or supply side?
• Where does Sameer see most marketplace founders make the biggest mistakes?
• What does Sameer know now on the intricacies of marketplace dynamics that he wishes he had known at the beginning?

Items Mentioned In Today's Episode with Sameer Shariff:

Sameer's Favourite Book: The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us about Being Alive

Shreyas Doshi is an investor, advisor, and all-around product OG. Most recently Shreyas spent over 5 years at Stripe where he was Stripe's first PM Manager and helped define and grow the Product Management function (from ~5 to more than 50 people). Before Stripe, Shreyas was a Director of Product Management @ Twitter and prior to Twitter spent over 6 years as a Group Product Manager @ Google. Today Shreyas has invested and advises some of the best including advising Airtable, Kalshi, Lendflow, to name a few.

In Today's Episode with Shreyas Doshi:

1.) Entry into Product:

• How did Shreyas make his way into the world of product and product management?
• Why did Shreyas decide not to do business school when it was the conventional route for everyone going into product management?
• What were some of Shreyas' biggest takeaways from his time at Stripe and Google? How did they impact his product mind today?

2.) Product Management 101:

• How does Shreyas define product management today? How do many confuse it?
• How does Shreyas define product success today? What is the single biggest mistake Shreyas sees founders make when determining the success/PMF of their product?
• Does Shreyas believe that great product management is science or art? Data or intuition? When should you listen to customers? When should you not?

3.) Metrics 101 & How To Use Them:

• What is the single biggest mistake Shreyas sees founders make when it comes to selecting their North Star metric?
• How should founders think about input vs output metrics? What is the difference between the two?
• What are the 6 types of metrics that all founders and product teams need to focus on? How does their importance change over time?
• How should the responsibility for these metrics be split between different people and teams?

4.) Three Types of Product Leader:

• What are the three different types of product leaders?
• The Craftsperson: What is their core strength? What is their core weakness? How do they interact with the rest of the team and company?
• The Operator: What is their core strength? What is their core weakness? How do they interact with the rest of the team and company?
• The Visionary: What is their core strength? What is their core weakness? How do they interact with the rest of the team and company?

Kirsten Green is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Forerunner Ventures, one of the leading firms of the last decade investing at the intersection of innovation and culture. As a founder, Kirsten has led efforts to raise over $2B+ from leading institutional investors and invest in more than 100 companies. She currently serves as a board member at Glossier, Ritual, Faire, Hims & Hers, and Curated, to name a few. She has also invested in other smash hits including Chime, Jet, Warby Parker, Hotel Tonight and many more. Due to her immense success, Kirsten has been honored in Time’s 100 Most Influential People and named a Top 20 Venture Capitalists by The New York Times in 2018 & 2017. Prior to Forerunner, Kirsten was an equity research analyst and investor at Banc of America Securities.

In Today's Episode with Kirsten Green We Discuss:

1.) Entry in Venture at 40 and Founding Forerunner:

• How did Kirsten make her way into VC at 40 with the founding of Forerunner having never had a role in VC before?
• What did everyone tell Kirsten when she was looking to break into venture? What did she tell herself when she heard this?
• What does Kirsten believe she is running from? What does she believe she is running toward?

2.) Fund Management and Leadership:

• How does Kirsten define high-performance today? What are the nuances of high performance in fund management?
• How would Kirsten describe her leadership style today? How has it changed over time?
• What have been some of Kirsten's biggest lessons in terms of what it takes to retain quality with scaling AUM and teams?
• What have been Kirsten's biggest lessons when it comes to giving hard feedback with kindness?

3.) The Venture Landscape Today and Forerunner's Position:

• Why does Kirsten believe the venture landscape is more dynamic today than ever?
• Does Kirsten agree with the statement that venture is less collaborative than ever?
• Why did Kirsten and Forerunner seem to amend strategy and move into B2B?
• Why does Kirsten disagree with the delineation between B2C and B2B?

4.) Parenting, Relationships and Life:

• What have been Kirsten's biggest lessons since becoming a parent? How has it impacted her mindset?
• Does Kirsten agree that relationships attract from sheer input on work? How does Kirsten separate relationships into two kinds of relationships?
• What does success in marriage mean for Kirsten? How has she seen that in her own marriage?

Jim Lanzone is the CEO @ Yahoo, a company that today reaches nearly 900 million people around the world and is the third largest property on the Internet. Prior to Yahoo, Tim was the CEO of Tinder, the world’s most popular app for meeting new people, downloaded by more than 400 million people. Before Tinder, Jim spent a decade as President and CEO of CBS Interactive, a top 10 global Internet company with brands ranging from CBS All Access to CNET. He joined CBS Interactive in 2011 when CBS Corporation purchased Clicker Media, where he was founder and CEO. Before founding Clicker, Jim served as CEO of Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves).

In Today's Episode with Jim Lanzone

1.) Jim's Entry into the World of Startups:

• How did Jim go from law school to founding his first tech startup in the dot com boom?
• How did seeing the crash and the first company going bust, shape Jim's perspectives on great leadership?
• What does Jim know now that he wishes he had known when he started way back in 1999?

2.) Leadership 101:

• How does Jim define "high performance" in business today?
• What are the 4 things Jim always looks for when hiring new people?
• Why does Jim believe the standard interview process and questions are broken? How does he do it differently? What are his biggest lessons on how to hire effectively?
• How does Jim know when to let someone go? How long do you give under-performers?

3.) Crashes and Turnarounds:

• Jim has seen three crashes as a CEO, what are Jim's biggest lessons from 3 prior crashes?
• How does Jim advise founders to be acting today? What should they focus on?
• How can leaders maintain morale and optimism in the face of tough macro times?
• How does Jim advise founders to communicate both with their investors and board when it comes to reduced performance in harder times?

4.) The Yahoo Turnaround:

• What does Jim believe the 1-2 core things Yahoo needs to fix is? Why are they priorities?
• How does Jim approach turning round the Yahoo brand? How does he plan to make it attractive?
• What is the biggest misnomer that people have about Yahoo today?
• How does Jim think about running a portfolio approach with Yahoo moving forward?
• How has Jim changed the org structure and management of Yahoo most significantly?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Jim's Favourite Book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Today we deconstruct the canonical question in early-stage sales. Does the founder need to create the sales playbook? Then secondly, if not, should the first sales hires be reps or a sales leader? Today we are joined by 7 of the best sales leaders to share their thoughts.

Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Montecarlo. Previously Jordan spent 4 years with Segment and before that spent another 4 years at Dropbox.

Oliver Jay (OJ) most recently spent 6 years at Asana where he was hired as the company’s first revenue leader. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox where he scaled the sales team from 0 to 50 while tripling ARR.

Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and previously spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales. Before Slack, Dannie spent 5 years at Hubspot building sales, opening an SF office, and then joining product to launch CRM & platform.

Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro, where he runs the go-to-market team of 700+ people across 11 global offices. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment. Finally, before Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across numerous different functional areas.

Kyle Parrish is VP Sales @ Figma, where he has scaled the sales team from 0 to over 100 people in sales. Before Figma, Kyle spent over 5 years at Dropbox in numerous different roles including Head of Sales, where he scaled the Austin, Texas office from 3 to over 80 people.

Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Customer Success @ Loom, at Loom Sam leads Revenue Org including: Direct Sales, Customer Success, Self-Serve Revenue Growth/Assist. Prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce, following their acquisition of Quip, where he was the first sales leader. Before Salesforce and Quip, Sam spent over 3 years at Dropbox as a mid-market sales leader.

Jeanne DeWitt Grosser is Head of Americas Revenue & Growth @ Stripe. Pre-Stripe, Jeanne was CRO @ Dialpad and also spent many years at Google in numerous different roles including most recently as Director of GSuite SMB & Mid-Market Sales, North America and LATAM.

Mitch Tarica is Head of North America Sales at Zoom Video Communications. Before Zoom, Mitch spent over 5 years at RingCentral and before RingCentral, Mitch was at Oracle for over 7 years in numerous different sales roles.

In Today's Discussion on Sales Playbooks We Learn:

1.) What is the right definition for a "sales playbook"?

2.) When is the right time to change your "sales playbook"?

3.) What are the biggest mistakes or misnomers made around the "sales playbook"?

4.) Should the founder be the one to create the first sales playbook or can it be a sales leader?

5.) When is the right time for founders to hire their first sales leaders?

6.) For the first sales hire, should founders hire sales reps or a sales leader?

7.) When should you hire a rep vs a sales leader? What are the nuances?

Tony Fadell, often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most revolutionary products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest, creating the Nest Thermostat, leading to their $3.2BN acquisition by Google. Tony recently released Build, a masterclass taking 30 years of product and company building lessons and packaging them for you, check it out here.

In Today's Episode with Tony Fadell: New York Times' 36 Questions of Love

1.) On reflection, what would Tony most like to change about his childhood?

• How did moving so much as a child change who Tony was as a person?
• How can parents instill that same grit and desire in their kids today?
• What does Tony think is the biggest problem with modern parenting?

2.) As a leader, should the company you are building be a family or a team?

• What does Tony believe are the 3 hats of being a great CEO?
• What is the biggest challenge in the transition between hats?
• Where does Tony see many founders make the biggest mistake?
• Which hat was Tony strongest with? What was he weakest with?

3.) How to solve the loneliness of being a solo founder?

• Why does Tony believe that everyone needs a co-founder?
• Why does Tony not like to invest in teams with a solo founder or more than 4 founders?
• For Tony, what is the ideal composition of that founding team?
• How does he test for these skills and traits pre-investing?

4.) How to think differently in the face of adversity?

• Tony has made bold bets when everyone says he is crazy, how does he not question himself and remain strong in the face of criticism?
• How does Tony know when to change his mind? When to accept that the bold idea was not right?
• Is Tony concerned in the face of macro challenges today, investment and commitment to climate change will be cut heavily?

Kyle Samani is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Multicoin Capital, one of the leading crypto native funds of the last decade with positions in Solana, FTX, Fractal, and Helium to name a few. As for Kyle, before moving to the world of venture and crypto, he founded Pristine, a health IT startup that raised more than $5M in VC, and was acquired by Upskill.

In Today's Episode With Kyle Samani We Discuss:

1.) The Founding of Multicoin Capital:

• How did Kyle make his way from a healthcare startup to founding Multicoin?
• What was his a-ha moment with the realization of the opportunity we have ahead of us in crypto?
• What does Kyle know now that he wishes he had known when he started Multicoin?

2.) Crypto Investing in 2022:

• Why does Kyle believe the crypt investing landscape is less collaborative than ever?
• What are the biggest challenges of token issuances today?
• How does the option of liquidity help and hurt Kyle's investor psychology?
• Is Kyle concerned the volatility in the market will harm institutional investor sentiment for crypto?

3.) Constructing a Crypto Portfolio in 2022:

• Why does Kyle not believe in temporal diversification?
• Why does sector-centric company diversification suck?
• Why are the loss ratios in crypto so much lower than in traditional venture?
• Why does Kyle believe a no reserves model is optimal in crypto?

4.) Multicoin vs Traditional Venture Firms:

• Why does Kyle believe that every person over 10 people in a venture firm is a net negative towards the investment decision-making process?
• What do Kyle and Multicoin do reach the truth together? How do they aggressively use writing and word docs to progress their thoughts?
• Their discussions are "brutal", how brutal can one be in a discussion on a deal? How does one make team members feel safe but also really push them for the truth and debate?

Item's Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Kyle's Favourite Recent Reading: Eugene Wei

Kyle's Most Recent Investment: Delphia

Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Customer Success @ Loom, an essential tool for hybrid and remote teams allowing you to record quick videos of your screen and cam. At Loom Sam leads Revenue Org including: Direct Sales, Customer Success, Self-Serve Revenue Growth/Assist, Sales Development, Global Customer Support, Revenue Ops + Strategy and Sales Enablement. Prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce, following their acquisition of Quip, where he was the first sales leader. Before Salesforce and Quip, Sam spent over 3 years at Dropbox as a mid-market sales leader.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

1.) Entry into the World of Sales:

• How did Sam land his first big role in sales at Salesforce?
• How did the sales orgs differ when comparing Salesforce to Dropbox?
• What are 1-2 of Sam's biggest lessons from his time at Salesforce and Dropbox that shapes how he thinks today?

2.) Sales People Should Be Customer Therapists:

• What is the right way to approach customer discovery?
• How can sales reps get potential customers on a call in the first place?
• What are the right questions to ask? What engenders the most honesty?
• What are the wrong questions to ask? What are common mistakes?
• How do the best sales reps then feed that back to customer success and product?

3.) The When and The Who:

• When should founders consider hiring their first sales hire?
• Should this hire be a sales leader or a sales rep? What are the nuances?
• What are the characteristics of the best first sales hires?
• What are the first sales hires really on the hook for?
• Why does Sam disagree with the word "playbook" and instead suggest "frameworks"?

4.) How To Hire The Best: The Process

• What are Sam's lessons on what it takes to hire the very best sales reps?
• What are the right questions to ask in the interview process?
• What tangible case studies or tests are done to measure quality?
• Who is brought into the hiring process and at what stage?

Des Traynor is a Co-founder and the Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, the modern customer communications platform that unifies every aspect of the customer journey. To date, Intercom has raised over $238M from some of the best including Index, ICONIQ, Kleiner, GV, and Bessemer. As for Des, before co-founding Intercom, he was a UX consultant, a university lecturer in computer science, and also a Ph.D. researcher. Des is also a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Algolia, Notion, Miro, and many more.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

1.) Origins of Intercom:

• How did Des make his way into the world of startups and come to co-found Intercom?
• When did they realize they really had something with Intercom and had to focus on it?
• What does Des know now that he wishes he had known at the start of Intercom?

2. Two of the Biggest Myths in Startups: Being First and Defensibility

• Why does Des believe that being the first does not matter? Why is it not an advantage?
• Why does Des believe that no company has defensibility on day 1? How does Des believe defensibility is built?
• What does Des mean when he says, when investing in companies he looks for a "long road to the starting line"?

3.) Product 101: A Masterclass on Product:

• How does Des answer the question of when to release a second product?
• How should the second product be resourced? MVP and lean or full budget and committed?
• What are the biggest mistakes people make when releasing a second product? What mistakes have Des and Intercom made when releasing new products?
• How does Des advise founders on when to stop working on a product? How do you know when it is not working?
• How does Des determine between a feature and a product both when building and when investing?

4.) Moving to Enterprise:

• What does Des believe are the three core things all companies need to scale into the enterprise effectively? Which should they do first? Which is most challenging?
• How does Des advise founders on when is the right time to move into the enterprise?
• How does the product need to change to meet enterprise needs and requirements?

5.) The Makings of Great Product Marketing:

• What does Des believe makes truly great product marketing? Who does it well today?
• How does your product marketing need to change as you scale from SMB to enterprise?
• If product marketing to both an end user and a separate buyer, which persona should one prioritise their messaging towards?
• How does Des advise founders on product marketing when they have a horizontal product with a very broad customer base?

6.) Angel Investing 101: From Stripe to Miro to Notion:

• Why does Des believe it is beneficial for operators to also be investing?
• What are the biggest lessons Des has learned from angel investing?
• How does Des approach both market sizing and outcome scenario planning today?
• How price sensitive is Des today? How has that changed over time?

Item's Mentioned in Today's Episode with Des Traynor:

Des' Favourite Book: How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen

Peter Singlehurst is the Head of Private Companies at Baillie Gifford. As of 31st March 2022, funds under Baillie Gifford's management and advice totaled £277bn. The firm is owned and run by 51 of its senior executives who operate as a partnership, a structure that has endured for over a century. As for Peter, he has been with Baillie Gifford since graduating from Durham University 12 years ago and has backed some astonishing breakouts such as Wise, Grammarly and Zymergen to name a few.

In Today's Episode with Peter Singlehurst We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Venture:

• How Peter landed his role with Baillie Gifford straight out of university?
• Why does Peter and Baillie Gifford prefer to hire young people without backgrounds or studies in finance? Why do they tend to be better investors?
• What does Peter believe are the basic building blocks that can be taught in investing? What cannot be taught and needs to be learned with experience and time?

2.) The Biggest Misnomers and Misalignments in Venture:

• Why does Peter believe the distinction between public vs private markets is BS?
• Why does Peter believe it is an advantage to invest at the same time in both public and private markets?
• Why does Peter think there is an inherent misalignment in venture between GPs and their LPs?

3.) Baillie Gifford: Constructing a Portfolio with £277BN:

• How does Baillie Gifford approach portfolio construction today?
• How many lines do they want to have in their portfolio? What is the right level of diversification?
• How does Peter think about sizing each position? How does Peter think about capital concentration across rounds vs first check being the largest?
• How does Peter approach outcome scenario planning? How does Peter think about downside protection and loss rates?

4.) Peter Singlehurst: The Investor:

• How has Peter's investing style changed over the last 10 years? What has gotten easier? What has gotten harder?
• What is Peter's biggest miss? How did it change his approach?
• What is Peter's biggest hit? What did he learn and take from this?
• How did the crossover funds change and impact the way that later stage venture was conducted?

Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode:

Peter's Fave Book: The Myth of Sisyphus

Peter's Most Recent Investment: Grammarly

Luc Levesque is currently the VP of Growth at Shopify and also advises companies like Twitter, Pinterest, and Quora. At the age of 21, Luc founded TravelPod, the world’s first travel blogging platform. 10 years later, TravelPod was acquired by Expedia, where Luc led the creation of two award-winning products: TripWow and the Traveler IQ Challenge. Luc then served as an executive at TripAdvisor, where he built and led the growth team which helped TripAdvisor become the world’s largest travel site. Luc was then recruited by Mark Zuckerberg to Facebook where he was an executive and led the creation of Messenger Kids.

In Today's Episode with Luc Levesque We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Growth:

• When did Luc realise the power of "growth" within every company?
• How did Luc subsequently make his way into the world of growth pose-selling his first company?
• What does Luc know now that he wishes he had known when he made the entry into growth?

2.) Growth and Viral Loops:

• How does Luc define "growth" today?
• How should leaders choose what is the right north star to focus on for their business?
• Should this north star change? If so, how often should the north star change?
• How does Luc define "viral loops"? What makes the best viral loops today?

3.) Growth: Building the Team:

• When is the right time for founders to start thinking about building a growth team?
• Should it be standalone or integrated into other functions in the company?
• Should the first growth hires be senior and tasked with hiring the team or junior and be more lean as a way to test growth as a new function?
• What are the signals Luc looks for when hiring for growth?
• What are the best questions that reveal the characteristics growth leaders need to have?

4.) Growth: The Action:

• What is a growth decision Luc made without data? How did it go?
• What are some growth tactics that have become stronger over time? What have died a death?
• How should leaders know when to kill a new project vs continue and keep testing?
• What are the biggest mistakes Luc sees founders make when building and scaling their growth team?

Matt Mullenweg is the Founder of Automattic, the force behind WordPress, Tumblr, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Longreads, Simplenote, Pocket Casts, and more. What started as a simple open-source blogging platform, Matt has turned into one of the most significant internet properties of our generation, now powering over 43% of sites on the internet. Alongside Automattic, Matt also invests through Audrey Capital and has backed the likes of Stripe, SpaceX, Gitlab, and Sendgrid to name a few.

In Today's Episode with Matt Mullenweg We Discuss:

1.) The Origins of WordPress:

• How did Matt start the for-profit, Automattic, as a 19-year-old, having been a lead developer for WordPress?
• What were the clearest signs to Matt in the early days that WordPress could change the world?
• What does Matt know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of WordPress?

2.) Matt Mullenweg: The Essence of Leadership:

• What does high performance mean to Matt? How has that changed over time?
• What does truly great listening mean to Matt as a leader today? Where do many get this wrong?
• How does Matt approach decision-making today? What are the two types of decisions?
• What are Matt's biggest insecurities in leadership today? How have they changed over time?

3.) Matt Mullenweg: The Person:

• Why does Matt have insecurities around his body? How do those insecurities manifest?
• What did Matt learn about himself in the pre-grieving process before his father's passing?
• How does Matt assess his own relationship to risk today?
• How does Matt think through his relationship to money today? Has it changed?

4.) WordPress: The Company:

• Why did Matt decide it was the right decision to buy Tumblr? Why did Matt make himself the CEO earlier this year?
• With many strong cashflow businesses within Automattic, how does Matt think through the balance between growth and profitability?
• Why does Automattic not have any emails within the company? How do 2,000 people communicate so effectively?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Matt's Favourite Book: Principles by Ray Dalio

Mike Chalfen is a solo GP with Chalfen Ventures and one of the most respected and successful early-stage investors in Europe over the last two decades. Among Mike's incredible portfolio includes the likes of King.com (makers of Candy Crush), Houzz, Tipalti, Snyk, and Tray.io, to name a few. Some incredible facts on Mike, he has a 15x career track record, he has a portfolio value of over $40BN+ and he joined the venture industry, the year of my birth!

In Today's Episode with Mike Chalfen You Will Learn:

1.) Entry Into Venture and The Broken Customer Experience of VC:

• How did Mike make his original entry into venture way back in 1996?
• What does Mike mean when he speaks of the difference between "managing your career vs the money you invest"?
• What does Mike believe are some of the greatest challenges of venture partnerships today?
• What does Mike believe that the customer experience in venture partnerships for founders is broken today?
• How did seeing the prior booms and busts impact Mike's investing mentality today?

3.) Portfolio Construction 101:

• How does Mike think about portfolio construction today?
• With 9-10 core positions, why does Mike disagree with the traditional notion of "diversification"?
• How does the decision-making framework for Mike change when considering new investments vs re-investments?
• Does Mike believe that pro-rata is a lazy notion? What does Mike need to see on the upside to re-invest?
• How does Mike feel about the importance of temporal diversification? Why did Mike increase the cadence of his investing in 2021? Does he regret the increased speed?

3.) The Market 101:

• How does Mike think about the importance of market sizing? If we always underestimate the size of our winners, is this market sizing exercise not destined for failure?
• Why does Mike believe so many over the last few years have poorly sized markets they invested in?
• How does Mike assess market timing risk? What market risk is he willing vs not willing to take?
• What have been some of Mike's biggest mistakes when analyzing markets in the past? How did it change his perspective?

4.) Boards 101:

• How would Mike describe his style of board membership today? How has it changed over time?
• Why does Mike believe that boards at seed are not valuable? When do they become valuable?
• What is the single biggest mistake Mike sees so many young board members make today? What is his biggest advice to young board members?
• How does Mike advise founders on preparing for boards? What does he want to see?
• What are the biggest mistakes founders make when conducting board meetings?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Mike Chalfen:

Mike's Favourite Books: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, Days Without End

Mike's Most Recent Investment: Opply

Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, master of product reviews, author, investor, and currently serves as Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud.

Tony Fadell, often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most game-changing products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest.

Lenny Rachitsky is one of the OGs of product, having spent over 7 years at Airbnb as a product lead he left to start his newsletter, find it here.

Kayvon Beykpour is one of the most prominent product leaders of the last decade. For the last 7 years, Kayvon has been at Twitter where he led all of the teams across Product, Engineering, Design, Research and Customer Service & Operations.

Aparna Chennapragada is Chief Product Officer @ Robinhood, the company revolutionising consumer finance with commission-free investing.

In Today's Episode Breaking Down Product Reviews We Discuss:

1.) What makes a truly great product review?

2.) What are the biggest mistakes that product leaders make when leading product reviews?

3.) Who should be invited to the product review? How does this change with scale? How does this change in a world of remote work and Zoom?

4.) Who should set the agenda for the product review?

5.) How can leaders assign accountability and ensure that the follow-ups from product reviews are executed on?

6.) How can leaders ensure that they do not dominate product reviews with the weight of their words? How can they give designers and devs the space to share their thoughts without being judged?

Daniel Yanisse is the co-founder and CEO of Checkr, a leading HR technology company, currently valued at $5 billion. During the journey, Daniel has raised over $679M for Checkr from some of the best including Accel, Bond, Coatue, GV, Elad Gil and IVP to name a few. Prior to Checkr, Daniel was a software engineer and helped develop prototypes of the Mars Rover for NASA. Daniel has been recognized in Forbes “30 Under 30” and recently Checkr was recognized by Forbes as one of America’s best start-up employers.

In Today’s Episode with Daniel Yanisse You Will Learn:

1.) The Origins of Checkr: The $5BN Company

• How did Daniel come to co-found Checkr? What was the a-ha moment?
• How did Daniel's experience with his prior company impact how he thought about building Checkr?
• What does Daniel know now that he wishes all first-time founders knew when they started?

2.) Hiring 101:

• What are the single biggest hiring mistakes Daniel made in the early days of Checkr?
• How does Daniel structure his interview process for new candidates today? How has it changed?
• How does Daniel test for ego and humility in the interview process?
• How does Daniel approach giving feedback today? How has it changed over time?
• What does Daniel believe is the right way to let someone go? How long does one give a team member who is not performing?

3.) Fundraising 101:

• How does Daniel advise founders going out to raise today in the challenging market conditions?
• What terms should founders optimize for? What terms should they not optimize for?
• What are the single biggest mistakes Daniel sees founders make when raising?
• What does Daniel wish he had done differently with Checkr's raises?
• What was the hardest raise for Checkr? Why was it so hard? What was the outcome?

4.) Going into Enterprise:

• Why does Daniel believe they went into enterprise too soon? What was the result of this?
• How does Daniel advise founders on when is the right time to go into enterprise?
• What changes in both your company and your product when moving to enterprise?

Items Mentioned in Today’s Episode with Daniel Yanisse:

Daniel’s Favourite Book: Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and Devops: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations

Bill Gurley is a General Partner @ Benchmark Capital, Bill, is widely recognized as one of the greats of our time having worked with the likes of GrubHub, NextDoor, Uber, OpenTable, Stitch Fix, and Zillow.

Doug Leone is the Global Managing Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s most renowned and successful venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Google, Airbnb, Whatsapp, Stripe, Zoom and many more.

Keith Rabois is a General Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the best performing funds of the last decade with a portfolio including Facebook, Airbnb, SpaceX, Stripe, Anduril, the list goes on. 

Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz founded Accel in 1983. Under their leadership, they have built Accel into one of the most prominent venture firms of the last 4 decades.

Michael Eisenberg is a Co-Founder and Equal Partner @ Aleph, with a portfolio including the likes of Lemonade, Melio and HoneyBook, they are one of the leading early-stage firms of the last decade.

Sonali De Rycker is a Partner @ Accel, one of the leading firms of the last 3 decades with a portfolio that includes the likes of UiPath, Miro, Spotify and many more incredible companies.

Fabrice Grinda is the Founding Partner @ FJ Labs, with over 700 investments, Fabrice has had over 250 exits and built a portfolio including Alibaba, Coupang, Airbnb, Instacart, Flexport, and many more.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How does the current environment compare to prior busts?

2.) How will the changing interest rates impact the startup funding climate moving forward?

3.) Why is the rate of inflation the only true metric which reveals the ultimate fate of the economy?

4.) What are the world's leading investors telling their founders?

5.) How are the best investors in the world thinking through reserves management?

Sonali De Rycker is a Partner @ Accel, one of the leading firms of the last 3 decades with a portfolio that includes the likes of UiPath, Miro, Spotify, and many more incredible companies. As for Sonali, Sonali led Accel’s investments in Avito (acquired by Naspers), Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), Primer, Monzo, Letgo (acquired by Naspers), Kry/Livi, Soldo, Hopin, and Sennder. Prior to Accel, Sonali was with Atlas Venture (now Accomplice). She also previously served on the board of Match.com (NASDAQ:MTCH).

In Today's Episode with Sonali De Rycker You Will Learn:

1.) From Small Town in India To Leading Venture Capitalist:

• How Sonali made her way from a small town in India to becoming one of the most prominent VCs of the last decade?
• What were some of Sonali's biggest lessons from seeing the booms and busts of 2000 and 2008? What climate does the crash today resemble more? Why so?
• How does Sonali advise younger investors who have not lived through a downturn? What should their investor psychology be right now?

2.) Firm Building: Accel:

• What are the most challenging and non-obvious elements of building a firm today?
• What have been some of the biggest mistakes Accel has made when adding to the team?
• What qualities do Sonali and Accel specifically look for when interviewing candidates to join the team? What specific questions tease out whether the candidate has these traits?
• What specific structures does Accel have in place to encourage the team to work together as one cohesive unit? How do they use bonuses as a team incentive?

3.) Sonali: The Investor:

• How has Sonali's investing style changed over the years? What moments caused these changes to happen?
• What are some of the biggest mistakes Sonali has made in her investing career? What did she learn from them?
• On the flip side, from winners such as Spotify and Supercell, what did Sonali learn from her biggest winners?
• Why does Sonali believe that market sizing and outcome scenario planning is useless and will lead you to make the wrong decision?

4.) Decision-Making and Risk:

• What does Sonali mean when she speaks of Type 1 and Type 2 decisions? How should one's decision-making process change according to which type of decision it is?
• What are the two biggest risks startups are facing today? Does Sonali believe that seed-stage companies will take money from crossover funds?
• What does Sonali do when she loses faith in the founder? How does she communicate that to them in the right way? What have been some of her biggest lessons here?
• What have been some of Sonali's biggest lessons when it comes to reserves management? How does Sonali determine when to double down vs reserve cash?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Sonali De Rycker:

Sonali's Favourite Book: A Fine Balance

Sonali's Most Recent Investment: BeReal

Henri Pierre-Jacques is Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. From a kitchen table with his Co-Founder, Jarrid, Henri has scaled Harlem in just a few years to their latest fund last year of $134M, well over-subscribed from their $100M target. Prior to Harlem, Henri was in Private Equity at ICV Partners, and before PE was an Investment Banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In Today's Episode with Henri Pierre-Jacques

1.) From Kitchen Table to $134M Fund:

• How did Henri make his way into venture having had the idea for Harlem at the kitchen table with his best friend?
• How did Henri use his angel investing strategically to position him to raise Fund I?
• How did Henri's mindset change when making the transition from angel to VC?

2.) The First Fundraise: Harlem I

• How long did it take to raise the first fund? How many meetings did they have?
• What were the most common reasons LPs said no for the first fund?
• What were their biggest lessons around what potential LPs did and did not like?
• How does Henri advise new managers when it comes to meeting new LPs?
• How does Henri use past deal memos to serve as discussion material with LPs?

3.) Building the Firm: The Strategy:

• What was the portfolio construction for the first fund?
• How does Henri separate the world of funds into 3 distinct groups?
• How did they approach reserves management with the first funds? What are some of Henri's biggest lessons when it comes to effective reserves management?
• How does Henri assess his own relationship to price and ownership? How does that change with fund size?
• What are some very important nuances that Henri does not believe many managers think about?

4.) It Is Time For Change:

• Specifically, what are Harlem street doing to ensure the next generation of investors is much more diverse? How do they leverage their intern program to achieve this?
• What would Henri like to see change in the world of LPs when it comes to allocating to more diverse managers?
• What legacy does Henri want to leave with Harlem? What will be a success for Henri?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Henri Pierre-Jacques:

Henri's Most Recent Investment: Mueshi

Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro, the leading visual collaboration platform that helps bring teams together and meaningfully improves the way people work. At Miro, I run the go-to-market team of 700+ people across 11 global offices. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment where he built and ran the global go-to-market team of 200+ people, expanded the product-market fit into the Enterprise and grew revenue 6x, leading to their acquisition by Twilio for $3.2Bn. Finally, before Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across numerous different functional areas.

In Today's Episode with Zhenya Loginov You Will Learn:

1.) Entry into Sales as an Outsider:

• How Zhenya made his way into sales as an outsider and came to be one of the most powerful revenue leaders today with Miro?
• What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways for Zhenya from his time at Segment and Dropbox? How did they impact his mindset today?
• Why did Dropbox not win the enterprise when they had the chance? What mistakes did they make?

2.) The Sales Playbook: What, Why and How:

• What does "the sales playbook mean to Zhenya?
• Does the founder need to be the one to create the sales playbook?
• What are the signs that the founders needs to bring in their first sales hire?
• Should this sales hire be a sales leader or more junior sales rep?
• Is is possible to run a PLG and enterprise sales motion at the same time in the early days of the company?
• What do many founders misunderstand when contemplating adopting an enterprise sales strategy?

3.) Hiring the Team:

• How does Zhenya structure the interview process for new sales hires?
• Zhenya spends 5 hours with each candidate, what does he look to get out of each meeting?
• How does Zhenya break down the criteria for what he wants to see? What are some examples of this?
• How does Zhenya test to determine if the candidate has these criteria? What questions does he find to be most revealing? Why does Zhenya find case studies to not be useful?
• How does Zhenya use interview panels to ensure he makes the right hiring decision? Who is on the panel? At what stage do they meet the candidate? How does Zhenya like to use the panel?

4.) Laying the Groundwork: The Onboarding Process:

• What is the right way to structure the onboarding process for all new sales hires?
• What are some early signs that a new sales hire is not working?
• What can sales leaders do to ensure new reps get "early wins" on the board?
• What can leadership do to ensure the sales team has good cross-functional communication across the org? What works? What does not work?
• What are some of the biggest challenges of running a remote sales team?

Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur and serves as the Chairman of VaynerX,  the CEO of VaynerMedia and the Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. Now Gary is a content machine and documents his life as a CEO daily through his social media channels which have more than 34 million followers and garnishes over 272 million monthly impressions/views across all platforms. He is also a five-time New York Times Best-Selling Author and is a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Snapchat, Coinbase and Uber. If this was not enough, Gary serves on the board of GymShark, MikMak, Bojangles Restaurants, and Pencils of Promise.

In Today’s Episode with Gary Vaynerchuk We Discuss:

1.) From Wine Library to One of The Great Angels in Tech:

• How did Gary make the transition from scaling the wine library to $60M in revenue to angel investing in Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr?
• To what extent does Gary think luck plays a role in one's success today?
• What are Gary's biggest lessons from having FB, Twitter and Tumblr as his first investments? How has his style of angel investing changed over time?

2.) Hard Lessons Learned and Insecurity:

• What is the most painful lesson Gary has learned that he is also pleased to have learned?
• How did Gary's relationship with his father impact how he engages with his children as a father today?
• What are Gary's biggest insecurities today? How does he try and combat them? What works?

3.) Money and Success:

• How does Gary evaluate his relationship with money today? How has it changed over time?
• Why does Gary believe that most people think too short-term? What can one do to inspire a more long-term mindset to building?
• Does Gary believe that everything has a price? What is the one thing for Gary that does not have a price?

4.) Resource and Time Allocation:

• How does Gary determine the projects to do vs not to do?
• How does Gary know when to quit a new project? How does Gary advise founders on when something is not working and knowing when to quit?
• What are some of the biggest mistakes Gary sees founders make when it comes to resource allocation in the early days?