In startups, speed is critical. Why? You’ll often hear that the drive for speed is to beat the competition. Although this is certainly true sometimes, I think that the consistent, foundational reason is closer to home: burn. When you’re running a venture-backed startup you’re burning cash, and the cost of anything is the time it takes. So, for example, if you’re testing a marketing tactic that...
I have founded a company called AboveBoard which launched today. This will come as a surprise to many who know me: I am supposed to be retired. I certainly didn’t expect to launch a brand new venture at this stage. So why this company, and why now? I am lucky to have had a great career as a serial entrepreneur that has taken me a long way from where I began: after starting out in tech as a...
At the end of each How I Built This podcast, the host Guy Raz asks his guests whether their success is based on hard work and skill or luck. I don’t understand how anyone can believe that their achievements were anything but primarily lucky. I have been overwhelmingly lucky: Born in the USA In the late 20th century White To an intact highly functional family Without any huge issues (addictions...
I think that people fail to think about compensation broadly enough. This tweet is typical: Important clarifying question to ask when a startup says they’re profitable- is the team being paid a market rate salary?— Bryce Roberts (@bryce) January 28, 2020 Compensation isn’t salary. It isn’t even salary + incentive comp + equity + benefits. Compensation is all of those things +...
One of the best things about startups is zero bureaucracy. That said, there are a few lightweight structures that add massive value when implemented early. At the top of that list are setting a company cadence–which I’ll write about in another post soon–and establishing compensation levels and bands. Banding is the practice of setting standard ranges for salaries, bonuses, and equity by...
The venture capital-backed startup world is a bubble. People outside of it think we’re risk lovers, which is reasonable since the our failure rate is so high. I think that the best entrepreneurs are risk managers.Most people are enveloped by the emotion of risk, and it freezes them. They think about how terrible it will be if they fail, how awful every conversation with be explaining what...
I spoke today at Philly’s best tech event, PSL’s Founder Factory, using these slides. They’re borderline misleading without the narrative, nonetheless…
My 17 year old daughter is a sophomore in college, studying computer science. She is one of <5% in the major who are women, and he loves the work but her male peers make her wildly uncomfortable. She shared an NPR story with me (go listen!) that got me thinking about my own start in the field. I graduated from high school in 1981. We had a computer area in the student lounge with a couple...
sometime around 2000 i gave up using capitals in most emails. lots of people mention it, and some people are annoyed by it. no one has ever asked me why i do it, which i find curious. regardless, i want to go on the record explaining myself. 1. it was really hard to write on early pdas (i used a series of treos.) dropping the capitalization made it a lot easier. it...
This is my favorite story about my mother. She is 84 and lives in NYC. Recently, she was running cross-town from her job (yes, she still works) to meet a friend for lunch (the woman has more friends than anyone I know). She is tall and thin and wears enormous sneakers, which hit a divot in the sidewalk, right near the curb and sent her flying into traffic on Madison Avenue where she landed, face...
