Author: Zvi
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How things get done
As a startup iterates itself past the short-term uncertainty – where there is no clarity about what you might even be working on that afternoon – systems need to come into place. These systems serve multiple purposes: Introduce medium/long term planning and goals Distribute work amongst a growing team Communicate and get everyone on the…
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Just have fun
If you’ve read more than a couple of my blog posts, you’ll find that I spend just as much time focusing on more touchy-feely subjects as I do on more tactical learnings. There’s a reason for that, as the psychological state of you and your team has a tremendous effect on your ability to execute,…
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You’re collecting data, but are you using your metrics?
From the school of interesting ways we’ve failed… There is a vast chasm separating the ability to collect metrics and use metrics. The lean startup canon pushes for being data driven, so you’ll find that every startup has a plethora of people using a plethora of tools to “be metrics driven.” Lots of data. A/B…
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Kick off, then f*** off – Servant Leadership in a startup
As our company grows from three guys on a door desk to something more substantial, we’ve invested a lot of time not just to running the company but about **how** we run the company. That is particularly relevant for the CEO role. In talking to many CEOs and a fair amount of research – it’s…
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The 12 tools I can’t live without
Beyond the commonplace tools (Google Spreadsheets, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Apps, etc) and the obvious (Contactually!) – I’ve listed out some tools that I use daily, if not multiple times daily, to assist me. Trello – We use Trello to organize anything we’re working on – from product feedback to ideas to my personal to-do list.…
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If I could go back in time, I’d kick my own ass
There’s a scene in How I Met Your Mother where Marshall imagines dropping in right at the point where his teenage self starts smoking, and slugs him. I’ve adopted a mentality that, if at any point I’m able to traverse time a year, even six months, back…. I’d kick my own ass. It has nothing…
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Celebrate the wins
The typical startup journey involves a lot of failure, which has luckily been embraced by the entrepreneurial community as a positive experience. Beyond the obvious aspect of innovating in a way that, statistically, won’t work, the act of barn-raising a new company is fraught with it’s own issues. The product has bugs. Support times are…
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We do.
Most people won’t. Which means those that do change everything. – Bryce Roberts I credit much of Contactually’s success not to having some secret sauce (at the outset), being right, hiring the smartest people in the room, or anything else that would qualify as a competitive advantage. That’s important for other reasons. We’re successful because…
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Thank You, LivingSocial
After a meteoric rise, LivingSocial has had a tough go recently. Between layoffs, lowered valuations, competitor out-maneuvering, and one of the longest downtimes I’ve ever seen in a consumer site, it’s pretty hard to imagine them fully recovering from this to the grandeur that they used to be. For better or for worse, online forums…