For a long time, the main way to attract and keep talent in the tech industry (especially in the major tech hubs) boiled down to perks: free yoga, ping pong tables, full-service smoothie bars, happy hours — you name it. But maybe thanks to the increased presence and acceptance of…

Startups fail for a number of reasons. And some of the most common ones have nothing to do with the product itself. Many startup failures that I’ve seen have come down to one issue: the inability to settle creative disputes effectively. Of course, settling disputes effectively is really difficult. Dictating…

Do you remember all the dating sites before Tinder came along? Match.com, eHarmony, OkCupid — the list goes on. What did they all have in common? The worst onboarding experience imaginable. I remember it like yesterday, the hours 21-year-old me spent setting up my OkCupid profile. Searching for photos, cropping…

Aggression seems to be a bad word these days — and I’m not sure why. In tennis, when I was younger, I was always told to be more aggressive. In boxing, if you’re not aggressive at least some of the time — well, you get knocked out. On the sales…

So imagine this: You’ve been recruited by this company for months. You’ve been through their entire interview process, been wooed over dinner or drinks, and are super excited to join the team. It’s your first day. You get to their office and are shown to your desk. …

In the tech industry (and especially in the Bay Area), we glorify the technical founder — the founder with both the vision as well as the programming experience to create the product him or herself. But what about the founders who are just really good at sales? Shouldn’t founders be…

What do you think of as “essential” when building a new product? Well, you need a login system, CMS system, good user flows, and analytics hookups, among other things. But what about the more human aspects of the product? Those small touches and unanticipated experiences which actually make customers happy…

There’s a misconception in the Bay Area that if you’re starting a company, you need to raise outside capital to both operate and be considered legitimate. The process has been overly glamorized. …

In the early days of your startup, there may be no decision you make as a founder that will be more critical than your initial hires. I’m talking about your first client engineers, server engineers, product managers, salespeople, designers, etc. If you hire the right people for these roles, your…