How You Run Your Startup Will (And Should) Change
Skillshare CEO Matt Cooper likens his company’s operating model to their product. It’s constantly improving.
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Founding a tech startup is sexy. Running one, often, is not. That’s why tested and trusted tactical advice is gold. At the 2019 Spero Ventures Founder Summit, Skillshare CEO Matt Cooper shared the routine processes he and his team have built to manage and grow their business over the past three years. If it sounds routine, it is. But Cooper swears that good process promotes great work.
To build it, you have to start somewhere.
Keep in mind, every startup’s process will evolve over time. “What works today won’t work in a year and wouldn’t have worked a year ago,” Cooper explains. Take the time to step back and ask, ‘What’s working and what’s not?’ Then give new changes time to take root, so they can help you grow.
Skillshare is a global learning community for creative and curious people, offering online classes in illustration, photography, design, technology and other disciplines. The company’s 90-some team members work in New York, Colombia, and sites throughout the Midwest, Canada, the UK, Romania, and Costa Rica. Cooper recently oversaw Skillshare’s $28M Series C raise and scaled the e-learning platform to upwards of 5 million users.
But this isn’t his first rodeo. It’s his fourth startup. Experience has taught him that consistent operations, solid performance reviews, and quarterly, monthly and weekly strategies, help Skillshare achieve its annual goals. That known rhythm also supports meaningful engagement for every member of a growing team. Structure breeds creativity.
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“Put some space between your big, strategic decisions. Then give them time to play out.”
Develop an operational cadence
Consistency of operations allows your team to relax enough so that they can generate their best work. “Your job as the manager is not to row. It’s to keep the boat steady and let everybody else pull,” Cooper explains. “If the boat’s rocking back and forth, you’re not…
