Before & After: Life at a Booming Startup
Unsolicited learnings from my time at Product Hunt
I spent almost a year and a half working for one of my favorite startups, but I was totally unprepared.
I was lucky enough to be a part of some amazing things at Product Hunt, met truly incredible people, grew up personally and professionally, and learned more than any other 16 month stretch in my life.
It’s the learnings that I feel most compelled to share. Some things that may be specific to me, but hopefully something that can be helpful to you.
Totally Unprepared
I’ve always heard internet wizards say that joining an early-stage startup is the greatest learning experience anyone can get (behind failing, which is held in higher regard than the Rhodes Scholarship).
But how do you prepare for such an incredible learning experience? You don’t and I think that’s the point.
What I Thought
before I joined an early-stage startup
I worked hard ❌
I’ve always been ambitious and had a solid work ethic, but I didn’t really know what “hard work” was until I was working for something more than personal gain. Sure, it’s a lot of hours, but everyone just seemed to work harder, more focused hours than I was used to. Some people (Ryan) even compete with robot-level output.
If I had a good idea, I could run with it ❌
I’ve since realized that I could’ve been sitting on Facebook in 2004, Snapchat in 2011, or fire 400,000 years ago, and I probably would’ve driven each one into the ground.
There are millions of good ideas, but very few good companies. I’d argue that a good idea is no more than 20% of the recipe for a good company. And a significant chunk of the remaining 80% can probably be taught (but I damn sure had never learned it).
I knew how to prioritize ❌
In this fast-paced environment, what you want to focus on and what you should focus on are two entirely different things. A guaranteed way to fail-faster is to just wing it, which was often my go-to strategy in a pinch.
When doing the job of ten with no real playbook and limitless options, decision-making needs to be methodical, but not overly-analytical. Time is your most valuable resource and to not take a little bit of it to prioritize for highest ROI would be to your detriment.
I had good communication skills ❌
Communication in a mostly-remote team spread across 10+ timezones is not the same as your typical forms of communication. Not to mention, the implicit cultural and linguistic barriers that comes with being dispersed/remote. Slack has no sarcasm font, file names provide minimal context, and smiling on mute throughout an entire team video call gets a little weird.
Efficient communication is an exponential time saver. Taking a minute to add additional information and context wherever possible will often save a handful of people a lot of time. And, again, time is money.
What I Think
after spending time at an early-stage startup
This sh*t is hard (and fun) 💪
Practice makes perfect, but unfortunately for you, there’s no time to practice. Every day, a new challenge that neither you nor anyone you work with have likely ever faced. All you have is your gut and a little logic. It really is hard and it never gets easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. In fact, quite the opposite…it’s so fun.
Culture is 🔑
Evident from the recent news around a certain company, culture scales — both good and bad. Despite natural changes over time, culture is not something that should be addressed later.
I was fortunate to be a part of what some may consider a cultural anomaly — a place on the internet where people were nice and supportive! But that doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a product of the people who built and ran Product Hunt, people who are genuinely nice and supportive.
Don’t be shy 👩💻
Speak up if you disagree with a decision or plan, but do it with respect and reason. The Product Hunt team is incredibly close. In some cases, we were hesitant to offend each other. Though ultimately, our best work came when we were challenged and open-minded. To be anything but authentic, to hold back, is a disservice to all involved.
Be Transparent-ish 🙋
Trade secrets are trade secrets, but the more you can share, without giving away competitive advantage, the better. Sharing openly leads to better feedback internally and externally (see: Brian Chesky on Twitter). An extreme version of transparency that I admire is Joel Gascoigne and Buffer, but that is obviously atypical.
The “ish” also relates to internal, top-down communication. I believe that all metrics and KPIs should be totally accessible and regularly checked by the team. Core metrics should be discussed regularly (for us: weekly all-hands).
But not everything needs to be shared. Anything that can be potentially distracting (soft updates on fundraising, for example), need not be shared with people who have no control. Startups are already an emotional roller-coaster, so it’s important that the team only focus on things they can control.
Have a plan and be accountable 📝
I’ve seen no better system than OKRs, which were brought to the PH team via AngelList. No matter the size of your company, OKRs seem to be the best way to set goals and measure your performance against those goals.
Read/Listen 📖 🎧
Maybe no one has done exactly what you’re doing, but many people have felt what you’re feeling and faced fairly similar challenges — there’s a lot you can learn from them. I’ve become a podcast junkie (RIP Podcat), but am finding equally great value in non-tech specific books. Some great collections of books here 📚.
There’s a time for games (find it) 🍻
No matter how conscious of an effort you make to balance work and life, if you’re passionate about what you’re building, work and life become one. If you’re not passionate, get out now, it’ll never work.
It’s important to find a little escape for yourself and the team. Being a remote team, when we got together in SF, we worked as usual, but supplemented with fun things that brought us closer as a team. On an individual level, going to the gym or having a hobby completely unrelated to work is super healthy and should probably be mandatory. Maybe try meditating…some really impressive people swear by it. Also, get some sleep, you could use it.
Don’t forget why you started ✌️
Every small win will feel better than the last. Contrarily, every small loss will hurt more than the last. It’s important not to let those little wins nor losses affect you too much — you didn’t join an early-stage company for small wins.
Extra special thank you 🙌
The people you work for will likely have a far greater impact than you’d think — at least this was true for me. I can’t say enough good things about Ryan and Corley as both managers and mentors. Everyone should be so lucky to have bosses that genuinely care as much as Ryan and Corley do.
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Read next: how I got here👇
