Resources

Leadership

For founders building the future, not just products.

Purpose

Founders build organizations, not just products.
Effective leadership helps you keep great talent. People don’t quit jobs; they quit managers.
Most startups are a mess. If you can lead with clarity and vision, you’ll be able to attract and retain the best talent to accelerate your growth.

Method

Build a leadership philosophy
Build a leadership philosophy for yourself – an intentional approach to how you guide, inspire, and manage your organization.
Use it
Lean on this philosophy when you’re navigating technical complexity, ethical considerations, and rapid change simultaneously,
Interrogate it
Answer these questions for yourself:
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- How do I make decisions when face with uncertainty?
- How transparent will I be with my team about challenges and setbacks?
- How will I balance technical excellence with business needs? Will one always win over the other?
- How will I approach ethical questions about our technology? Ignore, engage, deflect? What if they are from internal vs external stakeholders?
- How hands-on or hands-off will I be with technical decisions?
- How do I want employees to describe what it's like to work here?
‍Flex it
Be explicit and consistent in communicating, and try to be measurable about the philosophy so your team (and you) can see when you’re holding true and when you may be deviating.‍
Embed it
Use your leadership philosophy to reduce context-switching costs in complex work, create psychological safety for innovation, build resilience for the inevitable technical and market challenges, and to ensure different voices are valued in product development.

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Trap Doors

Pattern recognition for potential pitfalls.

Don’t make everything…
Don’t make everything aspirational. Have some public and measurable outcomes, whether about hiring or promotions or employee satisfaction.
People have strong feelings about…
People have strong feelings about radical transparency. Don’t use someone else’s principles; develop your own. Know that complete transparency can be distracting for some teams. Know what yours needs.
Don’t hide from…
Don’t hide from bad news when the runway is short or PMF is an illusion. If you’ve hired well, your team members will be the ones to help you dig out of the hole.

Founders + Operators

Participate in workshops and learning experiences that help you survive and grow. Connect with values-aligned peers. Shape how startups impact society.

Founders + Operators

Participate in workshops and learning experiences that help you survive and grow. Connect with values-aligned peers. Shape how startups impact society.

Don't overthink and don't overproduce process.

Your leadership principles should fit on sticky notes.

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Cases

Brian Chesky said he fostered a culture of transparency at Airbnb, believing that openness not only cultivates trust but also guarantees employees remain in sync with the company's objectives, especially during challenging times. Read his layoff letter to employees in 2020 to see those principles in practice.

Patrick Collison's leadership philosophy at Stripe underscores the significance of radical transparency and constructive feedback, and he claimed that openness fosters trust and drives better decision-making processes within the organization. Read more about his leadership principles in this interview.

Tools

Name

Description

Coming Soon!

Who to Enlist

Use advisors, coaches or board members to help you refine your leadership philosophy.

Work with co-founders to articulate a talent philosophy.

Ask early team members to weigh in on what attracted them to the position and what makes them stay.