The Best of First Round

Anna Binder joined Asana back in 2016 as its first HR executive. She shares her advice from helping weave the cultural fabric, from getting comfortable with feedback to maintaining a healthy exec…

In the latest post for our new series, "Paths to Product-Market Fit," Retool founder and CEO David Hsu sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share how the internal tools company…

David Nunez, an early hire at Stripe and Uber, shares his step-by-step playbook for establishing good internal documentation habits at your startup. He unpacks his tested tactics for creating a…

10 tactical tips and guiding principles for a new Chief of Staff to lean on as they scale their impact at a startup — from building better systems, not just booking more meetings and finding an…

Considering moving from BigCo to startup? We crowdsourced a tactical guide for first-time startup job-seekers on how to evaluate career opportunities at early-stage companies.

In the first post for our new series, "Paths to Product-Market Fit," Airtable co-founder Andrew Ofstad sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share the inside story of the no-code…

The best company-building advice is timeless, with a focus on the fundamentals. We rounded up 30 essential insights for startups to lean on in the coming year, no matter the climate.

Two years ago, Product Hunt didn't exist. Now it's the toast of the town. In this exclusive article, Found Ryan Hoover tracks its ascent.

Our second annual CTO Unconference brought together 160+ of the sharpest technical leaders we know. Here's a rundown of some of the best tactics we heard them share.

At Twitter and Slack, Paul Rosania built interfaces that millions use each day. Here, he dissects how he eliminated doubt from four high-stakes product decisions.

As CTO of Flatiron Health, Gil Shklarski has had to keep a rapidly-growing technical team aligned through many tough decisions. This is the framework that works every time.

It’s time to raise the bar for diversity & inclusion — and Aubrey Blanche has the playbook that can help startups couple caring deeply with acting quickly. Here, she shares eight strategies that have made a difference at Atlassian.

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, D&I leader Ciara Trinidad lets the data speak. When she left her last startup, the 125-person company was 59% women, its sales team had gender parity, and underrepresented minorities constituted the majority of its product team. Here she shares why a culture of data underpins a culture of inclusion — and how to do it.

Pricing pro Dee Sahni shares a highly customizable framework for tweaking your monetization and pricing model so that it scales with you, not against you as the company grows. She then applies the 4…

Claire Butler, Figma’s first business hire, walks us through the different phases of the company’s community-led growth model — from planting the seeds with power users in stealth mode all the way to…

Kim Scott cut her teeth as a manager at Apple and Google, and now helps create great leaders as an author and coach for companies like Twitter. Here's the secret that's made all the difference for her.

Uncertainty, burnout and perfectionism are holding teams back — Liz Fosslien is here to share tactical advice (and her signature witty illustrations) on how managers can help.

«How does your workload feel right now?  Is there anything I can take off your plate, help you delegate, or help you deprioritize?»

Chris Fralic is a world-class super-connector. Here's how the long-time First Round Partner has methodically built bonds spanning years and careers.

Anita Hossain Choudhry (The Grand, First Round) and Mindy Zhang (Dropbox, Oscar Health) draw on their experiences as executive coaches to unpack why managers fall into the “fixing” trap and make the…

«Empathetic listening means shifting from "What does this mean for me?" to "What's going on for this person?"»

Repeat PM turned first-time founder Ryan Glasgow addresses the tough product questions every founder faces, from segmenting the market and iterating on early MVPs, to finding product/market fit and…

«You can't rely on your customers to figure out what to build. They can really only tell you what outcomes they're looking to achieve»

There are three ways to dominate a market: product leadership, cost leadership or customer intimacy leadership. Here's how to achieve it.

At the heart of the Lean Startup movement, the Business Model Canvas can help early stage startups carve out a successful model.

Sam Corcos, co-founder & CEO of Levels, tracked exactly how he spent the two years since founding the company for a rare inside look at being a startup leader.

«This article isn’t an optimistic or sanitized take on how I’d like to spend my time; it’s an unvarnished look at how I actually spent my time over the last two years.»

After tackling startup challenges from Stripe Press to Figma Education, Brie Wolfson shares her personal collection of templates — the docs that she's used to stay focused on the work that matters and…

Russ Laraway wades through all of the competing opinions, complex frameworks and advice out there on how to be a better manager, creating a simple, data-backed leadership toolkit.

«The activities that make you successful as a manager look nothing like the activities that make you successful as an individual contributor.»

Why does strategy tend to stall when the rubber hits the road? Nate Stewart, Chief Product Officer of Cockroach Labs, shares an essential guide for creating a resilient strategy that’s still standing…

The First Round team has been lucky to work with retired poker player and decision-making expert Annie Duke in a special capacity these past few years. Here, we open-source some of the advice she…

«Here’s the problem with relying on your gut: That's where all of that bias lives. It’s not your best decision-making tool.»

We’ve combed the extensive Review archives for tactical guidance from some of the sharpest folks we know on how to get better at specific startup skills you’re probably discounting. Leaders like Annie…