The Best of First Round

We asked top hiring managers and startup leaders to share their favorite questions for interviewing management candidates.

Startup marketing experts Sarah Emmott and Holly Chen share a multi-step process for how to craft a brand and performance marketing strategy, including how to set goals, allocate the right budget, and…

We combed The Review archives for a special compilation of the 100 very best advice published on our digital pages over the last 10 years from folks like Stewart Butterfield, Claire Hughes Johnson and…

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.

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?»

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.

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.

At Guru, customer success is at the center of every aspect of company-building, from product design to sales strategy. Co-founder and CEO Rick Nucci shows how a relentless dedication to outcomes gives…

Marketing expert Jonah Berger has spent years probing into the science behind changing people’s minds, and why becoming an effective change agent is about lowering barriers, not pushing harder. He…

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»

In this post in our “Paths to Product-Market Fit” series, Webflow’s Bryant Chou sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to tell the story of how he and his co-founders leaned into the power of…

In this post in our “Paths to Product-Market Fit” series, Binti’s co-founder and CEO Felicia Curcuru sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to tell the story of how her time spent shadowing…

After two decades of comms experience with companies like Eventbrite, Yahoo, Mattel and Nike, Terra Carmichael shares four common PR mistakes and her techniques for sidestepping them.

Caryn Marooney, Head of Technology Communications for Facebook, shares the PR secrets that help companies get great press.

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

«Use Post-Its on the Canvas to sketch out your basic business model using your best guesses — your best hypothesis of what will work, Osterwalder says.»

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.»

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.»

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…

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…

From the high-level perspective of what makes for a great design leader, to the tactical suggestions around the slide that needs to be in your portfolio presentation, Twilio & Segment's Hareem Mannan…

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…