Following the data This week, we're taking another look at the 180 startups I met in the first half of 2024 to see how they're performing today, 6-12 months later. So far, we've seen that: Most startups hire their VP of Sales too early, and their VP of People too late Team sizes around 5 are ideal for company performance When you're >$5M ARR, it helps to hire an outside COO, but if you're only at $1M, it hurts more than it helps This week I took a look at founder demographics to figure out...
13 days ago • 4 min read
Flatter, deeper, faster, stronger Last week, we looked at the 180 startups I met in the first half of 2024 to see whether it helps or hurts your growth to hire a VP of Sales and a VP of People by the time you have $1M in annual revenue. This week, we're going to look at the same companies to figure out how many managers a startup needs if it wants to grow. How big should teams be? Do flatter structures perform better? When should you hire an outside COO? This is Part 2 in a 4-part series. You...
20 days ago • 3 min read
All those founders, and where are they now? From December 2023 through June 2024, I had meaningful conversations with 180 different startup founders. That's a lot! In some cases, we spent an hour or two together. In other cases, they became coaching clients and I talk with them often. Their companies range from pre-revenue to making tens of millions of dollars annually. Over the next four weeks, I'm looking at where these companies are today, 6-12 months after our initial meeting. Is there a...
27 days ago • 4 min read
Small talk looms large Do you like cocktail parties? I hate them. Especially for mostly-introverts like me, the networking mixer is the worst part of every conference. I've learned to fake it, but tbh I'd rather hide in my hotel room with room service. I feel the same way about unstructured small talk at the start of team meetings. The more time I have to spend hearing about Bob's nephew's football game, the less engaged I become. But give me strong meeting facilitation with a purpose, and I...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Your AI head shot is waiting The other day, I got a note from Jessica Jobes, a multi-time founder who is currently the CEO of digital marketing firm Vital Velociti. I'm always excited to hear from Jessica, but in this case, I was extra-enthused: Jessica recently completed Viral Data Stories 101, and she was writing to show me her first data story. And oh, is it a good one. Jessica's story compares the clickthrough rates of AI-generated photos and real photos taken by a professional...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
We don't talk about politics, Bruno The other day I saw a post from someone on my feed complaining about all the political posts on LinkedIn in the run-up to tomorrow's election. The poster shared that they were dropping all connections who made explicitly political posts, since "work is not a place to talk politics." Her post received oodles of likes and more than 150 comments, ranging from "Right on!" to "Not if I drop you first, sister!" To state the obvious, her post was itself political....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Help wanted Over the last six weeks, I've done job reference calls for eight different people. This is a huge uptick compared to what I've done the rest of this year. Has something changed recently in the job market? To find out, I asked job seekers on LinkedIn to share their current experience. 288 people responded and here we are. I surveyed respondents about how many jobs they've applied for, how long they've been looking, and how many replies they've gotten. I also asked about their...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
PSA: Viral Data Stories 101 discount this week, only for nerd processor subscribers 📈 🎉 🙀 Subscribe and learn to tell your own data stories. Now read on for your regularly scheduled weekly nerd processor 🤓 💻 💡 I ❤️ sales! I have both sold software and had software sold to me. Nothing, and I mean nothing, annoys me more than showing up to a call to try to buy software and having the salesperson grill me for 30 minutes without ever showing me the product. I led sales at Textio off and on for...
2 months ago • 3 min read
More than 200 founders later In 2024, I've spent time with more than 200 different startup founders. I've worked deeply with several as coaching clients or helped them tell data stories to accelerate their businesses. I've gotten to know many more in introductory conversations, at events, and in their search for customers and investors. These conversations have informed a lot of the writing I've done about startups this year, especially in AI (where it is hard to build effectively, hard to...
2 months ago • 3 min read