article thumbnail

How to Manage a Board

Y Combinator

One of the most common questions we hear from founders is “How do I manage my board?” It’s something that provokes anxiety, because this is the first time the founder/CEO is subject to external supervision, and the board has powers that include the firing of the CEO and the senior management. But first, what’s the purpose of a board?

board 96
article thumbnail

How to Think of R&D Spend

Andreessen Horowitz

In board meetings, we scrutinize the efficiency of sales and marketing (S&M) spend, costs of goods sold (COGS), and general and administrative costs (G&A). The mix of short- and long-term, offensive and defensive bets depends on your product and business priorities.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Payments company Paystone raises $23.8M to help service-based businesses engage with customers

TechCrunch

Refer a friend, get a reward. million in a mix of debt and equity. Though he wasn’t actively seeking new funds, Al-Ansari had been speaking with Crédit Mutuel Equity, which used to be CIC Capital Canada, prior to the pandemic, and their deal was put on hold. Write a review, get a reward. It raised $54.9

article thumbnail

Turkey’s Spyke raises $55M in a seed round to bring a social twist to casual mobile games

TechCrunch

Spyke Games , which hopes to bring a new dimension to casual games by using multiplayer functionality and other social elements, has raised $55 million in a seed round of funding. As a point of reference, when Peak was acquired for $1.8 He has joined Spyke’s board of directors with this round.

article thumbnail

Plume raises $300M as it passes 1.2B devices in 35M homes using its smart Wi-Fi service

TechCrunch

Plume’s CEO and founder Fahri Diner said the startup will be using the money to continue building out its software platform, inking and servicing more deals with carriers and generally expanding its horizons. Now it has closed a huge funding round to ride the wave.

mix-use 98
article thumbnail

7 strategies for learning new skills

The Zapier Blog

If you've been wanting to learn a new skill or even strengthen existing ones, here are the seven tried-and-trued strategies I used to boost my expertise—and how you can, too. Now that we're on the same page, let's dive into the seven strategies you can use to learn a new skill or enhance the ones you already have.

strategy 105
article thumbnail

Recruiting and Retaining the Right Executive Talent

Andreessen Horowitz

Who are the best search partners to use, and let then letting you and that search firm run with the execution. Can you just describe the MOC to our audience, what it is, and why you guys are so passionate about using it? And then I also think with references, founders are typically showing up with their 5 to 7 reference questions.

energy 88