Weekly 🔥 16: Lessons From the Hypergrowth Playbook
ICYMI: We’re holding another community event on Oct 11!
- Meet the editors and top writers of Entrepreneur’s Handbook.
- Hear tips and stories about Medium.
- We will recognize top writers with four Writer Awards ($100 bonuses).
- And give away two courses worth a total of $400 to the most engaged attendees.
It will be casual, fun, interactive, and packed with tips and takeaways.
What you can learn from Hopin’s hypergrowth playbook
Our founder, Dave Schools, was Hopin’s first full-time team member. This week he celebrated his 3rd anniversary, and, as has become a tradition (see here and here), he reflected upon the year, Hopin’s hypergrowth strategy and more, dissecting the lessons and laying out takeaway after takeaway, including:
- You don’t need titles to drive — Confidence doesn’t come from carrying a title, it comes from knowing your impact.
- Overhiring is more painful than underhiring — it’s much less expensive to spin up and spin down a contractor than it is to hire and fire an employee.
- Stay collaborative, stay generalist — Many hands don’t make light work. Many hands complicate and slow down the work.
- Scrappy results over “strategic” non-results — Anybody can call a meeting, create an internal doc or deck, or define a process, but if it doesn’t make a material impact on customers, the business, or the market, it’s a non-result.
- Marketing and Product alignment is critical — Marketing is here to beat the drum of Product in your market. Everything Marketing does, should be to the benefit of, and in coordination with, Product.
👉 Learn more from the hypergrowth playbook here: What You Learn from Hypergrowth: 3 Years at Hopin
What you can learn from a seasoned venture capitalist
A lot of wrinkles and grey hairs ago, Ernst Rustenhoven joined Slingshot Ventures. Here, he reflects on 10 key lessons he’s learned during my years in VC, that will enlighten you as you progress through your own startup journey, including,
- Founders need to sell — Whether it’s selling your product or service to a prospective customer, selling your business to an investor or selling your company to a stellar candidate: a founder’s ability to sell is what makes the difference.
- Realism trumps chasing dreams — It’s good to dream big, but most dreams never make it into reality. Raising a solid round based on a realistic plan may prove to be the best decision during your company’s lifetime.
- Going faster isn’t always better — The best founding teams know when to consolidate and strengthen their new foundation before setting themselves up for the next phase of growth.
- The best people talk less and listen more — If you tell anything, time gets consumed by something you already know. If you ask a question and/or listen, there’s a chance you might learn something new.
👉 Read more reflections here: 5 Years in Venture Capital: 10 Key Lessons Learned
Don’t forget to join us at our community event.
