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How I Hire the Right Marketer at the Right Time: A Proven, High-Impact Startup Playbook
Read more: How I Hire the Right Marketer at the Right Time: A Proven, High-Impact Startup PlaybookHiring the right marketer at the right time is one of the highest-leverage decisions a startup can make. In this playbook, I break down the three pillars of marketing roles — product, brand, and growth — and the leading indicators for when to hire each. You’ll learn why the process starts with analyzing your sales…
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Product Lessons from KiwiCo: Scaling Physical Products, Toddler Feedback, and Manager Training
Read more: Product Lessons from KiwiCo: Scaling Physical Products, Toddler Feedback, and Manager TrainingI sat down with KiwiCo’s founder and CEO, Sandra Oh Lin, to unpack how a personal spark became 8 different lines of crates that are shipped out monthly. We discussed the realities of physical product development — from the first KiwiCo crate to spinning up a supply chain and shipping department. She shared how to…
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Build a Hybrid Go-To-Market Engine: Hard-Won Lessons from Confluent, Dropbox & Atlassian
Read more: Build a Hybrid Go-To-Market Engine: Hard-Won Lessons from Confluent, Dropbox & AtlassianI share how I build a hybrid go-to-market strategy that unites product-led growth with traditional sales for scalable, efficient results. Drawing on lessons tied to Confluent, Dropbox, and Atlassian, I break down multi-product motions, the right metrics, and a weekly operating cadence that aligns teams. I detail how I map the customer journey, focusing on…
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Cracking Executive Hiring: My Playbook from Robinhood COO Gretchen Howard on Interviews & Onboarding
Read more: Cracking Executive Hiring: My Playbook from Robinhood COO Gretchen Howard on Interviews & OnboardingExecutive hiring is hard to get right, especially in hypergrowth. In this first-person playbook inspired by insights from Gretchen Howard, COO of Robinhood, I share how to align your executive profile to business trajectory and balance domain expertise with a hands-on, innovative mindset. I walk through my executive interview process, including testing for a “knower”…
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From Founder to CEO: Executive Coach Alisa Cohn on Candid 360 Feedback and Growth
Read more: From Founder to CEO: Executive Coach Alisa Cohn on Candid 360 Feedback and GrowthFounders and startup leaders rarely get the candid, actionable feedback needed to scale themselves as fast as the company. I share takeaways from a conversation with executive coach Alisa Cohn on how to run effective 360 feedback, separate signal from noise, and turn insights into daily behavior change. We explore common growth gaps—communication, decision-making, and…
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Inside Instacart’s Culture Playbook: Max Mullen’s Tactics for Values that Drive Behavior
Read more: Inside Instacart’s Culture Playbook: Max Mullen’s Tactics for Values that Drive BehaviorI sat down with Instacart co-founder Max Mullen to get tactical about intentionally building company culture. We break down how to craft distinctive values like “Every minute counts,” and make them drive real behavior—not just posters. I share hiring techniques, interview rubrics, and rituals that operationalize values from day one. We also cover how to…
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From Good to Great: 3 Design Pillars, GTM Savvy, Hiring Loops, and Onboarding Rituals
Read more: From Good to Great: 3 Design Pillars, GTM Savvy, Hiring Loops, and Onboarding RitualsI share my biggest takeaways from a deep-dive with Hareem Mannan on what elevates a design org from good to great. I unpack three pillars—being a product quality ambassador, acting as the glue across product areas, and deeply understanding the go-to-market motion. I outline a practical hiring loop to assess these competencies and the common…
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Behind the Scenes of Canva’s Meteoric Rise: Zach Kitschke’s Battle-Tested Playbook
Read more: Behind the Scenes of Canva’s Meteoric Rise: Zach Kitschke’s Battle-Tested PlaybookI explore Canva’s meteoric rise through the lens of Zach Kitschke’s journey from early hire to CMO, highlighting the product decisions and leadership practices that made it work. You’ll learn how a clear ICP and relentless product discovery powered early momentum for social media managers and content creators. I unpack the rituals that scale culture…
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Inside Hubspot’s Build: Co-Founder Compatibility, IC Leadership, and Engineering Culture as Product
Read more: Inside Hubspot’s Build: Co-Founder Compatibility, IC Leadership, and Engineering Culture as ProductI distill actionable lessons from a conversation with Dharmesh Shah about building Hubspot over 15 years. You’ll learn how co-founder compatibility can be evaluated up front to increase the likelihood of success and smoother sailing. I highlight his use of “bug reports” to elicit feedback and his choice to remain an individual contributor as a…
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Scale Smarter: Buy vs Build, Core Focus vs Innovation—Hard-Won Insights with Zendesk’s CTO
Read more: Scale Smarter: Buy vs Build, Core Focus vs Innovation—Hard-Won Insights with Zendesk’s CTOI share takeaways from a conversation with Adrian McDermott, CTO of Zendesk, on scaling product and engineering teams with discipline. You’ll learn how to evaluate when to double down on what’s working versus when to change course—beyond the usual “what got you here won’t get you there.” We dig into balancing exploration with keeping the…
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6 Early Marketing Missteps I See Founders Make — And Simple Fixes to Prevent Painful Launches
Read more: 6 Early Marketing Missteps I See Founders Make — And Simple Fixes to Prevent Painful LaunchesAfter helping hundreds of startups craft positioning and brand strategy, I’ve seen six early marketing missteps that consistently slow traction. In this piece, I share practical fixes for premature category creation, vague purpose statements, and messaging that over-indexes on emotion at the expense of functional proof. I also cover how to align brand personality with…
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My Proven Product Strategy Playbook: From Mission to NCTs That Align Teams and Drive Growth
Read more: My Proven Product Strategy Playbook: From Mission to NCTs That Align Teams and Drive GrowthI share a practical product strategy playbook I use to close the gap between strategy and day-to-day execution. It centers on the product strategy stack—company mission, company strategy, product strategy, product roadmap, and product goals—and turns alignment into action. I also outline why I prefer NCTs over OKRs, using narratives, commitments, and tasks to reduce…
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