- "The best ones [deals] come through your network. The big advantage in Silicon Valley is access."
- More investors driven to private deals because government bonds, equity, and hedge assets (art, wine, gold, etc) are not performing well anymore
- "Behind most great tech companies there’s a great angel: This is the insight that led Paul Graham to start Y Combinator."
- Mindset during check ups: improve OKRs, not putting out fires or providing excuses
- During check in:
- Progress update: what has changed?
- Confidence: are we feeling good about achieving it?
- Impediments: what's slowing us down? What's not working?
- Initiatives: what are we going to do to get there?
- 1:1 feedback cycle and radical candor
- Create a safe space for critical feedback and enforcing feedback cycles
- Collectively agree on commitments and direction; make the commitments accountable
- Conscious leadership?
- Lead from vulnerability
- Trust your team and share your deepest fears; they'll handle the truth and can respect it
- Conflict resolution
- Make sure both sides have been heard and understood; have their interests at heart
- Weekly OKRs tracking with traffic lights
- "You are not objective enough about yourself to grow effectively without external feedback"
- Effective criticism
- Given in private
- Given when the receiver expects it
- Comes from a genuine place
- Is specific and avoids sweeping statements
- Is in a nonviolet communication format
- Feedback triggers anger and fear; the art is to avoid provoking these emotions
- Phrasing: “When you do specific action, I feel emotion because the story in my head is your fear”
- Specific action should be observable and recordable
- Emotion is a core emotion, like anger, sadness, disappointment, fear
- Example: " When you didn’t write any tests for that pull-request you submitted last week, I feel fear because the story in my head is that you don’t place enough value on testing, and that without tests we will introduce bugs that will upset customers, affect revenue, and ultimately destroy our chances of creating a successful company."
- Receiving feedback
- Avoid fight-or-flight responses; your ego is not being destroyed!
- View feedback as a gift
- Repeat given feedback to make sure you've gotten it right, and that the other person knows you've heard them
- Make sure to track feedback and commit to improving it!
- Be vulnerable; if you can, make the feedback public
- You are "in the flow" (zone of genius) if you're working in your
- Strengths (gives you energy)
- Talents (something you inexplicably love or are good at)
- Skills (something you were trained in)
- Some people may fall in the "zone of excellence" if they're working with talents and skills, but not in a strength. Identify these people before they burn out!