Every growing startup is surrounded by fires — whether issues of product, market, competition, or operational scalability. Smart entrepreneurs don’t try to fight every fire. Instead, they figure out which fires they can let burn — so they can focus on the ones they absolutely have to fight. It’s a delicate balance, because if you…
Silicon Valley has a remarkable track record of producing valuable technology companies. Of the 13 high-tech companies in the world that are worth over $100 billion, six of them hail from Silicon Valley. All of their headquarters sit in a 50-mile stretch from San Francisco to San Jose. Not bad for a region that accounts…
Nearly every successful technology company has a strong culture—a true articulation of how employees work together. It’s almost impossible to succeed without one. But that doesn’t mean that they have a good culture. Just ask Reed Hastings. Before he led Netflix to global dominance, he co-founded a software company that grew from garage to IPO, but ultimately…
Even with access to capital, resources, and talent, it’s incredibly hard to scale a technology startup. Just imagine trying to scale up a non-profit organization without the advantages of the for-profit world. Like the famous comparison of Ginger Rogers to her dance partner Fred Astaire, non-profit entrepreneurs have to do everything that their for-profit siblings do, but…
Many companies loudly proclaim their desire to innovate, but how many know what it actually takes? The most innovative companies don’t tell their employees how to innovate. They suppress traditional management and instead manage the chaos, trusting it will lead to creative breakthroughs. This approach is epitomized by former Google CEO and Alphabet Chair Eric…
It isn’t easy leading an organization that’s doubling or tripling in size every year. To lead a blitzscaling organization, you need to be as skilled at breaking plans as you are at making them. And few people do this as well as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who has been instrumental in building two of the…
When it comes to launching your product, imperfect is perfect. Sometimes, the most important question you can ask isn’t, “Is this good enough?” Rather, you can emulate Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and ask, “Is this going to destroy the company? If not, then let them test it!” That’s just one of the many counter-intuitive, genius-level…
The best business ideas often appear laughable at first glance. Google, Facebook, Airbnb—they all sounded crazy, before they blitzscaled into spectacular successes! In the latest episode of the Masters of Scale podcast, “The Beauty of a Bad Idea,” we explore why getting laughed out of the room by potential investors might actually be a good sign for your…
Tim O’Reilly wrote a great response to the most recent episode of Masters of Scale, “The Money Episode”. Tim’s LinkedIn Influencer post, “Some Businesses Bleed Black”, adds nuance and complexity to the philosophy that startups should raise more money than they think they need. As Tim points out, there is definitely a continuum between the all-out…
Entrepreneurs should always raise more money than they need, so they can plan for the unforeseeable. That includes anything from a stock market crash or outlandish expenses to an opportunity you couldn’t predict in a market that didn’t exist when you started out. This week’s episode of Masters of Scale — the new audio series I host…
Lessons from the “Masters of Scale” Podcast The first episode of the “Masters of Scale” podcast — “Hand Crafted” featuring Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky — launches today, and the remaining episodes will be released weekly. I’m proud of this podcast; I think you’ll find that it doesn’t sound like any business podcast you’ve…