Founders tips - Issue #88

I’ve asked this question to a lot of startup founders, and most of them think the answer is obvious. The trouble is, their answers disagree. Some say it’s obvious that honesty is the best policy…

This week’s essay is on how to be an effective executive. This is inspired by a talk Keith gives to some of our portfolio companies’ executives.

Earlier this week I was talking to a successful software rep about what it was like selling the three different products he’s represented in his career. When discussing his current role, he said something that stuck with me: now, I don’t have to make the double sale. So, what’s the double sale? The double sale…

When it comes to articles about Product Process, I’m often very skeptical about the content: many of them are designed to attract readers with very seducing titles, setting very high expectations…

It made me think how often over the last few years I’ve seen post after angry post about how terrible MongoDB is and how no one should ever use. However, in all this time, MongoDB has become a much more mature product. So what happened?

At YC, we get lots of updates from our alums. There seems to be a correlation between quality and frequency of updates and the goodness of the company and founders.”