Brett Berson @brettberson Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

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@THE0ISMS

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@CallHimGoat

@lavozdmisiones

Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

I just learned from a former longtime Amazon employee, the idea for Prime came from an IC engineer. He wrote up a 6 page memo. He was inspired by the Costco membership model. It was built as a test. It's now the key pillar of Amazon. The best ideas can come from anywhere.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

Adobe's pivot to SaaS is one of the most impressive tech stories that I haven't heard many talk about. Now a 110+ billion dollar company ($20b more than Salesforce for context).

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

From the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting - top 20 companies in the world today vs. 30 years ago. Amazing what can happen in just 30 years.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

It’s funny, it seems for most people, earlier in their career they want to manage the most people possible and later in their career, they want to manage as few as possible.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

I'm thinking of putting together an S-1 reading club and having a few experienced public market analysts help facilitate the conversation. If you're interested in joining, let me know by filling this out:

S-1 Reading Club

Turn data collection into an experience with Typeform. Create beautiful online forms, surveys, quizzes, and so much more. Try it for FREE.

firstround.typeform.com

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

I'm continually surprised that doing what you say you're going to do is a massive differentiator.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 months

This little story from Sam Harris is one I'm constantly coming back to.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Contrarian take: SF is great.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

I was reminded of the remarkable email Andrew Mason sent to his entire company when he was fired from @Groupon “After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding — I was fired today.”

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

This is such a wonderful question that @tylercowen asks

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Is there any greater joy in life than when someone who you didn't want to meet with in the first place, cancels the meeting?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

I’m thrilled to finally share a new product we’ve been heads-down building, now available in public beta: @firstround Angel Directory. It’s the most extensive resource for founders & future founders to discover the best active angel investors in tech.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

10 months

There are few jobs more terrifying in startups than being the first sales hire.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

I’m starting to believe the simplest way to increase hiring accuracy is to massively invest in the project portion (for all roles, not just eng) of the interview so it simulates the job as closely as possible. Agree or disagree?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

I had my 11 year work anniversary (13 years if you include my internship) @firstround today and this was the best response I received from our team "Congrats Brett!! You might be the only millennial to only ever have one job in your life!!!"

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Recruiting amazing people is one of those few things that is meaningfully harder than everyone says, and everyone says it's extremely difficult.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

What do you think is the best affordable luxury? For me it's probably wooden, matching hangers in my closet and a good chef's knife. What's yours?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

It’s surprising how hard it still is to create fantastic software today.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

One of the things I’ve noticed most first time founders don’t understand is once a company gets to some level of product market fit, most of a founder’s time goes into people related work. In most cases, it’s not about tech or product problems, it’s people problems.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Why do successful first time founders rarely go on to be successful second time founders? Here are some of my current thoughts, but curious what others think...

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

This set of questions for choosing a partner in life really resonated with me from @nytdavidbrooks but I'm not married. For those that are married, does this make sense or do you disagree? Genuinely curious.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

1/ One thing I've noticed after interviewing 100s of people is how often candidate questions are generic/not strong. Asking amazing questions when you're a candidate allows you to get info to make a smart decision and shows how you think. It's a win/win to ask epic questions.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Mike Speiser creating @SnowflakeDB (among others) at Sutter Hill Ventures, is the most impressive untold company creation story of our time. And most still think it’s impossible to inclubate epic companies...

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

Anyone notice that if someone tells you that they're "low ego" they almost never are?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

I wonder if there is a connection between email responsive and job performance in most roles?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

One measure of founder discipline is the ability to raise a round of capital and have it last significantly longer than 24 months. Much harder than it seems.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Pumped to open up applications for @firstround Angel Track. Our goal is to enable the next generation of angel investors to level up, build new relationships and increase their odds of success as investors. Would love help getting the word out.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Is @github one of the best examples ever of a product velocity turnaround? Super curious what @natfriedman did to make it happen at that scale.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

“I would rather spend time with the people that are 100% aligned with what I want to do and the person that’s most aligned with what I want to do is me.” @chamath

Sahil Lavingia

@shl

4 years

The right employer for you may not exist. You may have to build it for yourself and others like you.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

One of the biggest reasons to bring a second product to market early in your startup's life is if you don't, you won't develop the muscle and may never be able to in the future.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

John Bogle/Vanguard is a good example of being willing to be misunderstood for long periods. Started in 1974 it was laughed at and opened with $11.4 million in assets, short of the $150 million goal. Now they have $5.1 trillion in assets. Big stuff starts small and takes time.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

Watching the Avengers reminded me that Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion in 2009. Since then Marvel movies have grossed $20 billion and that doesn’t include things like merchandise sales. Incredible acquisition.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Zoom is currently a good test of Buffett's thinking, if you like a stock at price x, you'll love to buy it at 60% of x. Continuing to tell myself this.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

Interesting approach to exec compensation from Constellation Software's President that you don't see often...

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Sharing a small @firstround experiment to see if there’s any interest: we’ve met a number of talented future founders as we’ve explored new opportunities enabled by the recent wave of AI breakthroughs, so we're thinking of putting together a small group we're calling "AI Forum."

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

One of the best things to look for when hiring is someone who goes above and beyond to the extreme. It's not something I've thought about when hiring until recently. Looking back, nearly all of the best team members I've worked with over the years behave this way.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

One thing I've noticed across hundreds of founders is there is a strong connection between rapid execution in the early days and the future outcome of the company. Focusing on the few things that matter and moving them forward quickly is the best early indicator for success.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

I’ve been thinking more about how to expose future founders to interesting problems that are worth their time. If we created a way for domain experts to share problems they’d like to see solved in their field, would that be useful/interesting? I’d love to hear what folks think.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

There is often very little writing as a part of interview processes (certainly vs. speaking). It's odd given how core writing is to most jobs. It also helps with getting a sense for clarity of thought. Seems like an opportunity to improve the hiring process.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

Excited to open up spring applications for @firstround Angel Track — it’s back and better than ever. For the first time since our original launch, we’ve completely redesigned the curriculum from the ground up. Here are a few reflections after 6 cohorts.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

Is Yelp one of the companies that has created the most value and captured the least of it?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

One thing I've found useful recently is doing reference checks via a video call vs. phone call. There is so much value in non-verbal communication - and I tend to get much more honest and direct feedback.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

A few days ago I asked @Twitter for ideas on how to become more self-aware. Here is some of the feedback I received.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

It’s been awhile since there was a screaming match on Twitter about if you can achieve greatness working less than 40 hours a week. Shall we bring it back?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

Just overheard at a dinner party in SF, “my sister’s boyfriend just broke up with her. The reason was he believes robots are going to be better partners and thus doesn’t want to be locked down with a human.”

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

Finding stellar angel investors can be tricky. It’s often based on connections & word-of-mouth networks. On 6/21, we're holding our 1st-ever Angel Track Demo Day for early-stage founders to pitch our current cohort of 45 incredible angel investors.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

10 days

When most folks think about achieving product-market fit, they usually focus just on the product they’re building. One of my favorite insights from our essay on PMF is explaining that there are actually four key levers to get there.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Simple way to get more value from your investors: add a "shoutouts" section to your investor updates to highlight what specific investors did for your company over the previous month. Put it near the top of the update.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

Is there a more beautiful phrase than, "can I take this off your plate altogether."

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

Even after 11 years, some of the tiny things in my job are still fun. When a founder reaches out for an important intro and we're able to make it within 30 min. Great dopamine hit.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

1 year

It's one of my favorite times of the year: opening up applications for @firstround Angel Track. We’re putting together a cohort of experienced angels looking to level up in 2023, and would love help getting the word out. More on why you should join below:

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Very smart of @BessemerVP to share their memos from breakout companies. Associating yourself with your winners is the easiest way to build a brand in VC. Curious why they shipped them as a group. Seems like it would be more impactful shipping one a week over a period of time.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

I really like this thinking on the importance of making sure everyone inside of your company deeply understands the core facets of your business, regardless of their function, role or title. Everyone should be a business person. It's from Patty McCord's book called "Powerful"

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Has anyone noticed when your friends move out of the city to the suburbs they always say the commute is only 20 minutes regardless of the actual length?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

I found an email from 11 years ago from @chrisfralic about his excitement in @Roblox . He said, "My 9Yr old Beta Tester Max has been using it more and more, as have his buddies. Been talking to CEO David Baszucki and there *might* be a chance to join." Grateful for Max 🙏

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

It’s interesting to see people with a large following on @twitter ask interesting questions, similar to @Quora in the early days, and in many cases, end up with far better/more comprehensive answers than Quora ever had. It’s a shame it’s then lost forever in the stream.

andrew chen

@andrewchen

6 years

What is your least popular but deeply held opinion on tech/startups?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

A great measure of product market fit, particularly in consumer, is when a company is growing quickly despite poor execution and management.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

It's interesting how hard it is to get early, more senior hires right at a startup. For example, very common to go through 2-3 VPs Sales, before one clicks. I think part of it is there are actually very few people that have done a good job of going from 0-1 in their function.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

It’s amazing how many of the best founders obsessively study their competition. It’s the opposite of the conventional startup advice to only focus on your customers and ignore competition.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

19 days

What we now know as @Plaid started out with a consumer budgeting product. What’s perhaps less well known is that @zachperret and @williamhockey spent quite a bit of time on this initial idea, building 6 different versions of tools for budgeting, expense management, and analyzing…

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Thrilled to publicly share the big news that we’ve promoted @whitnielow to Operating Partner. In her 7 years @firstround , Whitnie has left an indelible mark on how we serve entrepreneurs and she truly embodies the values that guide our work.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

A good reminder, no one leaves a company because they feel too valued...

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

“I realized, well, wait a minute. I may not be special in certain ways. But when it came to getting things done, I was special. And that’s actually driven me throughout, you know?” Doing what you say you’re going to do/getting things done is a superpower.

The Slow-Burning Success of Disney’s Bob Iger (Published 2019)

Hollywood’s nicest C.E.O. on the great family dramas of Hollywood — and why he, too, is disturbed by Twitter.

www.nytimes.com

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Rewatching Chef’s Table and it has me thinking...is greatness in any field possible without obsession?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

My brilliant twin sister spent 25+ hours creating a Dr. Fauci cake to raise money for @directrelief protective equipment for frontline workers. If you're in the Philly area, please consider bidding and sharing with friends.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

10 months

We've noticed finding a co-founder often appears to be a random process. Typically, co-founder relationships stem from friendships cultivated at school or at previous jobs. However, given how much this dynamic depends on chance, there are a lot of outstanding people who never…

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

Just had a great lunch where someone said, “in meetings it’s easier to look smart when being critical than being complimentary.” So you often wind up with lots of people being critical to look smart vs. reflect truth. Good to keep in mind.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

7 months

Excited to officially announce our newest cohort of Angel Track graduates! It’s somehow been 5 years since we first launched the program, and I’m still blown away by the megawatt talent that joins the ranks of our community, now over 400 strong. In our 12th cohort earlier this…

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

1 month

There isn’t a paint-by-numbers kit for any part of company building. But when it comes to product-market fit, founders have very little to go on. It’s seen as more art than science, with squishy definitions, no real data, and mostly high-level advice. For the past few years…

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

Back in May, we kicked off the Spring 2021 cohort of @firstround ’s Angel Track, after completely redesigning the curriculum & overall experience from the ground up. As this cohort wrapped this summer, I was in awe of this group of 45 incredible humans.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Our team has been doing a ton to support the @firstround community during these tough times. This is one of my favorites. We hosted "First Round Reads" where members of our team read children's stories on Zoom and anyone in our community could join with their kids.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Just starting to watch @netflix "The Playbook." Pretty epic opening line.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

I guess this struck a chord. Almost 1,400 people signed up thus far. Now the fun part of crafting the experience.

Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

I'm thinking of putting together an S-1 reading club and having a few experienced public market analysts help facilitate the conversation. If you're interested in joining, let me know by filling this out:

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

When I was early in my career, I always thought, "once I fix this mess, all will be wonderful." Now I realize that once the mess is fixed, it's just a matter of days before a new thing blows up in my face. I'm just making peace with this reality.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

It's remarkable that @netflix is up about 100x over the past 10 years in the public markets.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

I increasingly believe that the most simple way to improve the odds of your startup succeeding is to go deeper than anyone else on the problem. It's a framework that @btrenchard has taught me and was crystalized in a conversation with @ay_o yesterday.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

Thought experiment, what are the things you think the next generation will look back on and think are just crazy? Examples: 1. Physically driving cars or trucks 2. Paying with physical money 3. Eating meat 4. Interfacing with a computer via a keyboard of any kind

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

This is a really good concept from @dhmeyer

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Seeing more "faux customer development" become more of a thing. Founders tell you they spoke to dozens of customers to land on what they're doing and then you dig into the quality of the work and it's not there. All customer conversations aren't created equal.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

My intuition is enterprise marketing is becoming the hardest discipline to recruit for and build out at an early stage company. It's so difficult to get right and is just an entirely different muscle for most founders. It's a very good time to be a skilled marketer.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

Disruptive tech is a fascinating thing. Kodak did $14 billion in revenue in 2000 and by 2012 was bankrupt. The amazing thing is Kodak actually invented the first digital camera. It was created by Steven Sasson, an engineer at Kodak. Reminds me of Xerox Parc.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

Just heard of a company that's wrapping up their seed round process and taking Series A meetings at the same time for their next round. Unclear if this is an indication of the top.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

Such a huge day for us. Thrilled to welcome @cjc to Team @firstround . Can’t wait for the next generation of founders to have her in their corner from day 1.

Cristina Cordova

@cjc

2 years

📣 After spending 12 years at startups like @stripe & @notionhq , I’ve joined @firstround as a partner! I knew I wanted to make supporting founders my life's work and am thrilled I get to do that as part of an incredible team. Sharing more on that... 1/7

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

I really like this from @tylercowen "There is something wrong with everything (by which I mean there are few decisive or knockdown articles or arguments, and furthermore until you have found the major flaws in an argument, you do not understand it)."

Tyler Cowen's three laws - Marginal REVOLUTION

Many of you have been asking for a canonical statement of what I sometimes refer to as Cowen’s Laws. Here goes: 1. Cowen’s First Law: There is something wrong with everything (by which I mean there...

marginalrevolution.com

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Given every founder says “we’re not raising” there sure are a lot of rounds closing right now.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

Understanding if something will be a "feature" or an actual company is so hard (along with how wide of a moat will form) in enterprise software. Great example is @DocuSign . It's an $8 billion company. Would have been easy to say it's "just a little feature of a larger company."

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

When you meet someone in person, eye contact is the way to show you're paying attention. On Zoom, making sure they can see your hands is the way you show you're paying attention and not doing email.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

What do you think are the most under appreciated apps today? My vote is for @Google Photos. Brilliant example of using new tech to build a delightful product.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

It's remarkable how many investing mistakes happen because of market size concerns.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

2 years

It seems like training/teaching your employees is one of the highest leverage things you can do if you’re running a scaling company. Why is it there is so little of this that goes on (other than everyone is busy/resource constrained)?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

Saw the movie about General Magic and was surprised people don't talk about them as one of the greatest "mafias." Megan Smith (Google/USDS), Andy Rubin (Android), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Tony Fadell (Apple/Nest), Kevin Lynch (CTO Adobe), John Giannandrea (Google AI) + lots more

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

The most underrated way to learn is by watching others (who are exceptional at the thing) do the thing you want to do.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

We've taken all of the learnings from @firstround Review and brought them to a podcast format we're calling "In Depth." I'm thrilled to host our very first season and can't wait to hear what you think. Please consider subscribing to follow this new journey.

First Round

@firstround

4 years

1/ We started The Review in 2013 to go deeper on the advice entrepreneurs need to build better companies. After nearly 500 profiles and millions of readers, we're launching our first podcast to let you listen in on these deeper conversations firsthand. 🎙️

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

How do you know when to quit something? Everyone talks about the importance of perseverance, but sometimes quitting is the right thing to do. How do you know when to quit and move on to something else?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

I've found this question (I think I heard it from @jerrycolonna ) to be one that I continue to go back to over and over again, "How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want?"

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

5 years

Good quote I heard at a CEO Salon we hosted, "building an exec team at a startup is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge - once you're done hiring the entire exec team, it's time to start all over again." It's one of the hardest things to do as the CEO of a scaling company.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

I started as an intern with @phineasb over 12 years ago. During that time he’s coached me, believed in me and supported me in countless ways. He’s helped us turn @firstround into the franchise it is today. I’ll miss him here, but I’m excited for his next chapter.

Josh Kopelman

@joshk

4 years

1/ Over the last 12 years, @phineasb has made an indelible mark on every aspect of @Firstround . While Phin is not technically a founder of the firm, he has ALWAYS acted like one - and he has transformed our community, our brand and our team.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

3 years

I just found out about the first engagement to come from @firstround Angel Track! It's funny because when we started the program one of our inspirations was the best MBA programs where you often find lifelong friends and sometimes...even spouses.

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

6 years

I'm fascinated that people still come to meetings and start by sliding their business cards over the table. We scheduled the meeting via email and thus I have their contact information. Thoughts?

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Brett Berson

@brettberson

4 years

Seeing an idea end up working is one of the great joys in life.

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