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Rob Khazzam Profile
Rob Khazzam

@rkhazzam

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Co-founder & CEO @Floatcard . Previously led Eastern Europe & Canada @Uber . Owner of many leather bound books.

Toronto, Ontario
Joined December 2011
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Lots of threads covering startup growth, angel investing, etc. Very little is shared here on people mgnmt - one of the hardest + most frustrating aspects of leadership. I went from zero experience to hiring / managing >75 people in the span of 36 mos. Here's what I learned 👇
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Canada’s continued use of the ArriveCan app is bewildering.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 years
A video was released by the media today of several Uber passengers being filmed without their consent while having a private discussion during a trip in Phoenix. This is a clear violation of our terms of service and we worked vigorously to investigate this issue. (1/2)
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
23 days
I cannot recall a moment of greater collective disatisfaction by the Canadian business community
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
5 years
After 5 incredible years, I've decided to move on from Uber. My journey has spanned 3 roles and countless cities in Europe and North America. It's also given me the opportunity to work with and learn from the brightest people I've ever met. Here's what I've learned (thread):
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Headcount as a vanity metric at startups has always been sort odd. It's like, "Oh, you built your company with 50 people and $5M of payroll? Cool, we have 250 people, $25M of payroll and spend 60% of our time debating 'swim lanes' between teams." Headcount sucks
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
1 year
@corbinvisual @emily_murnane Alex is a well known shitposter. He’s mocking LinkedIn :)
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Sometimes a really successful 4-5 year run at a place like Shopify or Uber can be a curse. You really overthink your next move, hold yourself in *too high* regard + pass on opportunities b/c you feel they are 'below you'. I made that mistake myself. See many doing it now.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
I wonder what % of people who say they "want to work at a startup" appreciate how much of a shit show the day-to-day really is
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 years
Filming or recording passengers without their consent is totally unacceptable and if reported / detected we will investigate + take action to preserve our communities privacy and integrity. In this specific case, we made efforts to have the video taken down.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Big news in Canada: We're going to produce a vaccine in Canada that hasn't been approved yet in a facility that hasn't been built yet for distribution in 2022. This.....doesn't seem like much of a solution.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Ontario is a joke.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
With lots of turmoil in startup land these days I find myself reflecting more on what the startup journey is + what it isn't. It feels like the industry (founders, employers, employees, VCs, media, etc) have been collectively misleading each other (sometimes purposely?). 1/X
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
1 year
How can I never hear about Andrew Tate ever again
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(1) Excited to share that I recently joined @floatcard (previously known as Journal) as co-founder & CEO. We’re on a mission to simplify spending for businesses & teams with software & card solutions for the modern age. We're announcing our $5M seed today.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 months
Way, way more people in Canada should be talking about this and asking "Why is this happening?" and "What are we and our elected officials going to do about it" We need a new government and a completely different way of thinking to get the Canadian economy working for everyone…
@Andercot
Andrew Côté
2 months
Socialism doesn't work. Capitalism does.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
May 2022 marks the 1 year anniversary of @floatcard 's public launch: * 50 customers to over 1,000 * 100x growth in monthly payment volume * 5 FTEs to 50 FTEs It's still very early days but what a fun ride it has been!
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Thank you to our amazing and supportive customers. We will aggressively invest every ounce of energy and resources we have to continue building the best product for Canadian SMEs and their teams.
@floatcard
Float
3 years
We are excited to share that we have raised and closed US$30 million in Series A financing led by Tiger Global. ✨ Thank you to all of our amazing customers who have fueled our growth and provided critical feedback on our product and services 🇨🇦 +👇🏼
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
The best framework I've ever come across on feedback culture is the book Radical Candor by @kimballscott . X axis is willingness to be direct, y-axis is degree to which you personally care. Good managers aim for the top right quadrant.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Fun fact: Without @JamieRosenblatt I wouldn't know my talented cofounders @gtskeg @nikolaevra or work @floatcard . No one has been more supportive to us than him: * Talent connector * Puts founders first * High integrity * Sharp, engaged + helpful He is really fucking good.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Thanks for following this very, very, very long thread 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
It's time for succession season 3 already. Need some awkward cousin Greg in my life.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Whenever I complained that someone wasn't performing the way I wanted / expected, my first boss always used to say the same thing. "Well were you specific about what you expect from them? PEOPLE AREN'T MIND READERS!" Be specific. Write it down. Co-sign it + refer back often.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(2) Onboard employees properly. There are a million things they don't know about the team, the role, the company, processes, etc. Help them. Make an onboarding plan that covers key topics. Assign people on your team to help put materials together + walk through w/your new hire
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
It's interesting how little 'middle ground' there is in the startup experience. You're either on top of the world or eating shit feeling like a total loser. That's it.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
I’m four months into my search for an SMB. I’ve contacted almost 1,000 people I don’t know and have never met. Most surprising? Most are willing to talk. No one has told me to f*ck off (yet)
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(1) Have high standards and hire the right people for the right role. *Do not* settle b/c you're desperate. Be clear in JD's about what skills are required, what they'll do, and how they'll be measured. Build an interview plan that specifically and objectively tests that.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
5 years
15 years ago @jamierosenblatt and I made a $100 bet: who would win a championship first, the #leafs or #raptors ? 15 years later, and after some inflation, I’m humbled to be paying out $600 to honour the 2019 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors!!!!
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Turns out the hardest part of a fast growing startup ain’t strategy, operations or product. It’s literally just context management and internal communication. If everyone knew everything everyone else knew everything would be really fucking easy.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
1 year
Best business biography books to read over the holidays?
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
It seems that 50% of good execution comes down to ensuring only a single person is accountable for that things success or failure. The rest (project mngmt, stakeholder mngmt, etc) magically seems to take care of itself.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 months
Running a startup is moving from shit show to shit show trying to be optimistic in the face of people saying “this is a shit show”
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Big things @floatcard next week 👀
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(4) Give specific, actionable feedback frequently (both positive and negative). In my experience, this is the hardest and least natural part of mgmt. Most people avoid giving difficult feedback b/c it's awkward and they want to avoid hurting ppl's feelings. Big mistake.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Use interview panels: 3-4 people from your company interview the same candidate (separately) and assess against the scorecard. Do a debrief 👍 / 👎 at the same time. *Do not* share info or allow interviewers to influence each other prior to submitting scorecards or thumbs.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Seeing as how everyone is raising…. Excited to announce that @floatcard had raised $100B on a $1T valuation. This should provide us with ample capital to invest for the next 3-6 mos!
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Seeing someone incredibly talented you've been recruiting for months finally accept an offer to join your team has to be one of the most exhilarating aspects of running a company. Today was a good day.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Me telling Uber launch stories to the @floatcard team
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Let's get this straight --> we're locking down to prevent the spread of the most contagious, least severe variant of an airborne virus that we already locked down for 2 years for in order to develop + vaccinate 85% of our population with the most effective vaccine possible.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Say what you want about the absurdity of a startups financials or spending trajectory, but it sucks for 500 people to learn about impending layoffs in an article. No one wins.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
At what point does a post like this get tagged as fake news?
@SenWarren
Elizabeth Warren
2 years
Giant grocery store chains force high food prices onto American families while rewarding executives & investors with lavish bonuses and stock buybacks. I'm demanding they answer for putting corporate profits over consumers and workers during the pandemic.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
There is nothing more rewarding than hiring great people, feeling like they are going to crush it, and then seeing them actually do it.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
👀
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(3) Set and share extremely clear and documented expectations with them on their first day. Should cover things like: - Key day-to-day responsibilities - KPIs and targets - How they'll be expected to conduct themselves (cultural values, norms, etc) - Weekly reporting updates
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 months
I’m proud to share some BIG NEWS for Canadian businesses: Float now offers 4% interest on your Float C$ and US$ cash balances from the first dollar. 🧵
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 months
Here is what my friends and family are talking about this morning. Email sent to a major jewish day school. This has nothing to do with Israel or "politics". There is no context needed on the middle east. These are hate crimes.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 months
Disgusted by what is happening across Canada right now: - Starbucks in a jewish neighbourhood vandalized - Multiple videos of jews being verbally harassed in public - Jewish day schools receiving bomb threats, including 1 that is just around the corner from me
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Extremely excited about this launch - huge effort behind the scenes to bring something like this to life in Canada.
@floatcard
Float
2 years
🇺🇸 Calling all Canadian businesses that earn and spend in USD🗽 We’re excited to launch our ✨new✨ USD smart corporate cards: Explore more ways Float’s USD card helps Cdn businesses spend (and save) smarter:
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Met @nachkari in real life last week What a gentleman and scholar
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(5) Be a manager, not a micro project manager. Rookies assign projects and intervene along the way. This eliminates the employees desire to innovate + motivation to 'figure it out' for themselves. Instead, define the outcome you want ("what"), and let them figure out the "how".
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
What a gangster move
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Emailed @RBC to ask the best and fastest way to pay a $36K business invoice. RBC: “Best way would be to head into your local branch” No, that is literally the exact opposite of the best way for us to pay this invoice. Arghhh
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
As a startup founder / CEO I've learned the best advisors are other founders. It's hard to have frank conversations or get advice from people who aren't in the arena.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 years
Extremely proud to be launching uberX at Toronto Pearson today. This has been several years in the making, and provides another low cost transportation to millions of travellers every year. Congrats to the whole @Uber_Canada team who worked on this exciting project!
@CP24
CP24
6 years
Uber, Lyft permitted to pick up passengers from Pearson as part of new pilot: GTAA
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Nine new hires @floatcard in last 6 weeks. Let’s do this!!!
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
This week a great reminder to founders and employees that raising big rounds from “impressive” investors doesn’t mean shit. Lots of startups raise rounds, few pay it back. Results are all that matters. Cap tables don’t mean shit.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Common debate with new hires is start date. Candidate wants to start in 8 weeks. We want them to start tomorrow. We rarely go beyond 4 weeks. When I joined Uber they told me I could start in two weeks or not at all 🤣
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Last few months @floatcard feel like early days at @Uber . Business is growing well over 100% / month and product trajectory has been 🤯. ProductEng led by @nikolaevra @thegriffinkeg has been on an absolute tear. Couple cool things we built last few weeks 👇
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Gmail idea: When Gmail auto-fills me typing '...moving you to BCC', actually move the recipient to BCC! I am repeating this action probably 30-40 times a week. Surely a Google PM has already thought of this.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 years
Uber is announcing its biggest commitment to Canada ever - $200M, a new engineering hub in Toronto, and growing our headcount to over 500 (more than 2x today) over the next couple of years. Great win for Canada + city of Toronto, which has an amazing and growing tech ecosystem.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
1 year
Really somber day. @SVB_Financial has been an outstanding, high integrity and thoughtful partner to Float and almost every founder I can think of. Seeing that unravel in <24H - seemingly on rumours - is disappointing. Every institution in tech - VCs, founders, etc - loses.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
@harryhurst It’s not ARR one way or another. Revenue reported is usually gross rev (which includes network take). Net rev / gross profit reflect take rate.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
I don’t care what anyone says, Uber’s original 14 cultural values were perfect
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Before you start giving tough feedback, establish trust and show you have the person's best interests at heart. "I want to see you succeed, and will do everything I can to help, even if that means giving you difficult feedback. Plz trust that it comes from a place of support"
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Some incredible peeps joining the @floatcard team over the next couple weeks. This is shaping up to be our best recruiting week of all time..... 🚀🎉🔥
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
In the spirit of @SkolCapital , here’s another version of “value that private company” for SMB / PE Twitter: * Pet products - excellent brand and reviews * Rev: $7m (vs $9m 4 yrs ago) * EBITDA $1.3M * No capex SMB twitter: value that company! Will post seller ask tomorrow.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
5 years
(7) Hire people who love your product, can deal with ambiguity, have overcome adversity in their life/career, and are capable of learning new skills. At a startup, the only constant is change + challenges - be wary of ppl who have only excelled in very predictable environments.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
6 months
Disgusted by what is happening across Canada right now: - Starbucks in a jewish neighbourhood vandalized - Multiple videos of jews being verbally harassed in public - Jewish day schools receiving bomb threats, including 1 that is just around the corner from me
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Incase you hadn’t heard that UFOs are real and the US gov’t admits it (and no one seems to care)
@RichardCityNews
Richard Southern
3 years
More quotes being released from this coming Sunday’s 60 Minutes story regarding U.S military confirmed UFO encounters.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
It seems that a solid portion of leading a startup is figuring out the ideal order to fix the 1000+ things that are broken or don't exist yet. Pointing them out is easy. Fixing them in the right order? Hard.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Who has worked with or can speak to the quality of @ModernTreasury ?
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Funny thing about hiring: the more you hire, the more your team says they need more people
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
9 months
People throw a lot of shade at VCs but our experiences with @GoldenVentures , especially @JamieRosenblatt and @alisonmichellek have been nothing short of amazing. Float would not be here without them. Founders, talk to Golden. They are gems.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
We are fortunate to have many great angel investors in @floatcard . I've learned not all are made equal and contributions vary widely (from very helpful to not helpful at all). @jamiemcdonald is #1 so far If you have the opportunity to get to know him, do it😄
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
1 year
Seems counterintuitive but..... Having a low valuation + low investor expectations seems like the single best way to avoid somewhat predictable / understandable operational + strategy missteps from crashing your business.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
When I die, I want the #Leafs to lower me into my grave, so they can let me down one last time
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
The year is 2029. Single family homes start from $10m and up. A shawarma on Uber Eats starts at $60. An undergraduate engineer costs $350K / year. The fed: “We are monitoring key inflation measures closely but see no evidence of inflation.” 🤓
@BrentBeshore
Brent Beshore
3 years
Other than significant upward wage pressure, skyrocketing commodity prices, and quickly rising asset valuations, I see no signs of inflation anywhere. MMT FTW.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
I received some of the hardest feedback I've ever received in my first 12 mos at Uber. I grew more in that 12 mos period than any other period of my life. Full stop. Finally, I knew what my manager wanted, where I stood, where I could be better. Feedback should be treasured.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Hiring a team from scratch is incredible and immensely rewarding. I don't care how hard recruiting is, I never want to inherit a team again.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
One of the refreshing things we’re doing at Float. NO POLITICS AT WORK. We don’t know each other’s political views and we don’t care about them. What brings us together is our mission and work…not our political views.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
5 years
Dark mode is the most overrated innovation of the 21st century. Change my mind.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
When competitors sign up for your product but forget to use fake info 🤣
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
“Really? A fucking truck is going to derail my dreams? I am going to show you that my life will be the same it was before and that I just had a little hiccup.” Incredible story of perseverance 💪
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Clarity of ownership in a company is the single most important element of effective execution. I don't care about processes or templates or anything else. Single threaded owners fighting for outcomes is what moves the needle.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Closing people you really want to work with is the absolute best rush of being in a startup. Seeing weeks (or even months) of work turn into a signed offer just feels so fucking good.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
If you’re healthy and vaccinated and thinking about cancelling your travel plans for the second year in a row…. Don’t. Just go.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
Good morning to everyone except those suggesting that manually scheduling meetings instead of using Calendly is a good idea
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
We’re scaling our team rapidly @floatcard but admittedly really struggling to build enough pipeline of great female candidates. Who are the best women in tech we should get to know? How can we be better at attracting female candidates?
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
1 year
Turns out just meeting in-person as a team is fucking awesome for team connectivity and energy. Who woulda known....maybe this remote thing isn't fun after all.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
@Austen Few things are more obnoxious than thought of journalists listening to these exchanges waiting to pounce on someone who says something that violates their latest / greatest definition of PC culture.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
As someone who is still optimistically searching to acquire a business I have to say: This has to be one of the worst times in the history of capitalism to try and acquire a business!
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Give lots of positive feedback - it has a compounding effect, in that it builds momentum and makes the person receiving it strive to be even better. I don't do a good enough job here, so have often set reminders to provide positive feedback to ppl on my team.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
2 years
@79Merlot literally not true. I just spent 10 days in Italy - nothing on way in and nothing on way out.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
Share the plan and remind them that while you're here to help, "They own their onboarding and ensuring it is a success". Reinforce self-accountability - their job is to successfully get onboard with your help. Check in each week - where are they on track, where are they behind?
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
7 months
I stand with Jews around the world and citizens of Israel today. It doesn't matter what your race, creed, nationality or political views are - the cowardly, brutal and intentional murder of unarmed civilians ANYWHERE is despicable and disgusting.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
(10) Mastery of management is never achieved - there is no finish line. Read books, seek feedback + keep evolving. What worked last year may not work tomorrow. Similarly, what worked at the last company may not work at the next one. Keep investing in yourself (and your team)!
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
3 years
@girdley Without a doubt business travel ain’t coming close to pre Covid levels. Too hard to ignore the cost savings esp in a zoom world.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
5 years
(6) High standards - for people and work - are *everything*. Recruit A+ players, hold them to crazy high standards, and see what happens. If your industry is crowded with lots of funding, standards may be the only thing that differentiates you. @pierre_dimitri taught me this.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
7 months
Struggling a lot last 2-3 days. Learning, article by article, video by video, how truly barbaric and disgusting the attacks were has been devastating. It doesn't matter who you are or what you believe. There is no place in the world - ANYWHERE - for violence like this.
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@rkhazzam
Rob Khazzam
5 years
(10) Work vs. personal life is a zero-sum game. Startups require a ton of hard work + mental energy which will impact your personal/social/fitness life one way or another. Be deliberate and self-aware about those tradeoffs, they are real, make sure you're comfortable with them.
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