Time Recovery Hacks
Startup life has intense time requirements. In the early phases, there’s a lot of nose-to-the-grindstone need, and if the company successfully scales, the internal…
Startups
Never Have the “What Would It Take to Keep You Here?” Conversation
As a CEO, many of the scariest days I’ve faced have been those when a critical member of our team told us they were…
Some Thoughts on Firing Employees
This past week, I read a terrific Quora thread on firing. The depth and breadth of answers shows the wide range of opinions and…
When Brilliant Minds Become Brilliant Jerks
The NYTimes Bits Blog has a worthwhile read from last week entitled “What Do You Do With the Brilliant Jerks?” I’d encourage startup founders…
Yellow Shoes and Personal vs. Company Branding
For the first few years that I spoke at conferences in the search marketing field, I consistently wore a single pair of yellow shoes.…
IPOs, Acquisitions, and The Long Term for Moz
Somehow, the company we started has become somewhat successful and reached some really interesting milestones. Honestly, what SEOmoz has achieved in the past 5…
The Downside of Hedonic Adaptation at a Scaling Startup
The resiliency of the human mind is an absolutely astounding phenomenon. Evolution has given us the power to suffer massive, lifelong injuries, lose the…
It’s Not Just Technical Debt; Everything Gets Painful & Slow as You Scale
A tremendous amount gets written about technical debt (definition) in the startup ecosystem. As you scale your product and engineering, you inevitably make sacrifices…
Growth Hackers: The Ninja Rockstar Pirates of the Marketing World
I really enjoyed this article from Layered Thoughts: “Growth Hacking is BS. It’s All Just Marketing.” But, it did make me reflect on my…
The Uncomfortable Challenge of Topgrading Your Startup’s Team
If things go well at your startup, there will inevitably be a point where the business is growing ahead of the team’s abilities. Engineers…