Startup life can get crazy at times. When you’re the CEO, it can feel crazy all the time. You’d love for it to be a 9-5 but the reality is - that’s not possible right now. You know health and well-being are important. Stress is not good. Exercise and sleep are. But how do you find the time for healthy habits when you’re working 60, 70, 80 hour weeks?!?
Read MoreStartup life can get crazy at times. When you’re the CEO, it can feel crazy all the time. You’d love for it to be a 9-5 but the reality is - that’s not possible right now.
You know health and well-being are important. Stress is not good. Exercise and sleep are. But how do you find the time for healthy habits when you’re working 60, 70, 80 hour weeks?!?
I’m a bit of a health nerd. I bring healthy snacks and a water bottle (or four) everywhere I go. I wake up early to workout. I analyze my Whoop score. I eat kale for fun. But I’m also busy, practical, and efficient. I’ve spent a decade figuring out how to maximize my health and wellbeing while also being in the thick of high growth startups.
Here are 6 tiny but impactful healthy habits you can incorporate into your day that don’t take up ANY EXTRA TIME.
Everyone has to eat. If you’re busy, you’re usually eating on the go, opting for prepackaged foods or meal kits, or having business meetings over meals.
Add more veggies to those on-the-go meals:
All of these things take literally no extra time!
Vegetables have lots of water, volume, nutrients, and fiber. All things universally endorsed for healthy eating. From Paleo to Keto to nutritionists, no one doesn’t recommend veggies!
Plants, especially green leafy ones, help you:
Okay, okay. I extrapolated that last one. But when you have more energy and feel healthier, it’s easier to keep a clear head, manage your emotions, stay upbeat, and think through issues.
Want the data? How Not To Die is a fantastic deep dive into nutrition research.
Guess what? Other people want to be healthier and don’t like sitting all day either!
Start with a few internal 1:1s or friendlies and see if they want to walk around the block instead of grabbing coffee. I’ve never had anyone say no to this!
(Note: Confirm a walking meeting ahead of time so they can dress appropriately.)
The activity is good. Fresh air is good. Changing up the environment gives you extra energy and new perspective.
You can’t work while you’re sleeping. But you can sabotage your sleep by keeping your phone at your bedside!
This year I started using:
My sleep got way better. So did my work. The only output that decreased was middle of the night emails on non-urgent items that increased stress for me and the recipient.
Let me put this another way. If David Cummings doesn’t have his phone in his bedroom (0:59:00 of Salesloft in the Studio), you don’t need to either!
Walk up to your floor. Walk the escalator. Take the stairs between floors. Take the stairs in the parking deck.
It usually takes the same amount of time (OR LESS – no stops!) to take the stairs.
Yes, you may get a little bit winded or sweaty. (Oh? Just me?) But it clears your head, gets the blood pumping, and infuses a tiny bit of healthiness into your day!
Sitting is bad for you. It shortens your life, increases diabetes, cancer, and heart disease risk, increases dementia, blah blah blah. Yeah, not good to sit a bunch (as I’m typing from the couch – oops).
Standing desks are an awesome fix for this. You can make one, hack one, buy one. These are top rated by Wirecutter. I have one and love it.
A standing desk for meetings where attendees stand or sit on stools is another nice option. Bonus: meetings are shorter if people are standing!
Bundle this with no-phone-in-bedroom or implement each separately.
Sleep hygiene includes:
Set up your sleep palace one time and reap beauty sleep for years!
With a Nest thermostat and Hatch sound machine, you can pre-program 2 of 4 items. Install blackout shades, get your Inactivators, and hope these $8 blue light glasses work. (Should I upgrade? Feel free to share blue light glasses recs or research!)
Want more on sleep?
You’re busy. You don’t have time for a daily workout, home cooked meals, 8 hours of sleep, or meditation sessions.
I get it!
These tiny tweaks are all things I have been able to consistently execute over the years of startup leadership, acquisitions, company scaling, birthing and raising tiny humans, training for Ironmans, and other life busyness. Set it and forget it with healthy autopilot.
Pick 1, 2, or all 6 of these mini habits that take NO EXTRA TIME and test them out this week.
You’ll feel healthier, more energized, and ready to dominate your day no matter what startup surprise is ahead!
I often get asked about networking. What does networking look like in the startup world? How have I networked over the years?
Read MoreI often get asked about networking. What does networking look like in the startup world? How have I networked over the years?
Spoiler alert: I am the anti-networker. I dislike networking and I’m not good at it. Every time I’ve tried to get serious and “network,” I get exhausted, bored, and feel disingenuous. Some folks love cocktail parties, networking events, or staying in touch with that friend from the conference 5 years ago. I envy these people. This is not me :)
What I DO like is meeting and staying in touch with smart, positive, interesting people that I genuinely enjoy. I like going to events where I can catch up with people I know or the topic is something I want to learn about. I like small groups with a common thread uniting us.
I don’t consider this “networking.” This is just “doing fun, interesting stuff with good folks.”
So if you’re not sure what networking looks like in the startup world or you know you should network but aren’t sure where to get started, here are 5 ways to network when you don’t like networking!
The best networking is at your current job. What?!? That makes no sense, Kathryn. What if I want to leave my job?
Here’s the thing: the startup world is small and things change quickly.
Your boss/co-worker/person-in-another-dept may go to another company. If they love working with you and you’re well-respected by the team, they’ll recruit you to the new company.
Another scenario is that the company does fantastically well. With CompanyAwesome on your resume, it’s easy to find great opportunities when the time comes. You’ve moved up quickly, you have high growth experience, and many former co-workers are now working at the next hot company so you’ll have a warm intro.
But you have to do a good job right now for this to work!
Be great in your role. Be nice to folks. Help out on projects or team activities. Make genuine connections. These will pay dividends in the long run even if you don’t know when or how.
When you do leave, do it with respect, professionalism, and positivity. Wrap up loose ends. Be gracious and appreciative. The last impression is how people remember you. Keep it classy. End on a high note.
There’s a hundred different ways to network.
Do you love social media? You will probably thrive on LinkedIn and Twitter.
You are passionate about community service? Amazing! Connecting with people through volunteer efforts is meaningful and inspiring.
You live for parties and meeting new people? This is the most traditional view of “networking.” Lots out there for you.
Do you like small groups and prefer to talk about ideas over chitchat? Book clubs, coding challenges, or research discussions might be your thing.
Maybe you love writing and online communities? Sounds like a future blogger to me! Get to know folks through comments, posts, and online discussion.
There’s lots of ways to build relationships with people. The most energizing, authentic, and sustainable way to do it is what feels easy and natural to you.
Who do you naturally stay in touch with? Who do you look forward to seeing? Who makes you laugh, lifts you up, or makes you feel as if you haven’t missed a beat even if it’s been a year? Who has been a true friend or helpful mentor? Who do you really respect and learn from every time you talk?
THESE are the folks I stay in touch with. They are people I’d genuinely like to work for or with but, ironically, I don’t stay in touch with them because of that!
“Stay in touch” can mean many things:
Staying in touch doesn’t have to be a heavy lift. Do what feels right based on how much you like them, how much time you have, and how much time they have. It should be easy and fun!
Big groups, small groups, work groups, neighborhood groups, exercise groups, book clubs – whatever is interesting to you!
Some groups I’ve enjoyed:
At any given point in my career, I’ve had bandwidth to be involved in 3-4 groups depending on my schedule and the commitment. It’s usually a mix of business, role-specific content, sports, and fun.
I genuinely enjoy the people and content of these groups. When it’s no longer a fit, I phase it out and find something else.
I know folks that have loved their religious/small groups, gamer communities, run clubs, coding meetups, alumni events, bocce leagues, and hundreds of other things.
Find what’s interesting to you and you’ll naturally make connections.
I’m finally wise enough to embrace my inner toddler:
I try not to do things I don’t like doing.
If there’s an event that I should go to but I really don’t want to, I take a hard look at it. The reality is – the most helpful networking events are ones that you enjoy. You’re excited to see or meet the type of people there. You’re interested in the content. The format feels like one that fits your personality. If you’re not excited, it will be forced, awkward, or tiring.
If you don’t want to go, examine:
Another “should” to watch out for:
I should do more on social media/go to conferences/talk to strangers. Look at how great this person is at it and how well it works for them!
Always be you. It’s great to improve yourself but do it authentically. You may hate social media but be awesome at mentoring. That is a great way to network too!
Networking doesn’t have to be hard!
Do good work, stay in touch with nice, interesting people, be yourself, and — tada—you’re a master networker.
What other networking tips do you have? What have you seen work well for networking at startups?
VCs are sharing their inner thoughts all over the internet.By regularly reviewing some great blogs and podcasts, you can start to understand the wide range of personalities and philosophies, as well as the similarities.
Read MoreThe world of investing, specifically venture capital (VC), can be opaque and intimidating. Lots of acronyms, insider vocab, and websites with general terms like vision, tech, or support.
If you’re a founder, startup leader, or aspiring investor who wants to learn more about VCs, how do you get started in learning things like:
Good news! No mind-reading necessary. VCs are sharing their inner thoughts all over the internet.
By regularly reviewing some great blogs and podcasts, you can start to understand the wide range of personalities and philosophies, as well as the similarities.
Jason Calacanis hosts David Sacks, David Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya each week in my favorite podcast in the VC and investing space!
I’m exposed to new concepts and perspectives every week!
I’ve been reading this blog by Mark Suster, Partner at Upfront Ventures, for over a decade.
Mark is candid, funny, specific, and opinionated! He regularly and boldly advocates for underrepresented groups which I love.
He shares specific scenarios, email language to use, and shines the light on unspoken assumptions or rules of the VC world.
A few good ones to get you started:
Fred Wilson, Managing Director at Union Square Ventures, publishes a bite-size post several times a week on this great blog. He shares a reasonable, calm, long-term perspective on many investment and life topics.
A few examples of the diversity:
It’s interesting to compare Fred and Mark. Very successful VCs with wildly different styles. They each care passionately about entrepreneurs but have varied investing philosophies, market interests, and personal priorities.
Harry Stebbings interviews a different VC in each podcast episode. With several episodes per week, that’s a lot of VC exposure in a short time! David Friedberg was a recent fascinating one.
The Memo is a sub-category of the pod that dives into the “why” of an early investment in companies like Pinterest, Snapchat, and Doordash.
Find out:
Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviews different types of investors including VCs on his podcast. Learning about non-VC investors is helpful in understanding the broader ecosystem.
For example:
Both investors named Jenny, wildly different stories!
A classic book by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson on VC deals, terms, motivations, legalese, and more.
It explains:
It’s incredibly helpful if you’re going to be fundraising or negotiating term sheets! It’s very specific so if you’re not there yet, start with the others.
1. VCs are more transparent than you think. VCs candidly share what they care about, how to work with them, and how they invest. Get the inside scoop through blogs, podcasts, Twitter, LinkedIn, books, recordings, and more.
2. Each VC is different. Job titles look similar but VCs are very different! Learn the various personalities, leadership styles, and investment strategies with common themes around success.
3. VCs are human! They have good days, bad days, personal stress, intra-firm politics, quirks, egos, strengths, and weaknesses. They make mistakes, great decisions, and get lucky. It’s easy to create a mystique about them or put them on a pedestal.
The reality is – VCs are smart folks who know their industry. Just like you.
What other VC blogs, podcasts, books, and resources do you enjoy? Do they help you understand the inter-workings of the VC brain? What remains a mystery?
Look at the progress already happening! The number of female-founded unicorns jumped from 18 to 83 in the past year. (An increase from 11% of all unicorns to 14% of all unicorns.) What else is within our control or actionable to increase the number of women-led unicorns?I have been asking this to many smart people, looking at research, and generally pondering the topic. A few ideas to get the conversation started…
Read MoreI recently shared a bold but achievable goal for Atlanta: 10 companies with a billion+ dollar valuation, founded by women, in the next 10 years.
Sara Blakely, Kathryn Petralia, and Lynne Laube blazed the trail and built big ass companies here.
Capital and access are a key part of creating more unicorns. We have some great programs in Atlanta helping to bridge the gap for women and underrepresented founders: Launchpad2X, WEI Atlanta, It Takes a Village, Golden Seeds, Jump Fund, Goodie Nation, Startup Runway, Zane Access, and Main Street Seed Fund to name a few.
Atlanta is currently on record with 12 unicorns. (None founded by women.) This success came from incredible hard work and lots of investment, financial and psychological, from leaders and mentors.
Many seeds have been planted in the past few years and they will bloom into unicorns this decade.
Look at the progress already happening! The number of female-founded unicorns jumped from 18 to 83 in the past year. (An increase from 11% of all unicorns to 14% of all unicorns.)
What else is within our control or actionable to increase the number of women-led unicorns?
I have been asking this to many smart people, looking at research, and generally pondering the topic.
A few ideas to get the conversation started…
I’ve watched great entrepreneurs build businesses worth millions and worth billions.
Are the billion-dollar entrepreneurs 100x better than million-dollar entrepreneurs? Smarter? Harder working? More ambitious?
Nope. Not at all. Everyone is ambitious, hard-working, and extremely smart.
What’s the difference then?
Nothing is tougher than seeing an incredibly smart, talented entrepreneur focused on a small market. Or someone taking a big market and looking for a tiny niche.
They’ve already limited their growth and potential before starting!
Is this an issue unique to women? Of course not! Men go after niche markets and limit their growth potential from the outset too.
Are there badass women tackling HUGE markets? Hell. Yes.
But when we’re asking the question, how do we get more women-founded billion dollar companies, market selection is a great place to start.
The more women that play in billion dollar markets, the more big winners we’ll have.
Shout out to the brilliant and talented Kara Brown for this astute insight:
Talk about revenue more.
As soon as she pointed it out, I immediately understood.
When someone talks about how much money their company is making, I notice. Even if it’s currently a small amount of revenue, it shows they care about objective growth, they know the data, and they want to win.
Kaitlin Lutz had the great suggestion that pre-revenue accelerators be focused on “making your first dollar.” Making money as a business is a signal of SO MANY THINGS – value creation, authentic demand, customer fit, sales chops, and more.
Revenue is the universal love language of businesses. It’s the benchmark for prestigious organizations and a source of friendly competition. Embrace the benefits of competition!
Why talking about revenue is awesome:
Why founders - especially women – may not be talking about revenue:
Those are hypotheses. What I know for sure is that men are talking about their revenue and experienced women founders are too. There’s no reason not to!
I’ve started to ask more women founders, what’s your revenue? (with an explanation of why I’m asking.)
How many more unicorns could we create if we normalized the conversation around revenue, friendly competition, and growing high-value businesses among women?
Did you know working women, especially mothers, are still doing the bulk of household management? Women spend 4 hrs/day on unpaid work while men spend 2.5 hrs/day.
Put another way – that’s 546 fewer hours per year to start and grow their unicorn.
This “second shift” takes time and mental energy, and outsourcing this work is expensive. (Salary.com estimated it would take $178,201 to outsource a stay-at-home parent’s work.)
Imagine what we could unlock with affordable, trusted options for:
SHOUTOUT to MyPanda helping to solve this exact problem. Thank you, Tamara Lucas!
More convenient and affordable caretaker and home management options would help women — and men — start more billion dollar companies!
If you’ve known me for a bit, you’ve probably seen me share or talk about this research:
The Real Reason Female Founders Get Less Funding
What I love is that with preparation and understanding, you can overcome downside questions and turn them to your advantage!
You can raise 14x more money – regardless of gender – if you answer downside questions with upside answers.
It’s a fantastic sales and leadership skill to see and explain things in a simple, positive, big picture way.
I immediately notice when someone explains their business confidently and concisely in an easy to understand way. Or when they have clear, forward-looking responses to typical “downside” questions from investors.
Listen carefully for great sound bites from others and practice your own!
Want to go even deeper? Mark your cal for July 13 for a fun workshop with Women + Tech where we practice upside/downside scenarios in all areas of life. (Men welcome! It’s a universal topic.)
I had an interesting conversation with an extremely talented, ambitious woman who had already been successful in corporate America, a high growth startup, and her first entrepreneurial venture.
I asked her about her goals and she said she’d love to start and grow a company of 100 employees.
Why not bigger, I asked.
She said she was worried about the responsibility: “I wouldn’t want so many people’s livelihoods dependent on me.”
We talked about the potential to help thousands instead of hundreds by creating meaningful work and good paying jobs. And just by asking the question, she started to rethink her goal from “no more than one hundred” to “why not thousands?”
Does she have to create a unicorn to make a meaningful contribution to the world? Of course not! She’s already touched hundreds if not thousands of lives with her work.
But if she’s going to start a 100 person business, why not make it a unicorn? ;)
To the loyal readers who know that Friday (FriDaily, if you will) is our normal publishing day, thanks for checking in.
Action-packed startup content will be in back in your inbox next week!
Need vacation inspiration? Here’s Tom and Donna:
It’s Women’s History Month and The O’Daily is all in. We’re building on last week’s career wisdom with 13 fantastic book recommendations from women leaders. Check out what the best CEOs, investors, innovators, and global leaders are reading and why.
Read MoreIt’s Women’s History Month and The O’Daily is all in. We’re building on last week’s career wisdom with 13 fantastic book recommendations from women leaders. Check out what the best CEOs, investors, innovators, and global leaders are reading and why.
By Tara Brach
So much of the startup experience for me has been managing my emotions, energy.... existence, really. Getting (and staying) over the sense that I'm not good enough, in all of the many ways that fear shows up, is one of the biggest unlocks I've found as a founder.
- Angela Ferrante, CEO of Laudable
By James Clear
This book changed the way I thought about setting goals. Instead of simply setting a goal, I now set habits that will help me achieve that goal. I encourage friends and family to write down a description of the person they want to be a year from now and then write down that person's habits. What time do they wake up? What's their morning routine? Then, slowly start to adopt those habits and watch your life transform.
- Shante Frazier, CEO of WellCapped
(Kathryn: +100. Atomic Habits is one of the goal-domination strategies here.)
By Britt Bennett
A favorite since I started reading more during the pandemic. It's a great story about different perceptions and perspectives of race and identity.
- Eileen Lee, Co-founder of The Lola
By Gino Wickman
Must read for any entrepreneur! Practical, tactical advice to building and leading a scaling, sustainable business.
- Karen Houghton, CEO of Infinite Giving
By Elizabeth Lesser
This book made me realize that so much of how society and business is shaped is deeply rooted in history, biology, and more. Sometimes systems need to be rocked. Lesser’s message is "when women are the storytellers, the human story changes."
- Sara Saxner-Coughlin, Head of Platform at Overline
By Michael Gelb
Fantastic book on the creative and learning process.
- Amelia Schaffner, Director of Emory Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
By Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Inspiring stories about women’s rights across the globe.
- Elizabeth Feidler, Principal at Noro-Moseley
By Margaret Heffernan
She’s also a TedTalk speaker and it’s funny as all get out!
- Jacqui Chew, CMO at Liquid
By Brene Brown
The most real assessment of the human condition and what it means to be living your best life.
- Angela Fusaro, CEO of Physician360
By John Doerr
This is by far the best book I have ever read on strategic planning and should be on the shelves of anyone who leads a team.
- Sarah Saadatjoo, Global Head of Quality & Customer Insights at Wix
By Jen Sincero
Loved the message of empowerment!
- Allyson Eman, CEO of Venture Atlanta
By Adrienne Maree Brown
Brown comes at change leadership with so much humanity.
- Blanca Catalina Garcia, CEO of BCG Innovation
By Tim Templeton
An easy read on how to leverage and grow your network.
- Lauren Kane, CEO of VC Worthy Business
Did you update your reading list?!? Same. Such a good mix of business, life, growth, celebration, and story.
Thank you to these amazing women for taking the time to share what transforms and inspires them.
What’s the book that’s been most impactful on your life?
To celebrate Women’s History Month, The O’Daily is tapping into the collective wisdom and badassery of women leaders in the Atlanta startup ecosystem and asking: What’s the best career advice you’ve received?
Read MoreTo celebrate Women’s History Month, The O’Daily is tapping into the collective wisdom and badassery of women leaders in the Atlanta startup ecosystem and asking:
What’s the best career advice you’ve received?
“Seek support from the networks you have at every opportunity and build relationships that can be mutually rewarding— you always have meaningful perspective to share up and down the organization ladder!”
-Susan Nethero, Co-Chair of Golden Seeds Atlanta + CEO Emerita of Intimacy
“Always be open to opportunities that don’t fit into your specific line of work. It’s amazing the connections you can make when you are open and not too rigid in life and work.”
- Amelia Schaffner, Founding Director of Emory Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
“Make choices now based on how you may feel about them in 20 years. It will help you live a life without regrets.”
- Karen Houghton, CEO of Infinite Giving
“Don’t be afraid to ask. The worst someone can do is say no.”
- Jennifer Singh, Co-founder of Understory
“Great leadership starts from within. You have to do the work to authentically stand in your power.”
- Blanca Catalina Garcia, CEO of BCG Innovation
“When you're meeting new people, ask how you can best help them in reaching their goals. Without expecting something in return.”
- Aly Merritt, Managing Director of Atlanta Tech Village
“The first decade or so of your career should be spent collecting experiences and tools for your toolbox. Your first job isn't your last, so don't put pressure on yourself to have the perfect job, performance, or work environment. Your career is a story comprised of many chapters.”
- Sara Saxner-Coughlin, Head of Platform at Overline
“Make your passion your vocation.”
- Jacqui Chew, CMO at Liquid + Licensee of TedxAtlanta
Best of all was the tongue-in-cheek advice from Amy Love, Director at Boomtown Accelerators:
“Be careful who you get career advice from.”
What other great career advice have you gotten? Bonus points if it’s from a woman who is making history!
You’ve found yourself on a startup rocketship ride! Woohoo! Whether you’re the founder CEO or early employee, if you’re fortunate enough to be part of a fast growing company, there’s amazing opportunity ahead. But there’s also doubt, uncertainty, and constant chaos. You’ve never done this before. How do you continue to add value and be the leader or employee your company needs as it continually evolves?
Read MoreYou’ve found yourself on a startup rocketship ride! Woohoo!
Whether you’re the founder CEO or early employee, if you’re fortunate enough to be part of a fast growing company, there’s amazing opportunity ahead.
But there’s also doubt, uncertainty, and constant chaos. You’ve never done this before. How do you continue to add value and be the leader or employee your company needs as it continually evolves?
Give Away Your Legos and Other Commandments For Scaling Startups is one of the best articles on the mental game of scaling.
Giving Your Legos = handing off your current responsibilities so you can take on new challenges.
Sometimes that means trusting a junior person to take over (and supporting them as they make mistakes and learn!) Sometimes it is bringing in someone who is more experienced and qualified than you.
Both scenarios take trust, low ego, and a willingness to put company over self.
At Rigor, “Legos” became a safe code word to check-in with each other:
“Is it time for me to give up my Legos?
“Am I holding on to my Legos too much?”
Talking about “Legos” openly and frequently, including in a team setting, enables people to prepare and be comfortable with the process.
Kyle Porter, CEO of Salesloft, shared this advice at Salesloft in the Studio (43:00) and David Cummings’ also recounted it.
How do you do this?
It’s easy to get bogged down with problems, Imposter Syndrome, or non-stop stress.
How do you keep perspective?
Want specifics? Have fun in <1 minute per day:
Maintaining your physical and mental health is key for the long haul. How do you stay with the company over many years? Don’t burn out!
You also have to be in a good place personally to be a good leader. Staying positive, maintaining composure, and making thoughtful decisions require a strong foundation.
This means taking care of your body, mind, soul, and relationships.
Figure out what your personal anchors are and stick to those consistently.
I know CEOs who:
…all while running a company.
Do they do all of these at once? Nope. Do they pick the most important ones and protect them in their schedule? Absolutely.
And if a CEO can do it, so can everyone!
Being part of a startup journey over many years is an incredible experience. You meet fantastic people, no day is the same, and you learn even more than you realize!
What have you noticed about the people that grow with the company, including the founders? Any suggestions from personal experience?
The Atlanta tech scene is booming. With thousands of startups, 10+ unicorns, and more funding than ever before, it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur in Atlanta. Entrepreneurs are scrappy, always learning, and keep an eye on budget. That’s why I pulled together some great *FREE* resources for the Atlanta-preneurs out there.
Read MoreThe Atlanta tech scene is booming. With thousands of startups, 10+ unicorns, and more funding than ever before, it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur in Atlanta.
Entrepreneurs are scrappy, always learning, and keep an eye on budget. That’s why I pulled together some great *FREE* resources for the Atlanta-preneurs out there.
What’s an entrepreneur’s favorite price?
Free.99
With no further jokes (ever), here’s 4 fantastic free resources for entrepreneurs in Atlanta.
A digital guide to learn about Atlanta-based:
This is the go-to resource for if you’re wondering what is “out there” or looking for a directory of options.
A 9-week course to learn how to launch a startup. Topics include:
Each class is taught by an industry expert with many years of startup experience. It’s a fantastic primer and overview.
The Atlanta Tech Village has other great programs and events too. All open to the public at low or no cost.
A database of Atlanta’s tech ecosystem with a focus on specific companies.
…with powerful search, data visualizations, and filtering.
By WEI Atlanta
A platform with learning content, recorded roundtables, and resource lists for areas like:
Focused on women but open to all!
With Atlanta’s dynamic tech scene, it’s helpful to have great options and resources for Atlanta-based entrepreneurs.
But wait. There’s more!
Next up: *FREE* resources for all entrepreneurs, homegrown in Atlanta.
Think:
Please shoot me a note if you have one in mind!
You’ve moved beyond the super early stages of your Customer Success team. You’re planning for the future. The company is growing quickly with aggressive sales targets this year. How do you plan your hiring for Customer Success?
Read MoreYou’ve moved beyond the super early stages of your Customer Success team. You’re planning for the future. The company is growing quickly with aggressive sales targets this year.
How do you plan your hiring for Customer Success?
Sometimes Customer Success means “Customer Success Managers (CSMs)” but for many startups, it includes a range of roles: onboarding/implementation, technical support, professional services, and account managers (aka CSMs).
It’s a complex equation with nuanced variables. What’s the right number of people to hire and when do you bring them on?
Here are 6 factors to consider when planning your hiring and growth strategy for Customer Success.
When deals get to the demo stage, how many are likely to close? Once you have a proposal sent to a customer, what % of those convert to new business?
The goal is to understand when new customers are (most likely) coming on board and what the impact will be to Customer Success.
Ways to track this:
Make sure you have key information like:
**BONUS** Keep an eye on the sales hiring.
Hiring sales reps directly impacts hitting sales targets. If there’s a big lift or lag in sales hiring, expect to see that downstream in a few months with customer count and Customer Success hiring.
How many customers or how much renewal revenue can one team member handle? If you have implementation separated from technical support, what are the ballpark ratios for each role?
Example:
An implementation specialist has 20-30 dedicated accounts they’re onboarding at a time, while a support team of 3 can handle tickets from 300 accounts.
A sales rep quota is 6 accounts per quarter so 1 implementation specialist per 4 sales reps is about right.
For support, add one support rep per 100 customers. If you have 15 sales reps each adding 6 customers per quarter, hire a new support person per quarter. This will be a moving target as the sales team grows.
Start with a guess - ahem - I mean, scientific hypothesis based on your unique business and customer. Adjust over time as you learn more.
Use the Customer-Success-to-Customer ratio plus the sales hiring, targets, and pipeline to estimate your team growth needs.
Have you filled your open roles? Amazing! Keep having conversations with great candidates.
Be transparent that you’re not hiring now so you set expectations and build long term trust. Emphasize that you’re growing quickly, hiring will ramp again soon, and their resume looked great so you wanted to talk to them asap!
Things change pretty fast at a startup. You never know when you’ll need 10 people yesterday so keep the pipeline full.
I’m not saying only have one person when you need 12. And definitely DO NOT scrimp or wait to hire Customer Success. (Saastr says so, too.) But if you’re not sure if you need 8 or 10, hold at 8.
When your team is a tad small, you can:
If you hire to the max and sales numbers come up short, you are in layoff territory which sucks personally and for team morale. It’s way better to be stretched because of growth!
Building a great customer experience and Customer Success team is not just about the people. Continually evaluate repetitive or manual tasks. What could be automated? Should this be self-serve within the tool? Do we need to update our internal tools or documentation?
Examples:
Would customers buy more if they could upgrade within the app instead of going through an account manager?
Could Calendly save 30 minutes per day scheduling client meetings?
What about a Zapier Zap to push usage info to CRM so we can proactively reach out to at-risk accounts?
Keep a running list of ideas to improve your team’s output and efficiency, quantifying the time spent and revenue implications of improvements.
Then spend time thinking through or discussing the budget, time, and impact tradeoffs of different solutions. Some common approaches are:
Over time, your Customer-Success-to-Customer ratios should improve as you gain more efficiency and automation in your processes.
If you have seasonal busyness or you need help today but aren’t sure of the long term picture, can you go with a more flexible option than a full-time hire?
Examples:
Your team is writing help articles and blogs → hire a part-time copywriter.
Making custom training slide decks for each client → engage a contractor or design freelancer.
Booking travel to client sites takes up several hours per week → outsource to a virtual assistant.
Updating metrics manually on a spreadsheet → Interns to the rescue. (Who will promptly figure out how to automate because they are smart like that! 🤯 )
I love this idea from Levels where “part of onboarding is finding a part of one's job and delegating it to a VA.”
Scaling a Customer Success team is both art and science. You’re looking at your company, team, customers, business economics, and trajectory, while juggling the day-to-day, and watching the chess board and pieces change constantly. There’s no perfect formula. It’s a fun process of tweaking and learning as you go.
What lessons or insights have been helpful as you’ve planned hiring and growth for Customer Success?
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