Leadership
“I am 100% behind my CEOs up until the day I fire them.” -- Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital I’ve always loved that Don Valentine quote although, like many great quotes, it took me a while to really understand it. In short, it means that the board of directors should
Bubbles
This post shares a collection of thoughts on what I've variously heard referred to as "the tightening," "the unwinding," "the unraveling," or "the great reckoning" -- the already-in-process but largely still-coming deflation of technology-oriented stock valuations, particularly in consumer-oriented companies
SaaS
The more I hear about SaaS companies talking up big total contract value (TCV) figures, the more I worry about The Tightening, and the more I think we should create a new SaaS metric: TTCV = theoretical total contract value. TTCV = PCV + NPCV Prepaid contract value (PCV) is the prepaid portion
Metrics
It’s a frothy time and during such times people can develop a tendency to get sloppy about their numbers. The first sign of froth is when people routinely discuss company size using market capitalization instead of revenue. This happened constantly during Bubble 1.0 and started again several years
Startups
I've written before about the curse of the megaround which can happen, for example, when a startup raises $100M at a unicorn valuation and I've described before what typically happens next: * The company is under great pressure to invest the money to drive strong growth. Late-stage
Management
When I listen to senior executives talk about their first- and second-line managers, I sometimes get pretty concerned. That happens when I hear what I call "good enough" thinking. "She's doing a solid job, but nothing too inspirational." "He's not a
M&A
As mentioned in my recent Curse of the Megaround post, some companies that find themselves flush with cash and under heavy pressure to grow, decide to embark on dubious acquisitions to help shore up the growth story. As one reader it put it, you can summarize your megaround post with
Bubbles
With what everyone seems reluctant to call a bubble in late-stage, private financing in full swing, I thought I'd do a quick post to drill into a concept I presented in my 2015 predictions post, something I call the curse of the megaround. We will do that by
Churn
I was chatting with a fellow SaaS executive the other day and the conversation turned to churn and renewal rates. I asked how he calculated them and he said: Well, we take every customer who was also a customer 12 months ago and then add up their ARR 12 months
Management
At Disney -- a company that is truly focused on customer experience -- every “cast member” (i.e., employee) gets six weeks of training before they see a “guest” (i.e., customer). "Face characters" (e.g., Snow White walking through the park) spend an additional 40 hours just
Career
It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of big-company HR practices. I’m more of the First Break all the Rules type. Despite my general skepticism of many standard practices, we still do annual performance reviews at my company, though I’m thinking seriously of dropping them.
Management
I get a fair number of emails and calls from former colleagues and friends asking for career advice. I'm always happy to provide it and the process of doing so is both thought-provoking and fun. I have a learned a lot from having these conversations and have noticed
