Founder Fridays No. 82
How to Sabotage a Meeting (According to the CIA) -- Manage Capacity Not Time -- Sorting Priorities
Happy Friday.
How to Sabotage a Meeting (According to the CIA)
In 1944, the CIA wrote a how-to manual for sabotaging meetings, and it was recently declassified. There’s a lot of fun stuff in here, much of it timeless. Here are some of my favorites: 1) Make “speeches” — Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. 2) Slow it down — advocate caution, avoid haste. 3) Where possible, refer all matters to committees (never fewer than five) for “consideration.” 4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. 5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes and resolutions. 6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting, and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision. Authentic Communications (5 minutes)
Manage Capacity Not Time
It’s not the quantity of time that you are able to juggle, assign and manage that matters. It’s the quality of the time that you are able to spend on your tasks. Therefore, we should manage our capacity, not our time. You have a limited amount of productive hours in a day. People differ in when and how they work best. Know yourself and when you work optimally. Don't try to pack your calendar fully. Leave space for the unexpected things that come up. Balance focused work with breaks to avoid burnout. Be intentional about how you spend your productive time each day. The Engineering Manager (7 minutes)
Sorting Priorities
There’s a pattern in the early days of any great startup — 90% of their growth came from 10% of the things they tried. I call that 10% their “big growth levers.” And, as a startup, your goal is to find your big lever, not just pull the small ones harder. So how do you know which ideas to deprioritize? Avoid wasting time on the wrong goals with these two questions: 1) If it works, how big can it be? Look at each idea and ask yourself that question. Don’t worry too much about “chance of success.” The best ideas always seem risky and improbable, until they work. 2) Where's your rate-limiting step (RLS)? Every business has a bottleneck that limits their overall growth. Look at each key customer behavior ratio (e.g. conversions, activations, referrals) in your business and ask yourself, “Could we double this number? And would that double our growth?” Finding your RLS is harder than it sounds, and it may take a few tries to get it right. But when you do find it, prioritize it above all else. SYSTM (3 minutes)
Founder FAQ: What’s the deal with founders preferred stock?
Founders Preferred stock is a type of stock that gives founders more control over their company, but it’s not always well-received by venture capital investors. In this article, we will explore the types of Founders Preferred stock, the benefits and drawbacks of using it, and what venture capital investors think about it. Westaway (9 minutes)
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term-by-term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Convertible Note: Guide / Video
Control Legal Spend
Startups suffer from unpredictable legal bills under the billable hour system. Fees fluctuate month-to-month without warning. Law firms drag out billable hours, but startups foot the bill. Even basic work can lead to surprisingly high legal bills. This unpredictability cripples financial planning. Budgets rarely match actual spend. With utter uncertainty around legal spend, startups cannot forecast or manage burn rates effectively. The antiquated billable hour system fails them. Our General Counsel flat, monthly-fee service gives startups cost certainty. Legal spend becomes predictable with bundled services and no surprise overage bills. By switching from hourly to our flat fee model, startups finally get confident budgeting, accurate forecasting and predictable legal spend. If you’re sick of getting surprise legal bills and interested in controlling your legal spend, let’s talk.
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