First Round Capital

Most people describe finding PMF as an art, not a science. We're here to change that. Introducing PMF Method. After 20 years and 500+ investments in pre-product-market fit companies, we've drawn on our data and worked with some of the world's most iconic enterprise founders, distilling what they did in their first 6 months into a free 14-week intensive experience that helps sales-led B2B founders build epic companies. In tactical sessions, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close your first sales — all while keeping 100% of your equity. You'll work alongside a tight group of other builders at your same stage, and get to learn from the hard-earned insights from founders of $1B+ B2B companies, like Vanta's Christina Cacioppo, Looker's lloyd tabb, Plaid's Zachary Perret, Ironclad's Jason Boehmig, Lattice's Jack Altman, and Verkada's Filip Kaliszan. The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs from 5/29 to 8/28.?Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply — just get your application in by 5/7 (or tag a founder friend below!) More details, FAQs, and application link in the comments below ??

Everyone tends to groan when annual planning time comes around. Yet, we know it’s important to give your org a sense of where they’re going next year and how every task and project leads to the outcomes you aim to achieve. I was excited to work with First Round Capital and Jiaona Zhang (JZ) to put together some advice on how to plan for startups of any stage and size. I also shared a bit more about how we plan in Linear — for everything from engineering to marketing. You can read it all here: https://lnkd.in/g5jGaT95

You've likely built up some annual planning scar tissue over the years. To help cut through it, Jiaona Zhang (JZ) has assembled an all-star squad to share lessons from planning. Cristina Cordova, Stevie Case, and Rama Katkar join her to offer the COO, CRO, CFO, and CPO lens, sharing a unique functional deep dive on everything from how AI is impacting their processes, to org design tweaks and tactical templates. Their experience spans companies like Linear, Notion, Vanta, Linktree, Stripe, Twilio, Webflow, Instacart, Airbnb and Credit Karma — meaning that no matter your industry, stage or business model, you're likely to find tons of food for thought as you craft your own company's approach. Whether you're about to kick off your process or you're nearing the end (but aren't feeling too confident), today's guide is a bookmark-worthy resource. (Article in the comments)

When launching something new, aim for a "minimum remarkable product"—not just a viable one. Alyssa Henry, former CEO of Square, explains how craftsmanship and elegance set their products apart. "You can have 2 chairs. Both are simple, but one is crudely made and one is elegantly made. You can instantly tell which one is elegant by the craftsmanship.” This focus on elegance and detail was key to making Square’s now-iconic payment terminal stand out in a crowded market and reshape how businesses accept payments. Catch more of Alyssa's advice on the importance of taste when crafting world-class products on the In Depth podcast. Link: https://lnkd.in/gf2NUQ5a

Product managers with commercial sensibility can be a game-changer in sales. But before coaching this skill, product leaders like Anneka Gupta, CPO at Rubrik, emphasize the importance of diagnosing where the gap lies. “Do people not understand the role of selling and making the product successful or do they not understand how sales operate within the context of your business?” she says. To ensure her diagnosis is always inclusive, Anneka makes all her PMs undergo the same training as her sales reps. Check out even more tactics Anneka has for product leaders on coaching this kind of sales judgment into their teams on the In Depth podcast. Link in comments.

We recently kicked off a search for a Program Director to join our Founder Success Team First Round Capital. Given I assume the right person for this role will already be in the startup ecosystem, I'd really love help getting the word out. Here is a bit of context: At First Round, we aspire to invest in founders who possess not just strengths, but areas of true genius, whether it’s technical skill, product intuition and/or domain expertise. But on the other side of every spike in talent are a few areas that are still underdeveloped, parts of the business where a founder doesn't have the skills and expertise — yet. The role of the Program Director on the Founder Success team is leading the ideation, curation, planning and execution of programs and events that fill in those gaps and help founders develop new, crucial competencies. More on the role and where to apply can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gPhhJD4U

When Ben Freeman first pitched us Omnea in 2022, they were pre-design partners, still in Figma. But he was willing to do a cold demo with a potential customer as a diligence session for us to watch — it was impressively gutsy. You can see this on display in this slide from their seed deck. Look at the top right corner: Ask us for a product demo. The idea itself was great. Purchasing B2B tools is a messy, complicated process, and bringing consumer-quality UX to handling procurement end-to-end was compelling. But there was also a lot of depth there — that’s what made Ben willing to stand behind it with a live cold demo. He had put in a significant amount of work to understand the market, competition, and customer needs. For example, he conducted 100+ interviews with procurement leads before building the product. I take hundreds of pitches a year — and very few founders go that deep. (So glad Cristina Cordova found him!) That willingness to put in the work paid off. After a long product and team build, they’ve seen incredible traction in the past year — the business is ripping. Ben’s been extremely focused and hands-on the whole way through, landing great logos while keeping a pulse on his customers and the market. Today the Omnea team is sharing the news of their Accel-led $20M Series A round. Excited to support them through all the gutsy moves ahead.?

Before engineering leaders document any strategy, two key questions should be top of mind: 1. How will you invest your headcount and budget? 2. How will decisions be made as challenges arise? A strong technology strategy will answer these questions and guide teams through any roadblocks that will inevitably surface. Will Larson has spent over a decade leading engineering teams and sharing insights on what makes great engineering leadership. Catch all his sharp advice in one of our most popular episodes this year in the link in the comments.

Brand = the business value of delight Krithika M. (VP of Marketing at OpenAI) shares an anecdote from her days at Stripe about how going the extra mile to ship a thoughtful display of craft paid off. “There's almost this attribution that’s imbued into your product by how much time and effort you place on your marketing,” she says. On the In Depth podcast, she unpacks the brand philosophy behind some of the biggest names in tech. Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/de6QKsBu

"One thing I’ve learned from Bipul Sinha (Co-Founder & CEO at Rubrik) that’s now embedded in how I operate, is the importance of having one killer, differentiating feature that you can sell from the start. It’s about doing one thing radically better than anyone else. Even if you’re missing 80% of the features competitors have, if you can deliver that one wow factor and create belief in your roadmap, that’s what creates the magic. That’s what gets the customer say, ‘I’m buying for this one capability, and I trust you’ll deliver the rest.’” I've been a huge fan of Anneka Gupta's for a long time. It was so much fun to have her on "In Depth." We cover everything from building product teams to developing commercial taste. Checkout our entire conversation in the comments below.