For many early-stage founders, hiring team members from FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) companies feels like a shortcut to success. "These folks excelled at Google! Surely they'll turn my fledgling startup into the next unicorn!"
But reality often has other plans. Here’s why hiring FAANG alumni might not be your startup’s golden ticket:
Designers, let’s talk about an uncomfortable truth. For many of us, the joy of our craft lies in creating work that is not just functional but exceptional. We love unearthing hidden user insights through research, challenging assumptions, and asking the kinds of questions that lead to elegant, transformative solutions. To us, this feels like the very essence of design: solving the problem in the best way possible. But here’s the rub...
As a Venture Partner at a VC fund, I've reviewed hundreds of pitch decks in my time. In fact most funds will receive thousands of decks a year, with only a small fraction leading to conversations and even fewer resulting in investments. With those kinds of odds, your pitch deck needs to be exceptional - think 8 or 9 out of 10 - to stand out.
In my recent talk on The Growth Equation, I shared the story of Marta, a founder archetype whose journey reveals a common but often overlooked challenge in early-stage startups. Marta stands out because she excels where many founders struggle—at customer acquisition.
One of the most common—and deceptively simple—questions founders ask is: “How can I grow my business faster?” It feels like the kind of question that should have a straightforward answer. Yet, as many CEOs discover, growth is rarely straightforward. It’s a balancing act between multiple forces, each pulling in different directions.