ACQ2 by Acquired

We're joined by former Amazon, Microsoft and Bulletproof executive Anna Collins to discuss how high-performance organizations structure their hiring and interview processes. Whether you're a small startup or a big public company, as Anna puts it, there is no more important question than who you put "on your bus". Anna distills what she's learned across 20+ years and making thousands of hires into actionable, must-listen advice for anyone aiming to grow their organization in a high-performance manner (or on the other side, anyone looking to join a high-performance company!).

“I believe that structure is what is required for creativity and for humans to actually connect. If you have chaos, that is the opposite of having the ability to connect and having a good candidate experience. It’s all about being human and you need the structure to facilitate that and to be productive.” – Anna Collins

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Let People Know You’re An LP on Twitter!

Show Links:

14 Leadership Principles of Amazon

33 Competencies of MSFT
Anna's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-collins-5965/

Transcript link:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PX_6bUsHJRN3eZsCH5K8m-9OfHTOuFXH

In Part 2 of our conversation, Jason reveals his "secret master plan" behind the Calacanis empire, as well as how he and his team manage all their various activities and their own productivity. And of course, we couldn’t resist diving into some behind-the-scenes stories and hot takes, including a long bet on a future TWiSt - Acquired live show crossover collab. 

You can find Part 1 of our conversation in the main show feed at:  https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/acquired-special-episode-jason-calacanis

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

We're joined for an Adapeting episode by the cofounders of Mystery, a Seattle seed-stage startup that we've mentioned before on Acquired and was started by early Convoy employees. In ordinary times, Mystery sends customers on magical date nights and group outings throughout the city with no planning or decision-making required -- an "easy button" for date night. Of course, we no longer live in ordinary times, and Mystery has undergone an incredible transformation. Within the span of a month, the company went from having "found" product market-fit and nearly completing a fundraise, to 100% of their business evaporating (and literally pitching Sequoia on the same day they released the Black Swan Memo), to then launching a completely new stay-at-home product and that not only recovered all of their revenue but meaningfully grew the business. We hope you all enjoy this conversation, and take some inspiration for navigating your own businesses through these stormy seas!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Links:

• https://www.trymystery.com
• https://sandwich.co 

ACQ2 announcement: We now have a Gdrive! You can find full transcripts of ACQ2 Episodes here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1PX_6bUsHJRN3eZsCH5K8m-9OfHTOuFXH

Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures joins us to illuminate everything Pre-Seed -- not just what it is and how founders/companies should navigate it, but also and more deeply: 

• How he came into this corner of the venture world 
• How he started Precursor as a solo GP and raised his first/subsequent funds, and what that journey was like 
• How he manages the firm, its overall strategy, and especially portfolio construction within this relatively new asset class (spoiler: it's different!)

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Note: we recorded this episode in the days right before it became clear that the coronavirus was going to become a major global crisis. While the world has obviously changed since, nothing in this episode is fundamentally different and -- if anything -- Pre-Seed rounds are going to be more relevant for entrepreneurs and investors going forward as valuations and check-sizes contract. We hope you enjoy and find the discussion as useful and illuminating as we did!

We're joined by Wade Foster, co-founder & CEO of Zapier, a company that basically hasn’t raised capital, doesn’t have an office, doesn’t have salespeople, and whose product consists of connecting other people’s products. And yet today they are doing well over $50M in profitable ARR, have hundreds of employees and thousands of hyper-passionate customers, and are one of the most interesting private SaaS companies in the world. We’re super excited for Wade to join us and dive into the full story of how this came to be!

“We as founders have been prone to overthinking things. Just go for it, don’t be afraid of being a little weird about it. It’s hard to stand out. If your conviction is telling you to do something unconventional, unconventional stands out.” Wade, CEO of Zapier @wadefoster

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Show Links:

makerpad.co

Zapier Fibonacci Pricing

High Growth Handbook

Ford vs Ferarri

Poor Charlie’s Almanack

The Ultimate Guide To Remote Work

“There’s no real secret to making the stuff we make. It’s not something where you have to be crazy talented. The thing is, you just spend a little bit longer on it than is reasonable. Most people would give up, and then you just keep going on it for three more hours making it better, doing more research, whatever the thing is that makes it better. Wherever most people would say, yea, that’s good enough, you just keep going for a little while longer. Not an eternity longer, just a bit longer.” -Nathan, quoting Alex Blumberg, Gimlet Media

Ben and David agree to have the tables turned in a great interview by friend and longtime Acquired supporter Nathan Baschez, who was formerly the Head of Product at both Gimlet Media and Substack, and now writes the excellent Divinations newsletter on tech and business strategy. 

This episode originally came about because one of Nathan’s first articles at Divinations kindly focused on Ben and Acquired, which you can read in full here: https://divinations.substack.com/p/ben-gilbert-on-how-acquired-launched

The core Divinations newsletter is free for everyone, but if you’d like special access to any of their paywalled content, Nathan shared this discount link for all Acquired LPs: https://divinations.substack.com/acquired . Check it out! 

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Show Links:

Nathan Baschez

The Morning Show (AppleTV)

Thinking Fast and Slow Summary

Willpower Summary

Marshmallow Experiment

How I Built This

Startup

Serial

Invest Like The Best

The No-Code Movement

Diggnation

Joe Rogan Show

Let's face it, Acquired borders on Star Wars fan podcast anyway. So we dipped our toe in the water of making it official, with our review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

We are joined by fellow Star Wars nerd and repeat special guest, Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark. In this episode, we *nearly* avoid any business analysis or speculation on the technology, media, or enterprise ecosystems, with only a brief revisit to the question: "Was it worth it for Disney to buy Lucasfilm?"

Did we love it, hate it, or want to bury it like the prequels? Tune in! There are definitely spoilers, so be warned!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Steven Galanis, cofounder and CEO of the red-hot Chicago startup Cameo, joins us to discuss how they've turned selling personalized celebrity shoutouts online into both a massive business and the most interesting new social media phenomenon to hit the West since TikTok. We hope you have as much fun listening as we did recording this one!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Show Links:

Broke – ESPN Documentary

Mark McGrath’s Breakup Cameo

We're joined by Webflow's Co-Founder and CEO, Vlad Magdalin, talking about how he started the company (over a decade, trying three times), how to nail the timing of your startup, and the future of the "no-code movement."

Vlad took his company through YCombinator in 2013, and raised only $3m in the following six years, before closing a $72m Series A from Accel earlier this year. He gives his perspective on why now is the only time Webflow could have worked (not in 2009, the last time he tried to start it), what's changed in browser technology, and how he was inspired by one of the original designers of the iPhone software. Vlad also shares his wisdom for other founders and opportunities he thinks will be available for entrepreneurs in the next five years when robust "no-code" infrastructure is built out.

“The differentiator between No-Code and Low-Code is that Low-Code makes this implicit admission that in order to really finish a project, I’m going to need a developer. Or I am going to need to know how to take it across that last mile. In No-Code, the aspiration is that for the vast majority of cases, you will not that. Or, if you do, that one or a few developers that can create the No-Code version that abstracts away the Low-Code version and put it into the hands of millions.” -Vlad Magdalin, @callmevlad

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Show Links:

Bret Victor – The Future of Programming (YouTube)

Bret Victor – Inventing on Principle (vimeo)

Paul Graham – Default Alive or Default Dead Essay

We are joined by Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner on Benchmark, talking his investment philosophies, enterprise technology trends, and the uniqueness of Benchmark. How is this firm with only five partners and no associates so repeatably successful? Chetan shares the story of his very first investment, MongoDB, and lessons learned from his other investments and board positions in Elastic, Sketch, Duffel, Mulesoft, and many others.

Chetan also helps us understand how he balances staying open-minded enough to let founders shape his vision of the future (and not the other way around), while staying educated on areas where he thinks the future is bright.

“The product/market fit question, I don’t find to be a conclusive one…because one of the assumptions is that you’re assuming the market itself is constant, which we all know is not true. Today’s product/market fit might be tomorrow’s outdated solution.” – Chetan Puttagunta, @chetanp

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM