Peyman Pouryekta joins Brian for a virtual conversation from Berlin, Germany. Peyman is a consultant and advisor to tech industry startups, helping them create stronger, more focused teams and leaders. In recent years, Peyman has worked with venture capital firms, directly with startups as a strategic advisor and has served in C-Level positions. In these roles, Peyman coaches his clients how to set strategy, develop world class products and evaluate technology needs as they scale up their operations.

Among his many career achievements, Peyman joined an AI company as one of the first employees and helped grow that company from the ground up as Director of Engineering. By the time he exited, the firm had grown to 90 employees with offices in New York, London and Berlin.

In this episode, we will discuss common mistakes startups make as they grow, how to be an effective leader in the tech industry and share advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and future executives.

Among the topics we cover in this interview:

• The five mistakes that start-ups make when they're scaling
• Transitioning from working on code to leading when you've scaled tour business
• There are no born leaders, it's something you must learn through experience
• The ego of a leader – how they control their emotions and what they do under pressure
• How to become a leader or a CTO
• Managing teams especially when they're growing
• Putting together management structures within a business – are there too many internal structures or too few? Are they fit for purpose?
• Leaders need to have space and being able to trust other management. They need to be able to make mistakes in a safe environment
• What environments do we need to create to produce good leaders?

Learn more about Peyman and his work:

• Website: https://www.pouryekta.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peymanpouryekta/?originalSubdomain=de
• Instagram: @peymanman
• Twitter: @peymanman