Pushing Beyond the Obvious

PBTO16: Building and Growing Startups

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Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Neil Patel. Neil is a serial entrepreneur & co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue.

Why is he on the show

He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama.

The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 online marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world

What are we talking about
In this wide ranging discussion, we talk about entrepreneurship, leadership, selling, marketing, creativity, the importance of culture and how to build a culture, conflicts and a lot more.
My learnings from the discussion are as below:
  • Leadership:
    • The most important role of a leader/founder/CEO is to be able to create a good team and an open and honest culture.
    • It is also important for a leader to disconnect from all the bustle of the day-to-day work to reflect on what they are doing and if they are indeed on the right path to make their vision a reality. Neil talks about a practice that he refers to as “Monk Days” where he completely disconnects himself to think about his business and makes notes about the course corrections that he wants to make or ideas that he wants to discuss with his team. He does this every month.
    • He also advices that it is ok to not hire someone who could potentially not be a cultural fit and wait for some one, i.e, hiring for cultural fit is more critical than hiring for talent.
    • Marketing:
      • The most important skill that a marketer needs to be successful is the ability to be creative.
      • It also helps a lot if they are able to work with techies and engineers so that they can growth hack or master the techie side of  marketing.
      • Managing Conflicts:
        • When it comes to conflicts, I learn that conflicts by themselves are not good or bad. However, every conflict holds a seed of growth, that can grow into something beautiful provided it has the right environment, which in this case is the culture of the organization. Neil, personally believes that the best way to resolve conflict in his organization is through data.

          • The overarching theme was that keeping things simple and common sensical is critical for success.

          You can find more information about Neil and follow him on twitter @NeilPatel.

          PS: This episode is sponsored by Audible. Visit http://www.audibletrial.com/PBTO to download a free audiobook and a 30 day free trial membership.

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          Pushing Beyond the ObviousBy Mukesh Gupta: Author, Blogger, Podcaster, Change Agent. Entreprenuer by Nature, Employee by Choice
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