Finding new opportunities from second order effects
Over the past decade, new platforms have driven down the cost of starting a tech business. For example, you don’t need to buy servers anymore – you can just host your site on AWS. And distribution has become immediate, efficient, and highly targeted thanks to Google and Facebook. The impact extends beyond technology companies too. […]
Scaling from maker to manager
A few weeks ago I shared some important leadership lessons from Stewart Butterfield, including investing in your own growth to make sure that the founder scales as fast as the company. Growing with your start-up can be a very tough undertaking for a founder. It requires reinventing yourself dramatically in very little time. When you […]
Should you include a Series A investor in your seed round?
One of the most important decisions for a founder of an early stage company is deciding who should be on the cap table. We’ve written about doing your due diligence on investors and funds to make sure you find the right partners for the journey. Lately, we have seen more founders grappling with the question of […]
Three leadership lessons from Slack’s Stewart Butterfield
Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down for an intimate fireside chat with Slack’s Stewart Butterfield as he was honoured with C100’s Icon of Canadian Entrepreneurship (ICE) award. This award is presented yearly to a Canadian who has played a historic role in technology and innovation, as well as demonstrated a commitment to giving […]
Changing the narrative on distributed teams in Silicon Valley
The predominant narrative among Silicon Valley start-ups has been: don’t open a second office until you have reached 100+ employees. Yes, there are tremendous advantages when everybody works out of one headquarters. However, the pressure of sky-high housing costs, salaries and competition for suitable candidates is causing start-ups and investors to rethink their approach to […]