High Growth Handbook by Gil, Elad -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR HOW TO USE THIS BOOK INTRODUCTION

Welome to the High Growth Handbook An interview with Marc Andreessen

CHAPTER 1: THE ROLE OF THE CEO

The role of the CEO: Managing yourself Personal time management Delegate Audit your calendar weekly, then monthly Learn to say No Realize your old patterns of work can no longer apply Take vacations and time off Work on things you care about The role of the CEO: Managing your reports An interview with CLAIRE HUGHES JOHNSON Insights: Working with Claire: an unauthorized guide The changing cofounder dynamic

CHAPTER 2: MANAGING THE BOARD

“Hiring” your board of directors Choosing a VC partner who is right for your board Choosing an independent board member The chairman of the board Board diversity Ways to source diverse board candidates Board evolution over time Removing members from your board Removing VC board members Removing independent board members Independent board seat structures An interview with REID HOFFMAN The role of the CEO: Managing your board of directors Board meeting structure Board meeting agenda Board observers and random people showing up to board meetings Other board interactions An interview with NAVAL RAVIKANT

CHAPTER 3: RECRUITING, HIRING, AND MANAGING TALENT

Recruiting best practices Write a job description for every role Ask every candidate the same questions Assign focus areas to interviewers prior to the interview Work product interviews Candidate scoring Move fast Check candidates’ references Diverse candidates Scaling a recruiting organization Early days: Your team as recruiters Initial scaling: The in-house recruiter High-growth: Multiple recruiting org roles Executive hires: Retained recruiter Employee onboarding Send out a welcome letter Welcome package Buddy system Make sure they have real ownership Set goals Old-timer syndrome and early employees Early employees that scale Old-timers that should move on An interview with SAM ALTMAN

CHAPTER 4: BUILDING THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

Hiring executives Hire for the next 12–18 months Traits to look for in executives Define the role and meet with people who do it well Know that you will screw it up once or twice An interview with KEITH RABOIS Do you need a COO? Why a COO? Why not a COO? How Do You Choose A COO? An interview with AARON LEVIE Executive titles and pragmatism Firing executives How to hire great business development people Great business development people Bad Business Development People How to screen for a great business development person A great deal person is not usually a great partner manager An interview with MARIAM NAFICY

CHAPTER 5: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND HYPERGROWTH

Organizational structure is all about pragmatism If you are growing fast, you have a different company every 6–12 months There is no “right” answer Sometimes bandwidth matters more than perfect fit Org structure is often about tie-breaking Hire executives for the next 12–18 months, not eternity Doing a re-organization Re-orgs at the company level and the functional level How to do a re-org An interview with RUCHI SANGHVI Company culture and its evolution Never, ever compromise: Hiring for culture Bad culture leads to pain How to build a strong culture44 Hiring for culture & values An interview with PATRICK COLLISON Diversity hiring An interview with JOELLE EMERSON Managing in a downturn

CHAPTER 6: MARKETING AND PR

Marketing, PR, communications, growth, and your brand Growth marketing Product marketing Brand marketing PR and communications Hiring marketing and PR teams Marketing organization structure To PR or not PR An interview with SHANNON STUBO BRAYTON PR Basics Get media trained Iterate on the company pitch “On background” versus “off the record” versus “on the record” Correcting factual errors Press agendas Hiring great PR people Press relationship building Engage PR early Press does not equal success PR and crisis management An interview with ERIN FORS

CHAPTER 7: PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Product management overview What do product managers do? Do you have the right people? Characteristics of great product managers The four types of product managers Not a product manager: Project managers Associate product managers (APM’s)/rotational product managers (RPM’s) Interviewing PMs Reference-check all your product hires Product, design, and engineering: How they fit together Hiring a strong VP Product Empowering the VP Product Product management processes Product management conversion and training Product to distribution mindset

CHAPTER 8: FINANCING AND VALUATION

Money money money Late-stage financing: who should you be talking to? Types of late-stage investors How to evaluate late-stage funding sources Key terms One word of caution Don’t over-optimize your valuation Founder pressure Secondary stock sales $500 million to $1 billion tends to be a transition point Founder sales If you do not regulate secondary sales early, it may backfire on you Types of secondary sales Information sharing and secondary buyers How much stock should employees be able to sell? Investor sales: An opportunity to renegotiate Locking up future sales 409A and RSUs Moving to RSUs The secondary stock sale: The employee’s perspective IPOs: Taking a company public Benefits of going public Cons of going public Market cycles IPO process An interview with KEITH RABOIS An interview with NAVAL RAVIKANT

CHAPTER 9: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

M&A: Buying other companies When should you start to buy other companies? three types of acquisitions M&A road map Managing internal stakeholders Dealing with objections M&A interview processes M&A: How to set a valuation for companies you buy Valuation factors to assess for all three types of M&A Team buys or acqui-hires Product buys Strategic buys M&A: Convincing someone (and their major investors) to sell Convincing people to sell: Team and product buys Convincing founders to sell: Strategic buys M&A: Negotiate the acquisition Negotiate the sale: Strategic asset An interview with HEMANT TANEJA

APPENDIX: THINGS TO JUST SAY NO TO