Lenny Rachitsky

I recently talked with Paz Yanover, VP of Product at Amplication, about creating and managing effective docs. Here is his developer docs success formula (check 1st comment): In this interview, Paz shares his formula to creating developer docs that drive product adoption. You'll learn: - The important role docs plays in support and attracting devs - Tips for balancing technical accuracy with user-friendliness in your docs - Strategies for effective collaboration between technical writers and product teams Check the first comment for the full interview. --- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Derick Ruiz for more.

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InVision has experienced the biggest fall from glory in Silicon Valley's recent history. $350M raised with a peak valuation of $2B. And now they are shutting down. Not acquihired or "acquired by private equity" or strategic tuck-in. Just a hard stop. It's so easy to s**t on them. They got out-innovated, they were not product driven etc. etc. But, the truth is most startups that raised monster rounds in ZIRP days could face this deadend. You raised too much money: 1/ So you are too expensive to acquire 2/ So you raised your burn too high to finance a big GTM team 2/ So you got complacent on product 3/ So you got lazy on shipping There will be a lot more inVisions in the next 24 months as startups run out of capital. It's sad. The employees & founders at these companies gave it their all, but raising too much money sealed their fate. For the next gen of startup founders, heed this advice: raise little, keep your burn low, ship fast!

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A cautionary tale for any entrepreneur including warrants in their fundraising efforts. Techcrunch ran a story yesterday on the collapse of Newchip and how warrants flowed through the bankruptcy proceedings. I am guessing in this situation, there were NO clauses protecting the startups from the insolvency of Newchip. If true, my heart aches for these startups now fighting to protect their equity pool/CAP tables from unknown outside investors coming into their company at likely ridiculous valuations via bankruptcy actions. It's a cautionary reminder to get solid advice from legal counsel—or, failing the ability to afford outside counsel, seek advice from experienced entrepreneurs who know their way around term sheets and investment terms. Best of luck to those companies mentioned in this article. And for anyone reading this who is a startup founder or entrepreneur, worth a read! #startup #entrepreneur #fundraising https://lnkd.in/gsvzQ_wT

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Weekly Update 4.26.24 ⚡ • Kicked off some development work to lay the data foundation for the next-gen evolution of our platform. There was a slide on this in our Seed fundraising deck 3+ years ago... now it's time to build. More to come over the coming months, but until then, we're heads down! If you're an existing customer, let us know if you're interested in sharing some product feedback! • Our event schedule is dialed in with events with Nik Sharma next week, Eli Weiss this summer, and our first pop-up shop (#SaturdaysOnKinney) coming up on May 18th with brands like True Classic, Clare V., NATION LTD, Awe Inspired, SKATIE, Hammitt, and Jumbo Time Wines. With all these parties, I could use a healthier Venice Ecommerce Run Club... who's down? • Shipped many quality of life improvements for merchants. One example: adding a note to the order in Shopify when a merchant extends a trial on behalf of the shopper. • Expanded our GTM Advisor program, which serves as a replacement for a traditional sales team. If you're interested in learning more, leave a comment and I'll share details. #TryBeforeYouBuy #TryNewThings #ShopifyPlus

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The discussion with Jason Fried, Co-Founder and CEO of 37signals, during a recent ProducTea with Leah episode (#42) was great. A particular one-minute segment (~14:20) really stuck with me. When asked about failures, Jason states: 🗣 “I don’t really think about failure. How does evolution work? Evolution is not sitting there using energy thinking about the wing shape that didn’t work. The wings that worked let’s make them even better...What’s working? Let’s do more of that. Let’s evolve.” This aligns perfectly with the concept of “slightly better problems” from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. It’s a never-ending upward spiral. The key takeaway? Don’t ignore failures, but don’t dwell on them either. Focus on what works, refine it, and evolve. This approach ensures continuous improvement without getting bogged down by setbacks. #ProductManagement #Leadership #ContinuousImprovement

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I really like this PMF Framework from Sequoia. https://lnkd.in/gT2nWttx

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In this week's episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with notable X personality Trung Phan about the evolving social media landscape, and how to tame the mayhem and pandemonium of X. https://lnkd.in/dVHMzbui

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Sometimes I get so caught up opining on public software companies as a loosely (at best) qualified pseudo-analyst that I forget to talk about all the fantastically crazy stuff happening at Superfiliate.. Not today! It's safe to say we've had the most exciting months in our short history, and I want to shout out what was one of our best-received product releases thus far. Social Listening and UGC Collection Built on the back of a formal Meta / Instagram integration, our customers (at no cost) are now able to see all the content they're tagged in on IG and instantly download that content, request usage rights, add it to a Superfiliate landing page, and much more. The integration makes our users' lives MUCH easier as they're not switching platforms constantly. As importantly, merchants are able to identify creators/partners they aren't formally working with but are already tagging them on social. The best creators are the ones who love your product, and nothing says that like an organic post. More social platforms coming soon, but I'll let you guess who that might be 👀 It's truly a pleasure watching Anders Bill and the product, design, and engineering teams ship impactful, beautiful features at such an impressive clip. Investing in great people and processes compounds over time, and we're seeing that in a very real way right now, and it's only going to continue. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast As we say, rah rah!

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Just published a new post on my Fireside PM substack. This one summarizes top 10 takeaways from my hour long podcast interview with Ziad Ismail, former CPO of unicorn startup and former founder and current COO & CPO at Xembly. Read here: https://lnkd.in/gbNRznST #productmanagement #startups #leadership #strategy

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Founders should avoid relying on committees for critical decisions. Full stop. Find out how to to avoid common pitfalls in forming a committee and hear how Founders can make better decisions in this episode of Startup Therapy: https://hubs.ly/Q02Bxh3P0

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Can poop save the planet? 🤔 Well, in Silicon Valley, it's not just a punchline—it's a multimillion-dollar climate solution. Big players are teaming up with startup Vaulted Deep, paying $58.3 million, to pump organic waste underground. The deal was brokered by Frontier Climate, a coalition launched in 2022 by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. But why are tech giants getting their hands dirty with sewage and manure? Vaulted Deep's technology, rooted in decades-old methods used for oil and gas fracking cleanup, gives them an edge. But instead of sludge, they're tackling carbon-rich waste, aiming to sequester CO2 underground. They plan to sequester 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027 as part of the deal (That equates to 36,000 gas cars off the road for a year). Is this greenwashing, or a silver bullet? Critics warn of cost, the need for rigorous carbon accounting, and potential environmental trade-offs - i.e. emission prevention versus carbon removal. #decarbonization

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New Episode: Pressure can can burst pipes or it can create diamond. Justis Mendez (Managing Partner, OneSixOne Ventures) shares his story, moving from the streets of Cleveland to a high impact VC investor. (Link below) We discuss topics such as: - Building a tech ecosystem: The genesis of OneSixOne Ventures - Launching a virtual accelerator during the pandemic - Launching a fund: Realizing the need for monetization - Focus on enterprise software and AI - Investing in pre-seed and seed stages with small checks - Current state of the VC space and capital deployment - Advice for founders: Authenticity and technical expertise - Considerations when outsourcing technical development for AI Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eXwCFfgE Apple: https://lnkd.in/ejRF5KBi

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If you had a great startup idea, should you keep it a secret? Are musicians natural entrepreneurs? In this episode, Seed Zeng and I chat with Yotam Rosenbaum, musician, YC founder, and investor. 👉 Listen on your podcast app: https://tr.ee/ZmRr5NjEtk

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Parker just posted Rippling's new fundraising memo. It's the manifesto for compound startups and one of our initial inspirations for building Atlas. Here's a nugget that I really liked that summarizes how we feel about the competitive advantage of all-in-one startups over vertical startups (in customer support especially): "When we build corporate cards, we're not innovating on the way we issue corporate cards (through Stripe issuing or Marqeta) or the way we scan and extract metadata from receipts (which is mostly a vendor relationship for us today). We're going to win on the capabilities we have that are common to all Rippling products—the integration with the rest of Rippling and with employee data, the platform capabilities, and the common UX described above." Here's the full doc: https://lnkd.in/gYH59HVZ

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🪂 #AIRDROPS ARE TERRIBLE INCENTIVES 😢 Not sure why ppl worship #airdrops. They’re very native go-to-market ways in crypto, but aside from some short-lived hype, what’s the retention rate? (Kerman Kohli has a deep dive on this) When projects are add more and more complex rules, trying to target most potential loyal users, but this usually backfires. They end up attracting pro bounty hunters, instead of the intended audience. **If there's profit in a system/rules, someone will game the system.** The key isn’t in the rules but instead, is in the incentives. Designers need to make the incentives valuable within the ecosystem but not worth the effort for bounty hunters to use outside, just like most web2 customer loyalty programs, Starbucks, Hilton, etc.. Surely, some folks flip these perks on secondary platforms like discounted Starbucks or hotel bookings. But in an OTC, P2P market with liquidity issues, transaction costs, and trust factors, it’s not gonna be. appealing enough for pro bounty hunters.

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When you're bootstrapping and trying to raise money at the same time, it can be too much for a founder and very distracting. We started out doing both but realized we needed to focus on developing a quality product instead of fundraising. So, we paused fundraising, launched our product, and now have 30 paying customers including enterprise. B2B sales are tough if the founders don't handle them initially. Relying on sales professionals too early can hurt your company. What have you learned from bootstrapping and launching a product? #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #innovation #investing

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This hit me hard today and feels antithetical to leading from my values. As Shirin Eskandani notes: “Trying to run a business during "times like these" sometimes feels like the weirdest thing ever. There is nothing like the cognitive dissonance between trying to launch an offering while literal m@ssiles are being launched. It feels disingenuous to carry on with business as usual. Because nothing is usual. Nothing is okay. Your mind and heart are elsewhere. As they should be because you're human. And while you strive to build a business that reflects your deepest values and beliefs, you fear the backlash and repercussions of sharing your deepest values and beliefs. But you push through the fear because "times like these" are exactly why you started your business. You started your business to serve and to show up for the communities you hold most dear in ALL of the ways. You started your business to facilitate real change for the collective. You started your business because you never wanted to do business as usual in the first place. Which means you make it very clear what you believe in. Which means you do not stay silent. Which means you do what you can to truly be of service. The truth is business is personal. There is no way around it. And in "times like these" that becomes so incredibly clear. So if they unfollow you, they shouldn't have been following you in the first place. If they decide to not work with you, they shouldn't have been working with you in the first place. If they decide to not collaborate with you, they shouldn't have been collaborating with you in the first place.” I became a founder in part to change the capitalistic systems we exist within. To lead with empathy, humanity, and intentionality. To model what can be. To be told, "Make no comment on politics; you have zero upside, only downside," is, to me, a directive to lead without integrity or empathy. He's absolutely right that there may, and likely will be, a downside. However, I choose to take that risk, knowing that building community is more important.

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Nic Poulos and I wrote an essay for Euclid Ventures, "An Era for Vertical Software." The TL;DR is that vertical SaaS is a distinct, enduring discipline that we believe is poised to dominate the software landscape over the next decade.   "2024 will represent a turning point, perhaps even a new era for venture capital. While the fog feels like it’s lifting, the path forward isn’t yet clear. One includes a soft landing for the US economy and the continuing recovery of software multiples, with ZIRP-era behaviors continuing around hot themes. Another sees a recessionary period in which VC capital inflows remain stagnant and startup funding the year dips below $100B. Either way, a more measured VC market in 2024 is a certainty. For many investors, that will come with a rude awakening as their strategy becomes more difficult to execute or their thesis of choice is negatively impacted by tightening markets.    We see this reversion of the venture ecosystem to its mean as a strong tailwind for Euclid and vertical software. As a category, Vertical SaaS is uniquely well suited to thrive in volatile market conditions and produce fund-returning outcomes. The sections below aim to answer the question: why is vertical software different? Our answer discusses the factors driving the natural market resilience we see in vertical software as a category–resilience that will help them thrive in 2024 and beyond."

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Hey #innovation folks — can I take you to dinner? After a resounding success with dinners focused on startup founders and Sr.-level tech folks (we're booking into September now!), I'm expanding the dinner series idea to innovators. Much of our work at Apollo 21 is executed in partnership with corporate innovation and venture-building teams — who better to take out to dinner to meet other folks working in the space. If you're not familiar with our dinner format, it's pretty straightforward: • Once a month. • Six people around a table. • The only formal question is "introduce yourself." • No website, no sponsors. Split the bill. Yes, our dinners are a "networking" opportunity, but I've yet to see a business card at the dinner table. Interested in joining us for a #founder dinner or #innovation dinner soon? Links in comments.

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