Fred Destin Profile picture
Sep 24, 2020 6 tweets 1 min read Read on X
1/ A CEO’s number one job is to define the mission, communicate that mission relentlessly, and keep everyone focused on the mission.

That’s how you move the ball down the field everyday.
2/ That communication is to team members, clients, partners, investors, the market at large.

It’s got to be simple, consistent, and consistently repeatable by others. Your second layer SDR needs to be able to deliver almost as well as you do.
3/ this is why founder / CEOs can’t spend their entire time doing.

Systems, processes, culture and people must align to collectively help define the right mission, amplify it and execute it.
4/ this is why it is worth putting so much emphasis on BRAND — defined as the complete embodiment of every aspect of a business, from the why to the what to the how as well as its culture.
5/ this is also why LANGUAGE matters - defining precisely the words you use to build, manage and measure your business ... to make sure there is a common definition of what every important concept means to everyone.
6/ Alignment creates harmony which in turn drives adaptability. Clarity of purpose and simplicity of mission created speed and intent. That in turn created the conditions under which teams can truly thrive in chaos, and evolve together.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Fred Destin

Fred Destin Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @fdestin

Mar 8, 2022
1/ Ofsted downgraded my kids school, The American School in London, from "outstanding" to "requires improvement" - not meeting independent school standards.

The downgrade has to do with the lack of balance in the curriculum, which is being overwhelmed with Social Justice topics.
2/ The report highlights lack of balance where "teaching places more emphasis on the school’s social justice programme than on the acquisition of specific subject content"
3/ Alarmingly: "significant numbers in all parts of the
school said that they feel uncomfortable giving their viewpoints in class".
Read 8 tweets
Oct 31, 2021
1/ Quick high level advice for founders on fundraising material. The five elements of data you need for fundraising, and the "Notion alternative":

Core: The Everything Deck. Master deck you use for intros, pitching, "leave behind" and everything else. The one and only.
2/ One level down: The Narratives.

A set of subdocs that explain key elements of your business and address core areas of diligence. E.g. cohort analysis, GTM, product roadmap. Docs format easiest, think Amazon memos.

Make it easy for investors to copy / past from these.
3/ Two levels down: Underlying Data.

The Narratives are there so investors don't misunderstand your data or skim over it. It's dangerous IMHO to just drop investors into spreadsheets and hope they make sense it.
Read 7 tweets
Oct 30, 2021
1/ Are SPACs bad?

Step one : differentiate between "broker SPACs" (people trying to grab fees, shift risk and leave the building) and "sustainable SPACs" ( significant sponsor commits, are looking to build real businesses, stay in)
2/ Step two: check whether the net proceeds to the company are sufficient. Achilles heel of SPACs is uncertainty on redemptions.

You can possibly mitigate this like CAZOO did: $1BN SPAC on the side 🔥. That'd protected proceeds right there.
3/ Step three: manage your liquidity. Post IPO your float may be super thin as PIPE's investors are locked in and only the non-redeemed portion of the SPAC is trading.

This can stay with you for a long time and lead to volatility, market manipulation issues, depressed pricing.
Read 7 tweets
Sep 9, 2021
1/ Talent wars in London seem absolutely brutal these days.

Everyone of our startups reports their team members being approached almost continuously by everyone from other startups, FAANGS, corporates.

Wage inflation is brutal. Anyone is liable to be poached.
2/ With the advent of distributed organisations and remote work, competition is global.

It could be Tencent or Slack knocking at the door of your organisation, carefully mapping your team looking for openings.
3/ Some seed stage companies have reverted to staying completely stealth on LinkedIn, and asking their team members to remain stealthy.

Though they’re likely to find them on GitHub anyways ;-)
Read 5 tweets
Jun 22, 2021
1/ How much carry should you give your partners?

@HarryStebbings and I started 50/50. I'm a big believer in taking economics off the table (who knows who will find the next Spotify?) and partnerships can destroy each other in endless economics discussions.
2/ It's not uncommon or absurd that the GP group keeps roughly 80% of the economics - that would be say 3 or 4 General Partners taking the majority of economics and "floating down" as they accept more general partners into the group
3/ How is carry quoted ? Carried interest is typically 20% of profits generated by the fund; this 20% is 100% of the carry pool. You can quote carry as an absolute percentage (5% carry), a percentage of the carry pool (5% carry is 25% of the carry pool) or in dollar terms.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 26, 2021
1/ There’s no difference in probability of reaching Series A based on whether or not your seed round has a top VC.

Source: 3717 deals on @AngelList

angellist.com/blog/top-vc-se…
2/ I’ve always believed that the skillset required to work with seed companies is on some dimensions fundamentally different from working at the later stages.
3/ Everything about seed companies is ambiguous: the people, the data, the level of product market fit, the GTM, the brand and messaging.
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(