Thread by @dunkhippo33

We have over 270+ portfolio companies @HustleFundVC now of which, I'm the point of contact for.

People often ask me how do I have time to take so many meetings??

Here's my secret and an unpopular tactic...I relentlessly cut mtgs.

Here's how / why / and gains I've seen >>

1) First, the pros and cons of mtgs:

Pros:
-feel connected w/ someone

Cons:
-inefficient time use to receive ideas
-inefficient way to do actions
-introduces weird biases

2) So given this, if you need to build rapport w/ someone, then you should definitely take the mtg. In fact you should take lots of mtgs!

This could be for:
-building morale w/ a teammate / founder / etc
-building a relationship w/ someone you're trying to recruit for something

3) E.g. if one of my founders is going through a co-founder breakup, I definitely want to meet.

4) E.g. OR, if you're hiring someone and you KNOW you want to hire that person, you definitely should spend time meeting the person.

I asked @will_bricker and @mariarotilu to meet me every month (!!) because I was so convinced I wanted to hire them!

5) However, these situations are actually fairly uncommon.

A more common situation is for ppl to meet when they really just want to take a course of action.

E.g. Often my founders want investor intros. We don't need to meet about that -- I can just whip those out async.

6) In addition, if you're receiving ideas, the most efficient way to process ideas is:

reading >> listening to audio / watching video at fast speed >> having a conversation

7) So, another common situation where you are mostly receiving ideas is where you are considering many ppl for something. Such as a job

Let's say you have a job opening and you want to consider hundreds of candidates. You don't know yet if you want to spend time w/ any of them.

7b) In considering candidates, it is better NOT to meet and to first communicate via reading / voice / video async.

This saves time for the candidate when you weren't serious about him/her in the first place. And, it allows you to hold conversations with many ppl.

8) Similarly, when I talk to startups, if I meet with a founder, I'm actually *pretty sure* I want to invest already by the time I get to the mtg.

Otherwise, if I'm not sure, it's just better to talk first via reading / voice / video async.

9) I'll often ask qs over email. Ppl can send me a loom video or respond at their leisure.

Async videos and voice mails are fast ways of responding without a mtg and often get transcribed for easy reading for the recipient.

10) All of these examples are similar to sales -- where a sales team will qualify a lead first by email usually and *before* meeting with warm leads.

But ppl who hire or invest often don't do this qualification process. Why?

11) I think ppl are often tempted to have a meeting with cold leads in the hiring or the investing context, because they want to:

-be polite to the recommender / referrer
-or think they could be convinced that a "cold lead" could turn into a deal

12) I think one of the most polite things that anyone can do is not waste anyone's time! :) If you're already a no going into the mtg, then you're going to be a no coming out of the mtg.

It would be better for all to just not meet.

13) I also think that if a candidate - whether for a job or a startup - cannot communicate their ideas clearly over written / voice / video, then that's a problem.

At a job or in running a company, writing >> pitching or interviewing.

14) Moreover, as a society, we put too much weight on pitches & interviews. This is how we introduce weird implicit biases - on how ppl look, how charismatic they are, etc.

It is actually more fair to do most of your assessment via reading / writing / voice async than via mtgs.

15) I often think about all those ppl who interview well but didn't quite pan out so well at the actual job.

Meanwhile, there are many times when that introverted person whom you took a chance on (who didn't interview well) rocked the job.

This actually happens quite a bit.

16) So for all of these reasons, I've been able to save a lot of time by cutting mtgs:

-transactional things -> just do the action
-qualify leads -> Q&A over email / async voice & video
-remove weird biases -> incl async communications as a larger part of the assessment