Thread by @sumofpod

Summary 🧵 of a crackling chat between @Joubinmir & @PhilipLacor . Get inside the mind of a startup CRO for how he prepares for public events, feedback loops, hiring, grit & more #startups #Hiring #grit open.spotify.com/episode/3tI51A…

1/n You can choose to do things or not. Life happens, but seeing the world as your oyster is a choice. As a CRO, how does Philip prep for a public speaking event at a sales kick-off or a big event? Takes 1 page, & draws lines to make it a grid. Those are his 15 to 20 slides.

2/n 1 word in every cell & that's the key message. You now have 1 page with the entire message & that becomes the storyline… add details & metaphors from there. Customer chats are different. Those are asking the right questions with a high amount of listening & no slides.

3/n But would Philip call it lack of prep if a rep did the same thing? He has extensive briefings in advance abt the customers, strategy, their objectives, pain points & their role in it. Then come the 3 messages they want to deliver accompanied with proof points.

4/n You can’t teach the kind of desperation immigrants have. A new place/culture/language leaves you no way out except to work for it. On grit: overcoming hurdles & adversity in a new environment makes you more resilient. It’s one of the things Philip looks for when hiring.

5/n Everyone wants resilience & grit but no one wants to go through the process of building it. Working with customers lets you see the coming together of everything the company is doing. You either provide value or you don’t. But you don’t provide it alone.

6/n The GTM org is a great feedback mechanism from the customer back to the vendor. Building this into a cadence is important. Insights are quantified, trade offs identified with engineering & product teams. Gathering & prioritising insights starts with having the right team.

7/n Engineering capacity is like a factory. Maxing out means you can’t build more. Now you need to think what is important for growth & customers. Then it all has to be collected with 1 person in 1 list. GTM teams need to be educated on trade offs, that engg capacity is limited.

8/n Over time, more right things will be prioritised & built. This increases cust sat, renewal rates & NRR. Conduct customer advisory boards on a quarterly basis. The CTO & team test their hypotheses, long term prod vision & shorter term roadmap with the customers.

9/n You hear the tougher feedback on what’s not working. Companies say they’re cust centric but many don't act that way. Making trade offs isn’t easy when working with large cust. It’s important to understand what is built for the vast majority of cust vs what is for 1 cust.

10/n Took a VC view of Uncorq before joining. How big is the addressable mkt & for enterprise apps = $550B. A tech shift is happening where Uncorq operates & the tech makes people way more productive. For enterprises 80% of the spend is ‘keep the lights on’ & 20% is innovation.

11/n It's the same as 20 yrs ago. Tech needs to break through & there has to be a better way. For Philip, Uncorq is that proverbial better way. What is Prod Led Growth? It starts with efficient motions including cust coming in through the website & you build a salesforce later.

12/n The best reps understand what the customer is trying to do, what their pain points are & find a use case to start. The best reps understand customer outcomes. If you couch conversations from the customers backwards, you can’t lose.

13/n To hire reps for an early stage co, you need to look at different things. The 4 traits are: Curiosity + smarts, self-awareness + team players, tenacity & resilience. You also need the presence & gravitas to deal with the C-level.

14/n In early stage companies, careers are like a marathon, not a sprint. But you sprint everyday to make the quarter or year. To perform at the highest level everyday, recovery is important. People need to put time in their calendars to recover.

15/n Federer embodies the Darwinian quality of adaptability. From serve/volley to coping with Nadal & then developing his backhand. Philip is driven by fulfilling his potential & needs to keep evolving to do that. With that comes a growth & learning mindset.

16/n To stay in the game & excel in it you need to enjoy being in the present. If you are always thinking about the next thing you’re dissatisfied with the present. This needs a balance between the growth mindset & staying in the present. It lets you play the infinite game.

17/n You can only get results from the relationships you build with people. Build storytelling skills & finding the right metaphors. Find what lets you recover when the stress gets too high.

18/n Teams that aren't diverse & hv similar ideas seem like a great place where everyone gets along until you run out of ideas or stop having great, earth shattering ideas. Diverse teams can take longer to find their groove but come up with magic when they get going.

n/n You could be having a bad day but it only last 24 hours & there will be a new day. The present could be tough but it won’t always stay with you. Grit is the biggest driver for achievement & success. Everyone who is successful had to stand up & try again.