"What did Stripe do in the early days to build a strong brand?"

Building a strong brand as an early-stage technology company is incredibly difficult and it goes far beyond simply building a great product. Getting it right makes everything—sales, recruiting, press—easier. So when a founder asked me this question, it made me go back in time (a little fun trip down memory lane) to what Stripe did to build a brand from scratch 🪄

A few startups I've invested in are about to hit the anniversaries of their first customer contract signings, which can be a scary, especially if you're not confident in your relationships & pricing.

Sharing some advice for early-stage companies handling their first renewals 💸 1) First get a sense of the health of each customer. I like to create a scorecard grading each customer from A-F on:
- general relationship (are you actively in touch with their team?)
- product adoption (do they use your newest features?)
- support (are you meeting your SLA?)

I just wired my 50th angel investment today! 🎉

A friend asking for advice on getting started with angel investing was told, "I never had to think about building my network, deals just came to me."

Well, that's not exactly how it went for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So, I'll share my advice...🧵 3/5 of my first angel investments came about from founders & early employees of the companies who I had worked with before. I didn't quite feel comfortable investing in founders I didn't know personally nor did I fully understand the practice of angel investing.

I've been having lots of conversations with folks looking to join an early-stage startup (Seed to Series B) and negotiating their offers. A few thoughts based on my experiences... 🧵 1/ Make a spreadsheet and calculate your current comp vs. your startup offer.

Here’s an example ✏️

In joining a startup, you are choosing how to invest your most valuable asset—your time. ⏰

I had a few career chats this afternoon and was asked how I’ve chosen startups to work for. Here’s my answer in hopes it might be helpful to more of you out there🧵 First, I’ll be clear that I personally optimized for startups that were high-growth (lots of personal career growth can result in these companies) and had the potential for life-changing financial outcomes. That may not be what everyone is seeking, so choose your own adventure!

I’m hearing a lot of small startups say, “Well, Stripe didn’t have PMs until they had hundreds of employees, so we’re thinking we’ll do the same.” A couple thoughts... 🧵 1/ Don’t mistake not having a function (product management) for not having a role (PM) played by a team member. Many folks wore the PM hat in the early days of Stripe without the company having a PM function.