Anthony Maggio

I wrote two term sheets this week into startups backed by amazing founding teams, and in both cases I recommended a pivot to the team’s initial GTM strategy.   Sometimes being well networked, or building in a white hot problem space can be a gift and a curse when it catches the attention of enterprise customers.   On paper, it is the exact type of validation a funding team is seeking as they work through an initial version of their product, but more often than not it has the potential to derail a startup’s potential for success.   The startups in question were both experiencing this exact dynamic.  In one case, the team had caught the eye of one of the largest robotics companies in the world and begun conversations around a potential partnership.   The second company is backed by a 20 year industry veteran with a deep rolodex of enterprise customers within his ICP.  Some of the largest retailers in the world were engaging in conversations around piloting his product.  As I explained to both of these founders, this was amazing validation, but should also not be the focal point of their initial GTM.   The reality is, in order to successfully deploy within either of these customers, they were looking at a long and arduous path, filled with security reviews and product feature sets that realistically an early stage pre-seed company with 2 founders could not deliver upon.   My advice to them, continue those conversations, with the realization that they could take 1 year+ before realistic deployments, but focus the lion’s share of their GTM energies toward customers with lower deployment hurdles, in this case Series A/B backed robotics companies and $50M-$250M retailers.    To be clear, the  genuine interest from these enterprises is a massively positive indicator on the problem/solution set they are building for, and it is part of the reason we are bullish on the market opportunity of each startup.  I’ve just seen so many startups fail to deploy an initial product and ultimately never raise a seed round because they get stuck in a seemingly never ending enterprise sales cycle.

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How does a Senior Product Manager go from layoff to landing a Staff Product Manager role with a significant compensation increase? Join us as we chat with Nora Hughes, a seasoned product manager with a decade of experience in the tech industry. Nora shares her journey from being laid off in October to navigating the challenging job market. She talks about her initial struggles, including the overwhelm of job searching during the holidays, dealing with COVID-19, and the loneliness that came with it. Nora discusses how she discovered the Intentional Job Search (IJS) program and her thought process before joining. She highlights the program's structure and quality and how it helped her regain focus, prioritize effectively, and build confidence in her job search strategy. In this candid conversation, Nora also reveals her aha moments, including the value of peer interviews and the comprehensive support from the IJS community. She explains how the program's personalized coaching and strategic guidance were pivotal in helping her land a dream role as a Staff Product Manager in AI and ML at a large public company, achieving a significant pay raise and working alongside best-in-class professionals. If you're curious about how the IJS program can transform your job search and career trajectory, this video is a must-watch. Nora's story is a testament to the power of structured support and intentional effort in achieving career success. Key Moments in this Episode ======================== 00:00 - About Nora 01:00 - Challenges before IJS 02:45 - How Nora decided to join the program 07:30 - Nora's experience in IJS 17:30 - Negotiations 20:00 - Her message for you https://lnkd.in/eHEBAxpQ

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What does bold leadership look like in 2024? In this latest Product Thinking episode, I sit down with Margaret (MJ) Jastrebski, the SVP of Product at Tegus. We dive into the key strategies for uniting teams, breaking down silos, and leading with transparency. Margaret knows the investor research space inside and out from her work at Tegus, a platform that consolidates key company intelligence to help investors make smarter bets. With experience spanning product, sales, and marketing at companies like Stylitics and TXI, Margaret brought a unique 360-degree view. We discussed: ►Uniting fragmented teams behind one vision ►Breaking down silos between product, marketing, sales, etc. ►Leading with transparency to build trust and alignment Margaret emphasized the need for product leaders to externalize their decision-making process. By communicating rationale openly, you empower teams to truly understand and even constructively challenge your calls. Whether you're an up-and-comer or a seasoned pro, you'll want to hear Margaret's insights on casting a clear vision, tearing down organizational barriers, and inspiring teams to achieve big outcomes. What strategies have you found effective for aligning teams and leading with transparency? Share your insights below! Listen Now: https://lnkd.in/gAdV7k56 #ProductLeadership #Alignment #Transparency #BusinessStrategy

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Super thoughtful approach to org design highlighted in this week's First Round Capital Review. When I read it, I realized that simplistic advice is a poor shortcut to the more complex but useful advice, "structure follows strategy". “When you read management books about org design, they always show you these perfectly balanced charts. Symmetrical tree diagrams and curated grids that fill up to the margins. But creating a pretty looking chart is not a KPI,” says Linear’s Head of Product Nan Yu. Yu unpacks why conventional thinking around org design is slowing startups down. Instead, he pulls from Conway’s Law and lays out the three key pieces to constructing the asymmetrical “heirloom tomato” org chart. https://lnkd.in/gASyChQC

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Triangle startup ecosystem - first thanks for the incredible generosity that you showed over the last 2wks to help folks impacted by Helene. Here's a last update on our Hurricane Helene relief efforts with a final 'how can you help' ask. The TL;DR - our nascent effort has matured and morphed into the WCEN. The most urgent need has moved from supplies to funding the teams out on the ground that need specialty items like gas, oxygen tanks, starlinks, etc. There's a gofundme, this is a certified 501(c)(3) here-> https://lnkd.in/e4NdxuW8 What is the WCEN you ask?!.... o There were several operating groups that were able to grassroots consolidate efforts under the Western Carolina Emergency Network (WCEN) umbrella and they have a website up that is improving every day: https://lnkd.in/ePYP6_JJ o WCEN's goal is to provide services to survivors until temporary infrastructure can be re-built. There are over 1m people in Western NC without shelter and basic necessities. o WCEN is providing: -> Reconnaissance -> Search + Rescue ( + Recovery) -> Rapid Supply Response / Air Support -> Medical Care o WCEN has these network partners: -> Operation Airdrop Inc- Air support including planes and helicopters -> Carolina Calvary - Coordinator for Operation Airdrop -> Razor Nation - ATV support -> Restoration Church @restoration church - Josh Brown and Ryan Honeycutt- supply collection sites and delivery -> Apex Defense - Search and Rescue, Security -> Lincoln County Airport - Pilot coordinator -> AJ - Heavy Lift Drone support -> GSDF team - C&C logistics, Special Forces team coordinator -> Reagan Madison Inc. team- Back office, infrastructure, and fundraising,FOB coordination (Crystal Suazo, CPA - who looped this together and we connected with here on LI!) -> WRTE, Inc - Legal, tax, fiduciary support -> Christina Marie Noel - Christina Noel + volunteers - Strategic marketing & communications -> United National Weather Team - Medical support with ATV abilities if anyone, especially corps would like to donate $, volunteers, trucks, etc. please contact William McGuire (on the ground items), Rebecca Ross / Jess Porta (Triangle-based corp donations/logistics). We're getting the last truck of items at Raleigh Founded out and future donations should be made at: Electric Supply Co 207 Bickett Blvd Raleigh NC, 27608 Want more ideas on how to have an impact? https://lnkd.in/euNxS8kd Thanks again everyone!

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Three Wins I Hope Every Founder, Builder Experiences 1. Hands-On with the Cool Tech Nothing beats diving into promising tech and seeing the impact firsthand. Getting up close with foundational models and LLM applications over the last three years is an experience I hope everyone got a taste of. 2. The Magic of an Aligned Team Being part of a team that’s not just smart but also daring greatly and committed to winning together - that's the best. A great mix of people bringing purpose, energy, and good vibes. 3. The Win of Creating Real Value Watching ARR take off, seeing customer value grow significantly, and knowing your work drives real impact - that's amazing. ----------- Looking back on the past three years at everc, I'm grateful for all that and more. From the hands-on work with LLMs to the friendships, amazing memories and lessons — What a ride. Together, we tripled ARR, drove significant customer value growth, and built a product group focused on speed and impact. A big thank-you to everyone who made this journey special ! Keep on keeping on — daring greatly, building, pushing forward, and inspiring each other. So long, and thanks for all the fish 🐟🐟🐟 ----------- What’s Next for Me? Exploring: • Zero-to-One LLM app product opportunities • Fractional product roles in early and mid-stage startups Who are the startups you know that could use an expert product hand to drive significant impact quickly?

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Hiring fresh talent? Our newest RocketGuide is a must read! Check out expert tips from Matt Hoffman Julia Daniel and Sarah Levine on how to create a welcoming, effective (and enjoyable!) onboarding experience for new hires. Plus, it includes a checklist template that I designed, so give it a 👀 and download a copy for yourself! 🚀

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New level of product-market-fit is when your customers create a Causal slack emoji 😎 In all seriousness, I love it when customers share messages like this with me because it speaks to what we have built here at Causal and how much our customers appreciate it.

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Employee terminations: they're a topic no one wants to discuss but that every company has to navigate. Thankfully, Melanie Naranjo and wonderful Ethena advisor (& Gusto's former People Leader) Jess Yuen are tackling this tricky topic for the next Ethena webinar. Register if you want to learn more about these topics: How to pressure test whether or not termination is the right course of action Best practices for communicating termination decisions How to minimize risk and choose the best course of action when things get tricky Critical pitfalls to avoid

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We were torn between two messaging principles when we created the copy for the new UserEvidence website that launched this week -- Understandability vs Elevation of our Value Prop. On the Understandability side - everyone understands what "testimonials" and "case studies". High Understandability. However, our platform creates customer evidence content that goes way beyond testimonials and case studies (eg statistical evidence around value/ROI, competitive proof, account or industry-specific reports) -- and there's several very low cost tools that do simple testimonial collection/creation. We were worried dumbing the UE value prop down to testimonials and case studies would undersell the value, and undercut our price point which is tens of thousands to sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the Elevated side - we could have talked more about evidence-based marketing, and customer evidence platform, or maybe a compromise w/social proof - but these don't inherently mean anything to most people - and require explanation. We figured we had about 12-15 seconds of initial readtime on average when someone lands on the site (our analytics supported this), so we ultimately decided to lead with Understandability, to hopefully earn the attention span to then go Elevate the Value Prop around how customer evidence is more than testimonials and case studies. We also leaned into using a ton of enterprise-level customer proof w/testimonials and logos from Gong, HPE, Broadcom, Splunk, Coupa, SentinelOne, Pendo, etc - to clearly indicate we're a enterprise-level B2B-only solution. We decided our goal/metric to optimize is getting people interested enough in taking the meeting (even if they may think we're a lower cost solution), and we're confident our sales team will do a good job of elevating our story once the prospect is on the call. Great work Alex Eaton and Mark Huber, and thank to the FletchPMM team for the guidance! How did we do? #productmarketing #customermarketing

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Downturn? What downturn? Innovation is on a tear! Check out the impressive 175% growth of the Stealth Startup employees over the last two years (you know who you are 🤫 ).

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Very energized by the customer workflows I’m seeing incorporating Zapier core, Tables by Zapier, Interfaces by Zapier and Central by Zapier! Whole applications and ecosystems are being built and they are all powered by Zapier! If you haven’t heard of the solutions above, you’re not late but folks are certainly bush whacking no code and it’s just a whole new category of automation! #zapier #builders #automation #saas #central #tables #interfaces #chatbot #zapconnect #automationforeveryone

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Perfecting your product and GTM strategy are surely important. But Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie argues there's one factor that outweighs all others in startup success: recognizing and capitalizing on tech and macro tailwinds. Fighting against them? You're setting yourself up for failure. Our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gEAPFR-A

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If anyone is in North County San Diego, on Thursday May 2nd, we will be hosting a tech entrepreneur and investor meet up at 5:30pm. We’ll have a couple speakers, one of which is a fin-tech start-up raising a round, followed up by a presentation on the state of the stock & crypto market. We host these events quarterly and usually get a lot of founders and investors to attend. If anyone is interested, please message me and I can send you the details. LaunchPad San Diego #startups #startupincubator #entrepreneur #investing #crypto #meetup

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When you're not in the board room, you're always wondering, "What's going on in there?". I have now worked with seven companies where I'd regularly present to a board, a mixture of PE and VC-led, and it's almost always centered around a few key topics. If you're meeting your numbers: - what's your future forecast  - how are you going to continue to grow - how will you grow faster and more efficient  - update on money in the bank and spend If you're not meeting your numbers (along with the things I mentioned above): - what is your plan to turn things around and meet your numbers (this includes new logo, back-to-base sales, and churn reduction) - what resources can they offer to help - do you have the right players in the right seat This is an oversimplification because many nuances are at play, but this is generally it. While board meetings can be stressful, almost every board I've worked with wants to be helpful. Of course, their interest is, first and foremost, that the business is healthy and growing, so there's always that undertone, but overall, they want to help. After all, they are guardians of the investments they make on behalf of others and have to report back on their performance. Think of them like they are CSMs for their investors (the folks that give them money). They need to get a great return on the investment they made on their behalf.

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Shout-out to founders. Shout-out to the teams and individuals that commit to and push founder-led businesses forward. Building something meaningful is hard. Sometimes you have to play a role that does not come naturally because that’s what the business requires at the moment in time. Other times you have to make decisions that come with uncertainty and the best you can do is just figure it out…quickly. We’ve built RevBoss for 10 years, but we are in the process of re-building it for the 3rd time because that is what is required of us to deliver value to our clients. Will it be hard? Yes. Will it come with a bunch of bumps and bruises? Yes.   Will everything be okay at the end of the day? Absolutely. RevBoss exists to grow B2B founder-led businesses. I’m gearing up to talk with Adam Robinson, CEO of a founder-led business, RB2B, who also is in the business of helping B2B businesses grow. Join us on Aug 13th as we’ll be chatting about growth at founder-led companies and how to build a growth engine that works: https://lnkd.in/eVyJQjpC PS - excited to share our RevBoss journey more publicly, so feel free to follow along if you're interested.

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In his latest piece, Paul Graham dives into a thought-provoking realization sparked by Brian Chesky's memorable talk at a recent YC event: **what if the conventional wisdom on scaling companies is fundamentally flawed for founders?** Graham dissects why advice that works for professional managers often fails founders, leading to disastrous results. He introduces the concept of "Founder Mode" — a distinct approach to running a company that clashes with traditional management practices. Graham argues that embracing this mode could be the key to unlocking greater success for startups, potentially revolutionizing how founders scale their companies. Made me think. https://lnkd.in/exHmEE5M

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Exactly this !! Such a good post from Satish. There are no binary, fake choices between founder mode vs manager mode. There is just good vs bad leadership. And there is context, importance and scale of the topic / company. Every good leader at every place I’ve worked at, can zoom into details of “pixels, code, metrics” and can zoom out to the “customers, why, where should we play, how to win” etc They know when to let a process be vs when to hack it and be a catalyst. I’m not a founder, not in the successful founder at scale sense … albeit I’ve partnered with Shruti Kierti Tiwari to build and start two products from ground up (music tech, edtech). But I’d safely say that all of us use both modes— founder and manager every day. It’s just something you do. The mental model is spot on though. A good leader at any company, treats their area with full accountability, and extreme ownership like a founder does. The buck stops with them. They don’t hide under fake career ladders, promotions, circumstances etc A bad leader works to get a quick promotion, knows how to fail upwards, hides under process, knows to subtly re-frame a loss as a win and still survive despite their area getting no results. Shreyas talks about some of these good vs bad leader styles in impact vs optics focus.

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Jay Nathan and I's first podcast interview! I'll share clips and more details tomorrow. Check it out on your favorite podcast player 👇 #saas #enterprenuership #podcast

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