Author: First Round Review
Binti’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons in Immersive User Research
In this post in our “Paths to Product-Market Fit” series, Binti’s co-founder and CEO Felicia Curcuru sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to tell the story of how her time spent shadowing family social workers in San Francisco empowered her …
“Sweat the Details” and Other Commandments for Mapping Out a Career in Product
Veteran product leader Jiaona Zhang walks us through the biggest lessons from her entire career in product at Dropbox, Airbnb, WeWork and now Webflow, from breaking into the function as a first-time PM to tactical tips for navigating transitions into m…
The Startup’s Guide to Customer Advocacy: How to Get Closer to Your Champions
Customer advocacy is more than just case studies. Kalina Bryant (formerly of Asana, Talkdesk and Marketo) shares tactical advice for turning customers into advocates, with tailored pointers for startups on a budget.
X1’s Path to Product-Market Fit — How the Consumer Credit Card Company Pulled off a Pandemic Pivot
In our “Paths to Product-Market Fit” series, X1 founder and CEO Deepak Rao sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share the dramatic story of how his company pivoted during the pandemic and found product-market fit with a bold launch strategy.
The Startup Founder’s Guide to Hiring a Data Scientist
Are you ready to hire a data scientist? Mengying Li, Growth Data Science Lead at Notion, shares her framework for testing whether you should invest in this key hire and how to find the right data science skillset for your startup.
Pull, Don’t Push: How Catalysts Overcome Barriers and Drive Product Adoption
Marketing expert Jonah Berger has spent years probing into the science behind changing people’s minds, and why becoming an effective change agent is about lowering barriers, not pushing harder. He distilled five of the most common barriers into a simpl…
Retool’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons for Getting to 100 Happy Customers, Faster
In the latest post for our new series, “Paths to Product-Market Fit,” Retool founder and CEO David Hsu sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share how the internal tools company hypothesized, tested and iterated its way to 100 happy customers
Small Habits Co-Founders Can Hang On to as They Build the Plane While Flying It
Labelbox’s Manu Sharma and Brian Rieger have turned a decade-long friendship into a lasting business partnership, scaling the AI developer tool startup since co-founding it together in 2017. Here, they share small habits that co-founders can rely on to…
Maven’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons for Leveraging Community in the Early Days
In the second post for our new series, “Paths to Product-Market Fit,” Maven founder and CEO Kate Ryder sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share the inside story of the first female-led telemedicine startup to achieve unicorn status.
Maven’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons for Leveraging Community in the Early Days
In the second post for our new series, “Paths to Product-Market Fit,” Maven founder and CEO Kate Ryder sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share the inside story of the first female-led telemedicine startup to achieve unicorn status.