Every startup encounters speed bumps on the highway of growth. It’s the people on your team who will enable your company to move past them. Skills and capabilities must evolve as you grow. You’ll need to navigate advisory and other boards, recruit well, develop effective team communication and have a CEO who sets the stage for the company culture—all just to set you up for early-stage VC funding. Key topics covered: Culture of innovation, building an advisory board, turnover

1. Howwillyoulead?
Mic Berman
Advisor, Embedded COO, Coach
@micberman
www.michalberman.com

2. Caveat-basedonmyjourney andlearning
● MBA
● Eng: no formal
training; Built my
own
● Startups since 1999
● USA; EU; Africa

3. Knowthyself-howwillyoumodelleadership!
● What are you
exceptional, good and
bad at?
● What do you value?
● What’s your management
style?
● Personality test or two?
● Watch out for your own
biases - hire more women
and/or people that don’t
look like you!
Not doing this will result in wrong hires and churn

4. Buildyourbenchstrength
● Expertise + people leaders
- these are also different
things
● Surround yourself with
great coaches, advisors,
mentors and board members
- these are different
things
● Build alignment early and
often - this is a practice
that never goes away
● Build great teams (Kevin’s
talk)
FreshBooks
Not doing this results in lost money time and talent

5. 6thingsyoumustdotoensureyoursuccess
1. Be a strong leader
● High performance
aspirations
● Demanding/ ’
unreasonable’
● Effective at top
(alignment; focus)
● Ability to operate
at all levels of
business
● Healthy attitude to
failure
● Pursue your Vision
relentlessly
● Highly motivating/
inspiring end-state
or mission driven
● Passionate
defenders - take
care of people they
will take care of
your customers who
will take care of
your business
● Product-market
focus in lean way
● Drive a strong
culture (of
excellence)
● Real follow-through
of accountability -
esp at and from ‘top’
● Great places to work,
exemplify leaders
values
● Only top performance
rules
○ Execute on
extraordinary
experiences
everyday
Source: adapation of ‘Alchemy of Growth’ Mehrdad Baghai and my experience
Attributes of great startups; don’t do them at your peril
2. 3.

6. ● Align Product-
Marketing-
Engineering
● Instrument your app
● Common vision; No ego
- just what works; No
silo’s
● Share goals and focus
eg councils
● Regular meetings on
results, learning and
future
● Healthy attitude to
failure
● Lean product-market
focus; lean analytics
● Create people systems
● CEO is also Chief
People Officer;
involved, cares and
shapes
● Clear focus on
performance and
motivation
● CEO-led annual
“staffing review” –
best people/teams in
most critical,
demanding jobs
● “Bench strength”a
top priority
6attributesofhighperformancestartups
● Prepare to scale
● Simple thoughtful
organizational
design to support
decision and
communication flows
● Do many things
well, and at least
one functional
skill at world
class level –
underpins strategy
● Clear focus on
performance and
motivation
Source: adapation of ‘Alchemy of Growth’ Mehrdad Baghai and my experience
5.4. 6.

7. Goforthandprosper
@micberman
Michalberman.com