Rand Fishkin Quotes
Most popular Rand Fishkin Quotes
As CEO, I'd often tell my executives and board that every email should be written and every conversation conducted as though it will one day be leaked.
Start with a product that's informed by your consulting. The services you provide expose you to real-life problems that consumers and organizations face.
That's one of the biggest things I've learned about startups: it's dangerous to go alone. You want people around you who've been through this before and are willing to openly share their experiences.
She outlines one of the most important things to remember when it comes to transparency: you need to balance it with empathy. If I tell you I hate your haircut, I'm being transparent. I'm also being an asshole.
Raising prices for your product every year or two and grandfathering in existing customers is a great way to increase loyalty and grow your profit margins. (We did this several times over the next few years; it worked like a charm.)
There are two traits fundamental to an effective product-focused business. The first is reach (i.e., the ability to influence a large audience). The second is scalability (i.e., an aptitude for growing revenue far more quickly than costs).
Pro Tip: If you have any type of subscription or recurring revenue, make sure you measure LTV (Lifetime Value— the total revenue customers spend during their relationship with your firm) by referral source(s) and by the number of visits prior to conversion.
If you can reset your passion from "I want to do *this* work" to "I want to see something I create change the world in *this* way," your expectations will align with reality, and the cognitive dissonance and frustration of being torn away from the work you love can fade.
Unless what you love is managing people, handling crises, delegating, holding people responsible, recruiting, setting, then constantly amplifying and repeating the company's mission, vision, strategy, and values, being a startup CEO may not provide you with the work you love to do.
Recruit technical leadership with a teaching orientation. The best way to ensure that your CTO is going to make you a better CEO is to hire a CTO who likes to teach. Make it clear that you're looking for someone to drive change and educate you and the team. Beware CTOs who try to "shield" you from the details. Being able to explain complex things simply is a job requirement.
