In no particular order, here are my thoughts…

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Principle 1: building & scaling a (tech) company is a people business

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• Hiring, retaining (& firing) the best talent is how amazing companies get built - not just by having an amazing product
• Lesson from working with the founder of lastminute.com who also rums a seed stage fund; he looks for CEOs / founders who are “talent magnets”
• Make prospective, new and existing employees feel listened to and special

<aside> 💡 Principle 2: the role of a CEO is: 1) set the overall vision & strategy, 2) recruits, hires, and retains the best talent, and 3) ensure there’s enough cash in the bank

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• “Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders”
• “Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company”
• “Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank” - from Fred Wilson (AVC), link

<aside> 💡 Principle 3: the Founder’s Mentality is a blueprint for success as company scale

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• Lesson from the CEO of a US e-commerce company I worked for (Greg Greeley - who built Amazon Prime). The first thing he did when he took over as the CEO when the company was 1,000 people was communicate the lessons from the Founder’s Mentality to the whole company
• The key lesson was for employees to have the the owner's mindset;
  • Aligned with an insurgent mission
  • Frontline obsession (to serve customers & serving customers)
  • Think like owners
• Greg has “been looking at this 2 x 2 for the best part of 15 years” - link to video

<aside> 💡 Principle 4: the business should be simple & have a clarity of purpose

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