First Round Capital

Most people describe finding PMF as an art, not a science. We're here to change that. Introducing PMF Method. After 20 years and 500+ investments in pre-product-market fit companies, we've drawn on our data and worked with some of the world's most iconic enterprise founders, distilling what they did in their first 6 months into a free 14-week intensive experience that helps sales-led B2B founders build epic companies. In tactical sessions, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close your first sales — all while keeping 100% of your equity. You'll work alongside a tight group of other builders at your same stage, and get to learn from the hard-earned insights from founders of $1B+ B2B companies, like Vanta's Christina Cacioppo, Looker's lloyd tabb, Plaid's Zachary Perret, Ironclad's Jason Boehmig, Lattice's Jack Altman, and Verkada's Filip Kaliszan. The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs from 5/29 to 8/28. Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply — just get your application in by 5/7 (or tag a founder friend below!) More details, FAQs, and application link in the comments below 👇

How can businesses better position themselves for the next technological revolution? By avoiding a “why this won’t work” mentality. Sam Schillace, Microsoft's Deputy CTO, has seen firsthand how large organizations either adapt or fall behind when faced with emerging tech. On In Depth, he shares key questions that executives should be asking to navigate the current wave of generative AI. “Whatever it is that’s in the way of disrupting your business now, assume that gets solved. What does your business look like after that?” Listen: https://lnkd.in/ekEsk-Y4

Quick sales positioning tip that makes an impact (anecdotally) ~90% of the time I see it implemented: Customers resonate SO much more with “Here’s how Im going to SAVE you money” or “Here’s how Im going to MAKE you money” than they do with “Heres how Im going to save you time”. Even though time = money, this slight tweak in positioning sometimes makes all the difference...

Searching for that one perfect marketing campaign to skyrocket your B2B startup? Alex Kracov (Lattice's first marketing hire) has some sobering advice: "Every early-stage founder wants to find that channel that'll just take them to the moon. But with B2B, the buying journey is incredibly complex. The modern buyer does so much research before even coming to your product." The reality? There are no silver bullets in early-stage marketing. “People are everywhere, so you need to be in a lot of different places at once, constantly providing value at each of those different stages.”

"The growth levers process is about finding the areas that will have the biggest impact on your startup, in the shortest time." Matt Lerner is passionate about finding those small, high-impact actions that fuel startup growth. So much so, he’s developed a framework to help founders do just that — and shared it in his new book, “Growth Levers and How to Find Them.” On the In Depth podcast, Lerner offers a Cliff Notes version of this framework, using the digital photobook app Popsa as a case study. Here's the 3-step process they used to hit $40M in ARR: 𝟭. 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀. Find the bottlenecks where customers are dropping off. 𝟮. 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Use the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework to understand what’s driving (or stalling) action. 𝟯. 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. Teams like Popsa run 10 small tests a week, each designed to tackle these bottlenecks and optimize growth. Give the episode a listen for Lerner’s full breakdown. 

"At Lattice, there were moments when Jack Altman would burst in and give us a challenge prompt: 'Say we want to have a $1 million month. How are we going to get there?'" On the Review, Lattice's 1st marketing hire Alex Kracov shares how he rose to the challenge, involving 18,000 coffee mugs. ☕️ The mugs were complemented by an all-out marketing blitz. “We combined that direct mail push with actual billboards in their cities, plus commercials that we geo-targeted on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter,” says Kracov. “It was all time-boxed within a six-week period in the fall. Lattice was everywhere these HR folks looked. They'd get a mug on their desk, see our commercial on YouTube, or spot an ad on the subway.” And no, they weren’t finished. “We paired this blitz with invitations to events in their cities,” says Kracov. “Our SDR and outbound team reached out with invites to dinners, meetups, and more.” Here's his biggest takeaway from the campaign: "SaaS is funny in the sense that your customers can come from anywhere, but usually the best go-to-market strategy is figuring out how you make sure everyone in New York is using your product, then Austin, then LA and so on."

Crazy-useful for any 0-to-1 marketer. Very glad I got to do this work with the ultimate do-ers Victoria Brillaud and Emma White. I miss y'all! I'd add that when you're in the VERY unique spot as Marketing Hire #1 in a skunkworks project/startup inside a bigger company, you'll spend a lot of time explaining why you're moving outside existing tools, processes, and systems. Time discovering where expertise/tools/partnership opps exist inside the org is time well-spent but it likely won't meet your needs.

incredible opportunity to work with a 🐐!

“Founder Led Growth” Here’s 5 takeaways from my chat with First Round Capital partner Brett Berson 1. 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 "You’d never hire someone else to be your head of product before you make your first product. Why do you think you’re going to hire someone off the street who can figure out growth?” 2. 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 How a founder develops a mental model for how their startup will grow, plus the two essential components of that mental model. 3. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗼 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 "Once you try a few things [that work surprisingly well, you think to yourself] 'I’m wrong but we’re growing faster,’ and you start to realize there are more important things than your ego.” 4. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝘃𝘀. 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 "In a startup, you need someone who can push away the things that won’t have a huge impact, even if they seem like good ideas… If you can’t show that this will have a huge impact, it’s just not worth our time.” 5. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 "You probably already have the right answer, and you probably just don’t like it.” – If you’ve been working on growth for a long time, the best idea is probably already on your list, you just don’t like it for some reason, or you would have already tried it. They say a great interviewer gets you to say things you didn’t know you knew. Brett studies the world's top founders, and his incisive questions lead to some big ideas that nobody's talking about. The interview just dropped - First Round In Depth podcast. I’ll put links in the comments. I hope it’s helpful!

Every startup marketer should pass the "button-clicker test," says Alex Kracov. It's a simple concept he coined while working as employee #3 at Lattice and its first marketer, and one he still leans on as the founder of Dock. “One of the biggest mistakes people make with early marketing hires is they have someone who can talk the talk, but when it comes to actually doing things, they have to go hire people to click the buttons,” he says. Whether it's mocking up a website in Figma, writing SEO articles, or testing new messaging copy on a landing page, the unglamorous click-clacking is what separates the doers from the talkers. “You don’t want someone who will come in and say, ‘I need to go hire a bunch of contractors or other full-time employees or an agency to help with this function.’ Instead, look for people who can actually do things on their laptop that produce marketing," says Kracov.