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 👇

We're excited to announce Merlin's partnership with Honeywell to enable autonomy on a wide variety of aircraft, including military fleets! The partnership is an important step to bringing autonomous capabilities to commercial and military aircraft, starting with single pilot operations, and we're excited to work with such a respected company to advance pilot efficiency and safety for the industry. Read the full partner post here: https://lnkd.in/e9GrN_gH

Like many of you, we’ve been playing around with @Google's incredible NotebookLM. If you haven’t checked it out for yourself, our latest Review article on annual planning is a prime candidate for experimentation. “Listen” or read the article in the comments below.

When ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022, most companies’ annual plans were already finished. If the rapid pace of AI rollouts in the two years since has been any indication, it might not be possible to account for the next LLM drop in your 2025 plan — but you should bake in the flexibility to make adjustments in real time. On The Review, we’re sharing a resource that goes incredibly deep on annual planning, with an entire section on how AI fits in. Really enjoyed hearing from across the C-suite here, from Linktree CPO Jiaona Zhang (JZ), Linear COO Cristina Cordova, Vanta CFO Stevie Case, and Notion CRO Rama Katkar. Here’s a taste of how they’re making AI bets in their 2025 product roadmaps, org charts and P&Ls — while leaving plenty of flexibility: 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 — 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗿: “The first thing our founders told me when I joined Linear was that we are never outsourcing support. Our customers are technical. They would much rather read the manual rather than reach out,” she says. Instead, they’re playing with AI in recruiting workflows: “Our recruiters have been using ChatGPT to create booleans for search on LinkedIn and things like that. And if we find that AI is not quite there yet, we’ll hire a contractor or an agency to pitch in.” 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: “We typically don't have engineers in revenue, so I’m proposing to create a new function inside my revops team that we're calling ‘AI Operations’ — with a product person, a designer and an engineer who are just going to build AI-powered workflows for us internally.” 𝗥𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁: “I do not pretend to be an engineer. They're making decisions across vendors almost daily when they're thinking about product development. It’s a very fast moving space, so there’s rapid change,” she says. “The way I’ve set it up is more like, ‘Hey, I would like us to hit this contribution margin. And how you guys get there is kind of up to you. Tons more of their guidance for every stage of the planning process in the full article, which is linked in the comments.

Don't just grab an off-the-rack annual planning process and hope it fits. "Every company’s planning process needs to be optimized for their problems, their market, and the team they have to execute the planning." — Jiaona Zhang (JZ) (Linktree CPO, ex-Webflow & Airbnb) Use this Notion template to tailor your approach to your company's unique shape and style.

Are you in the middle of annual planning and hating the process? 🤯 Every year companies spend so many cycles on planning — only to throw away their plans sometime in Q1 as the market shifts, new tech drops, or something unexpected happens to their business. Not to mention short-term memory and shiny object syndrome 😅 After spending countless cycles at different levels of involvement, I thought: there’s got to be a way to help all of us plan more effectively. I worked with First Round Capital to create this guide on annual planning. It’s packed with real life examples, usable templates, and important principles to keep in mind as you plan. Huge props to the incredibly talented Jessi Craige Shikman for pulling all of this together. Also, how cool is it to hear from the different vantage points of an all female C-suite cast? A big thank you to Stevie Case, Cristina Cordova, and Rama Katkar for sharing their insights. So whether you’re just about to kick off planning or are in the depths of it, we're excited for this to be a useful guide — or, at the very least, great thought-starters — for companies of all sizes:

Everyone tends to groan when annual planning time comes around. Yet, we know it’s important to give your org a sense of where they’re going next year and how every task and project leads to the outcomes you aim to achieve. I was excited to work with First Round Capital and Jiaona Zhang (JZ) to put together some advice on how to plan for startups of any stage and size. I also shared a bit more about how we plan in Linear — for everything from engineering to marketing. You can read it all here: https://lnkd.in/g5jGaT95

You've likely built up some annual planning scar tissue over the years. To help cut through it, Jiaona Zhang (JZ) has assembled an all-star squad to share lessons from planning. Cristina Cordova, Stevie Case, and Rama Katkar join her to offer the COO, CRO, CFO, and CPO lens, sharing a unique functional deep dive on everything from how AI is impacting their processes, to org design tweaks and tactical templates. Their experience spans companies like Linear, Notion, Vanta, Linktree, Stripe, Twilio, Webflow, Instacart, Airbnb and Credit Karma — meaning that no matter your industry, stage or business model, you're likely to find tons of food for thought as you craft your own company's approach. Whether you're about to kick off your process or you're nearing the end (but aren't feeling too confident), today's guide is a bookmark-worthy resource. (Article in the comments)

When launching something new, aim for a "minimum remarkable product"—not just a viable one. Alyssa Henry, former CEO of Square, explains how craftsmanship and elegance set their products apart. "You can have 2 chairs. Both are simple, but one is crudely made and one is elegantly made. You can instantly tell which one is elegant by the craftsmanship.” This focus on elegance and detail was key to making Square’s now-iconic payment terminal stand out in a crowded market and reshape how businesses accept payments. Catch more of Alyssa's advice on the importance of taste when crafting world-class products on the In Depth podcast. Link: https://lnkd.in/gf2NUQ5a

Product managers with commercial sensibility can be a game-changer in sales. But before coaching this skill, product leaders like Anneka Gupta, CPO at Rubrik, emphasize the importance of diagnosing where the gap lies. “Do people not understand the role of selling and making the product successful or do they not understand how sales operate within the context of your business?” she says. To ensure her diagnosis is always inclusive, Anneka makes all her PMs undergo the same training as her sales reps. Check out even more tactics Anneka has for product leaders on coaching this kind of sales judgment into their teams on the In Depth podcast. Link in comments.