Ian Clark’s Post

What a wild two years it's been. 2 years ago (April 2022) - I watched Kelsey Behringer do something amazing as a leader, asked her to get coffee the next day, and posed the question: "so, uh, do you think you'd want to be CEO?" ...I was feeling that "itch" you hear founders talk about. 2 years later (March 2024) - Packback gets acquired, with Kelsey at the helm as CEO. In between those bookends was a rollercoaster that landed me where my heart wanted to go: back to the startup trenches, scribbling on white boards at 1871. In a nutshell, the play went like this: Later that Spring 2022 - sat down with my PB co-founders Nick, Kasey, Jessica, and they were heartwarmingly supportive of my thoughts for a transition plan. April 2023 - I went on paternity leave, KB took the reigns at Packback, and upon watching her leadership the Board voted *unanimously* that she was the CEO of the future. Summer 2023 - I came back, we announced the transition, I had my last "official" day at Packback (although I'm a lifer, really) on Friday June 9th, and on Monday June 12th I went to work on founding my next company, Impruve. Fall 2023 - Danny Shannon tags in as co-founder/CTO (while our friend Gang Wei got the V1 MVP off the ground as Danny warmed up), my longtime partner-in-growth Eric Hogenkamp injected ideas & energy into the mission, and we launched the first test with a few friends -- ✅ 132 days to first user. Spring 2024 - as Packback gets acquired, Impruve gets a product rehaul, accepted into the App Store, and (you're not officially hearing this yet) a badass Slack integration, all while kicking off our next cohort of co-building team managers on a mission to "make great coaching a habit". This time around, I want to share the journey of building Impruve more openly. Much more to come! (+ newsletter at: www.MikeShannon.co)

How We Scaled from 2 to 25 Professionals We started with just two people, facing countless hurdles, sleepless nights, and uncertainty. But here we are today: A team of 25 passionate professionals, operating from a high-tech co-working space Our milestones are proof of our journey: SaaS projects that serve businesses around the world. A shift from a small garage to a high-tech work environment. Strong partnerships and client relationships fueling our growth. Our journey is a testament to perseverance and collaboration. We’re excited about what’s next and grateful for everyone who’s been part of this adventure. Have you ever worked with a small team?  How did you make it work? Let’s discuss your growth journey or how we can support each other. Drop a comment or DM us!

Second batch of Hook’s Co-Founder Program launched ! 37 motivated founders ready to launch the next big thing gathered this week to start their 4-week journey. The batch in numbers: 💻 54% technical founders (most of them from the 42 Network 🌐) 🔁 36% repeat founders 👔 Ex-employees at: • Scaleups & Big Tech - Doctolib, Yahoo, Snapchat, Revolut, LeBonCoin, Ledger, Pepernest and PhotoRoom • Consulting firms & Corporates - McKinsey, Accenture, TotalEnergies, Publicis, Biogen, HSBC and Dassault 💼 Average of 8 years of working experience 👉 What do we do at Hook? We’re helping coders build ambitious tech companies. We don’t break the rules, 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 🏴☠️ Stay tuned!

🌍 What started in a small co-working space has grown into a global force… In 2018 when we started, little did we know that Denovers will become a global force in just a few years. Denovers has transformed from a humble beginning into a global partner for more than 40 amazing customers worldwide. 🌐 From the USA, Canada, Africa, the GCC, Singapore, the UK, Germany, and beyond, our journey has been one of passion, persistence, and purpose. What began as a dream in a small co-working space is now a global network of long-lasting Product Design and Frontend Engineering partnerships, helping businesses scale and thrive. To our clients, partners, and supporters, thank you for being part of this incredible journey. We’re just getting started, and the future is bright! 🚀 #FromHumbleBeginnings #GlobalGrowth #Denovers #ProductDesign #FrontendEngineering #PartnershipsThatLast #InnovateTogether #ClientSuccess #GratefulJourney #TechForGood

How We Scaled from 2 to 25 Professionals We started with just two people, facing countless hurdles, sleepless nights, and uncertainty. But here we are today: A team of 25 passionate professionals, operating from a high-tech co-working space Our milestones are proof of our journey: SaaS projects that serve businesses around the world. A shift from a small garage to a high-tech work environment. Strong partnerships and client relationships fueling our growth. Our journey is a testament to perseverance and collaboration. We’re excited about what’s next and grateful for everyone who’s been part of this adventure. Have you ever worked with a small team?  How did you make it work? Let’s discuss your growth journey or how we can support each other. Drop a comment or DM us!

Why are more and more companies embracing this whole Launch Week thing? Teams brand the week differently: Launch, Ship, Developer, Birthday, LookAtAllTheStuffWe'veDoneLatelyYouShouldBuyIt (haven't seen that one yet, free idea for you). But at the end of the day, they all serve a similar purpose. The entire advantage of a startup over incumbents is speed: product and engineering teams are building and shipping products as fast as they can. With a consistent flow of releases, people are bound to miss things, even if it's that one thing they've been dreaming of for years. Taking a second to do a roundup week, like Launch Week, let's companies summarize months of work. The team can celebrate all of their momentum and hard work, and customers can see a digest of what's happened in one, time-blocked place. So...our Spring Launch Week here at Mux has arrived! Make sure you’re following the Mux page and have notifications turned on (”smash that notification bell” 😉) so you don’t miss out on all the great work we’re sharing this week. So excited to share all the great work the whole Mux team has been doing!

Today is my 2nd year anniversary at Day One Ventures! 🎉 While my first year in VC was about inhaling all of the information available, my 2nd year was about filtering & refining my craft. I'm proud of the 105 stories I shaped for our firm and founders that landed in tier 1 media. Some reflections: 💡 This year I said no more often. Less is more. I had more focus to double down on my superpower. 💡 I worked with an executive coach (Hanna (Obenshain) Phillips is amazing!) to recalibrate my beliefs and values system to reflect who I am today. It's easy to operate on autopilot. But humans evolve. How do you want to live your life today? What actually matters to you? 💡 With the media landscape evolving, I want to help build a content arm. There's also a big opportunity to do more events & creative campaigns. 💡 I think it was Jack Altman who said that an employee does their best work in their 3rd year. Excited to level up even more. There's so much magic working with early-stage founders. Looking forward to what's next!

I left Uber in 2019, and since then, I've worked directly with Founders at a variety of early-stage start-ups. While I can't say that I know firsthand what being a Founder is like, I can confidently say that I have a genuine empathy and understanding of many of the challenges. Specifically, I've been a sounding board when it comes to organizational development (ie. what does our organization need, and what roles, people, and structure will solve for that), people and performance management processes, and how to build appropriate cultural norms and expectations into an early team. The challenge is that the fleshed out standards and processes of established companies are often not appropriate at the earliest stage, and striking the right balance of structured, yet lightweight and flexible, feels impossible. What's more is that these topics are often mentally heavy and feel distracting when the Founder wants to be laser focused on fundraising and "doing the work" of putting their vision into play. This is a topic I'm always interested in jamming on with other Founders across the industry and learning more about from diverse experiences - so if this resonates, let's chat! 

LETS GO MERCEDES

We’ll be hosting an online session on 'Building Your Founding Team' this Thursday evening. If you’re looking for co-founders or early employees, this will be the right fit for you. You’ll discover others who are also looking for co-founders and founding teams, while experienced founders and mentors share frameworks and stories of how they found their co-founders and built founding teams. Want to join? DM me or drop a comment, and I’ll send you the details. #TheStartupCode