Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Sri Batchu: The best executives reject distracting initiatives regardless of impact

Sri Batchu · Sri Batchu: Biggest Growth Lesson from Instacart & Opendoor; 70% of Experiments Should Fail | E1040 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jul 26, 2023 · at 4:44

Sri Batchu, Head of Growth at Ramp, shares prioritization frameworks learned from Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta.

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“Simplification is a superpower, and it's actually very difficult and a lot of executives, you know, when they're faced with two potentially high-impact initiatives, are often tempted to say, let's do both. Let's figure out how we can do both. The good ones can pick one and make a clear decision. I think the best ones will just say, actually, we're doing neither because they don't fit in our overall strategy and are distracting.”

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