Ilya Sukhar, General Partner at Matrix Partners, offers advice on executive candidate reference checks for early-stage startup founders.
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“A lot of really ambitious people can break some glass, so to speak, on their journey. They step on some toes, they have disagreements, whatever. I think that's actually typically a good sign, at least in moderation, but they always leave a trail of respect along the way, and people can often talk to their strengths, and if you're not hearing that, I think that's a bad hire.”
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What-if
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
Matrix Partners does not require formal votes or consensus for investments
“We have a pretty nice setup at matrix where we don't really have a formal vote and we're not oriented around consensus decisions.”
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Insight
Simple MVPs no longer work in crowded software categories
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