The Ledger
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why aren't all 12 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Lian: Common Room bans the 'shit sandwich' method of giving feedback
“One of the things that I'm not a huge fan of is the shit sandwich. Which is this notion that you want to say something nice, and then, you know, give a direct piece of feedback, and then say something nice again. That's not really how I want to communicate, an…”
Lian: Common Room's true competition is inertia, not rivals
“I genuinely don't think for what we're trying to do, any company at all is the competition. I really see our competition as inertia, as the way that companies are already doing things, as human nature.”
Linda Lian: Startup aha moments unfold over years, not single instances
“Aha moments aren't really a moment, and for me, I think there were really three ingredients to my aha moment in building common room that happened over the course of probably years.”
Lian: Common Room will hire exclusively senior talent through year end
“Yeah, so it's definitely not a perpetual plan. It is our near-term plan and our plan so far, so probably until the end of this year we'll be looking to bring on board folks who are experienced”
Lian: Never ask customers for features, only for their problems
“We never ask our customers for features. We ask them to tell us their problems, and that's how we always start.”
Common Room considers changing two company values rarely used in daily operations
“So right now we're actually thinking about changing two of them because we don't use them very much in our day to day life.”
Lian: Transparently speaking truth is an act of workplace compassion
“One of the most compassionate things you can do in life or in work is to speak the truth and to speak it transparently.”
Common Room operated without a website or marketing until Series B
“We didn't have a website. We hadn't updated our LinkedIns. We had done zero marketing up until we announced Our Series B.”
Common Room raises over $50M from Index, Greylock, and 20VC
“To date, Linda has raised over fifty million dollars with Common Room, from the likes of Danny Reimer at Index, Sarah Grew at Greylock, Dylan Field at Figma, Dick Costolo, and of course, TwentyVC Fund.”
Lian: Common Room co-founders initially ignored her cold LinkedIn outreach
“I reached out to Francis and Baraj on LinkedIn, and they ignored me. I didn't hear back from them at all.”
Lian: Dylan Field of Figma was Common Room's first angel investor
“I think the first angel was Dylan Field at Figma.”
Common Room sends candidates company values ahead of dedicated values interviews
“So we do a core values-based interview where we send the candidate our values, and we say, we're going to ask you questions as part of this interview process that map directly to figuring out whether or not you have these values, whether or not you share these…”