Assertion Contradicted
Executive Hires Placed by VCs Have an Average Tenure Under 18 Months
“You look at the data of executive hires placed by a venture firm. Either an investor said, like, oh, you got to hire this guy. He's going to come in and totally change your go-to-market. This guy's going to blow revenue out of the water. Or it's through a tale…”
Opinion
Most VCs Only Manage Financial Upside and Cannot Handle Human Risk
“A lot of VCs don't get those calls because VCs are designed to maximize for upside. They don't have the experience to help manage real risk. Financially, yes, but human work, no.”
Insight
Do Not Hire for a Role Until You Have Done It Yourself
“Something that I tell people a lot is hire when it hurts. Do not hire until you have been doing that job yourself for several months, because one, now you know how to better hire for it because you've done the job. And I'm speaking specifically about early sta…”
Opinion
Founders Who Feel No Empathy During Terminations Should Not Lead
“If my founder doesn't have empathy or doesn't have feelings about this termination, they probably shouldn't be a leader anymore.”
Insight
Early-Stage Investing Is Evaluating People Under Extreme Uncertainty and Distress
“Early stage investing is fundamentally about people and systems under conditions of extreme uncertainty and distress.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
776 Founders Access the Firm's Entire Network via Self-Serve Software
“So our network is fully accessible via software to every single portfolio in the company. They can go in and self-service.”
Disclosure
776 Invites All Employees to Pitches and Collects Anonymous Ratings
“Everyone at the firm is invited to any pitch we take. In the pitch process, because we have Cerebro, we have software, every individual that attends the pitch puts their notes into the system, and because Alexis is the Reddit guy, it's anonymous.”
Disclosure
776 Underwrites Every Single Check to Return the Entire Fund
“Every single check that we write, we underwrite it to return the fund, full stop. We lead deals. We have ownership targets. Those things are non-negotiable.”
Insight
Human Capital Work Is Risk Management Disguised as Empathy
“It's my sincere belief that human capital work is risk management disguised as empathy.”
Insight
Founders Must Remain Involved in Hiring Until the Day They Exit
“You as a founder should be a part of your hiring process until the day you exit. Full stop. Founders who are disconnected from building the team that is designed to help them fulfill their potential, to realize their dreams, to capitalize on all of their brill…”
Insight
Founders Never Regret Firing Someone, Only That They Waited Too Long
“Never once in my multi-decade career of hiring and firing people and supporting founders and entrepreneurs and builders has anyone ever come to me and said, I regret letting that person go. What they do say 10 out of 10 times is, oh my god, I should have done …”
Assertion Partly supported
Steve Jobs Designed Pixar's Atrium to Connect Leaders With Employees
“When we redesigned our studio in Emeryville, he was there every day. He took each one of our senior leaders, and he took them to the middle of the studio. This was the heartbeat of our studio, the common area. He pointed up and he said, see all of these window…”
Assertion Supported
Reddit Cycled Through Three CEOs in Less Than a Year
“At the time I joined, we'd had three CEOs in less than a year.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Holloway: I Have Hired Tens of Thousands and Fired Thousands
“I've hired tens of thousands of humans in my career, and I have fired thousands.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
776 Records Every Single Call and Activity in Custom Software
“Nothing that our firm does that is not reflected in Cerebro. From phone calls and support calls, everything lives in Cerebro.”
Disclosure
776 Incubated and Holds Almost Complete Ownership of Track League Athlos
“You've got an incubation with a company called Aflos that is a track and field league right now focused on women. That was Alexis's brainchild. We have almost complete ownership of and was brought to life from an idea to now being a full-fledged league.”
Assertion Supported
Katelin Holloway Spent Five Years Working Directly With Steve Jobs
“I spent five of some of the greatest years in life at that studio. I worked across dozens of films with some of the most incredible creatives of our generation. And also business leaders. I was working directly with and for Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull, John Lassete…”
Insight
Busy People Often Mistake Motion for Progress Without Finding True Leverage
“One is confusing motion for progress. The duck analogy. I hate it when people are just busy and they are operating at low frequency because they aren't able to distill the critical leverage from critical mass.”
