Insight
Braverman: Job Candidates Should Filter for Market Heat Before Checking Substance
“In many cases, it's easier to start with heat and go, okay, what companies have the most heat? What companies are the most people talking about getting the sort of law of attraction, whatever, whatever you want to call it. And then as your second step, like be…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Braverman: 70% of top CROs retired after the last cycle
“There's a guy named Joel May who runs a recruiting firm called Bridgegate out of Manhattan Beach, who told me, 70% of the best CROs in the market retired after the last cycle.”
Opinion
Braverman: Clawing back ramp draws from future commissions is deeply demotivating
“In the old school SaaS, and I think it's still in some companies, they actually make the rep effectively bank what they've been overpaid. And then once they're at full OTE, it comes out of their future commissions checks. So it's what I hate. I was like, nothi…”
Insight
Braverman: Top VC Recommendations Provide Highest Signal for Career Decisions
“If people are willing to give you sort of their best 30 minutes, so to speak, you know, the best company they've found in years of searching, in the case of YC, through hundreds or thousands of companies, there's really nothing that's going to be higher signal…”
Insight
Braverman: Headcount-dependent SaaS models will struggle in a recession
“If you are in one of these businesses that is dependent on other businesses to grow in order for you to sell licenses. This potential recession we're heading into, it's just going to be super tough to thrive.”
Disclosure
Braverman: Flexport achieved high sales retention by granting equity upon promotion
“We found we had incredible retention at Flexport when we paired career progression with meaningful equity grants when people progressed in their careers.”
Insight
Braverman: Startups must attach PR to existing media obsessions, not themselves
“If you want them to care about your business, you've got to find some way to attach yourself to the current thing. You can't try to make yourself the current thing. It's literally impossible. I think that's the number one mistake, you know, first time founders…”
Disclosure
Braverman invested life savings in Flexport before joining as CRO
“What did I actually use to make my decision Like first to invest my life savings in Blacksburg, and then ultimately to make the bet to like, okay, let's, let's put every waking hour every day into this thing, go work for Ryan full time as CRO.”
Assertion Supported
Braverman: Ryan Petersen's ImportGenius printed cash selling structured data
“Ryan had this company, Import Genius, that basically took public data Structured it, made it available for third parties, made it searchable, and they just sold access to it for like a hundred bucks a month per seat, and the business absolutely printed and sti…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Braverman: Julie Harris managed over $1B turnover at Flexport
“Built an enormous book of business. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of millions of turnover, probably this year, over a billion in turnover in the book that Julie directly managed you know, by the time she left Flexport.”
Assertion Supported
Braverman: Paul Graham identified Flexport as breakout before official YC acceptance
“Paul Graham had already identified Ryan and Flexport as a breakout from YC before he went into YC, and you know that because he got called on stage at startup school by Paul before he was officially accepted into YC.”
