Molly's April Tidbits

I’m trying a new format to share, once a month, some things I’m reading and listening to, people I admire and you should know about, and things that have made me stop and think this month. Feel free to send me feedback :) 

Everything we do in life is motivated by love or fear.
- Bronnie Ware, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Content from me in April 

• Podcast: Run the Numbers with CJ Gustafson. I enjoyed chatting with CJ about a really wide variety of topics but we talked a bit about something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: Work Grief. I’m going to end up writing an article about it but it’s come up a lot lately as something that is a part of people’s experiences building companies and not something we talk about very much. The things you mourn as the company evolves and grows around you: reorgs, layering someone, being layers, being promoted above your peers, giving away your legos, etc. It was fun to dig in to some complex topics with CJ.    

• Podcast: Redefining Work with Lars Schmidt. I always love chatting with Lars, who is a friend, so it was fun to do it “on the record.” We talked about what it takes to build and scale a company well, why the learners will always win over the knowers, and what I wish every founder knew about not growing ahead of their business. 

• Article: Startup Org Design: Design Power Centers Intentionally. Org design is a mystery to a lot of people and it’s a place where I see mistakes waste a lot of money and time for startups. If you can do me a favor and share this with every founder you know, I’d appreciate it. I just want it to save folks some pain and misery of repeating mistakes I’ve made or seen others make.

Content I loved in April

• Book: Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert: Honestly, this book changed my life more than any book has in recent memory. I am not someone who thinks of myself` as creative but I’ve been on a journey to connect more with that side of myself and this book was a huge catalyst for me. It’s a fast delightful read (as is everything Elizabeth Gilbert). 

• Podcast: Everything you need to know about Discipline from Raising Good Humans with Dr Aliza. Skip this if you’re not a parent but if you are a parent, I’ve recently really gotten into Dr. Aliza and this episode was such a wonderful, thoughtful way to look at discipline. She talks about discipline as a form of teaching and how to think about it through different ages. Loved it. 

• Article: The CFO Hiring Playbook by Founder’s Circle Capital. My brilliant friend, Corley Hughes, contributed to this guide to hiring a CFO. I always turn to Corley when I have finance questions, and she has a PDF version of “hiring your first CFO” that I have shared with everyone. So glad this is now out in the world and everyone can access it!

Takeaways from April’s Glue Club events

• Storytime: Closing Down a Company. One of our members had to shut down their company in Q1 and took the time to share what they wished they had known reflecting backward… I took SO MUCH away from this session and was so proud of and grateful to this member for sharing their learnings. Here are two of the ones that stuck with me:

  • Not every idea/company is the right fit for VC-backing, even if the idea has gotten VC-backing before. WE DON’T TALK ABOUT THIS ENOUGH. I see A LOT of businesses raise capital where it is VERY hard for me to imagine that the idea can get to “venture scale.” There are lots of different kinds of business funding, and not everyone should get venture $$. This is definitely as much on the VCs as the founders, but it’s an essential question to ask when you are considering how to build your business because the kind of funding you take can put a lot of pressure on how you grow your business. Is this an idea that has a product or technology backbone that will allow it to reach true scale – $100s of millions or even billions in revenue? There are LOTS of great businesses that reach $1m, are profitable, and just stay there! But they shouldn’t be funded by venture capital. 

  • Lots of tactical things can make shutting down a company hard like office leases and disability benefits. We often focus on the emotional process of shutting down a business, not the logistical one, but the logistics often end up in the driver's seat of when you can truly shut down. If there’s any chance that a shutdown is in your future, you want to start to figure out what those “long pole” items are as early as possible.

• Lessons with Molly: All The People Stuff. This is one of the standard lessons in our New Member Program, where I share as many stories and frameworks as possible from my experiences building companies. 

  • One of my key principles for all things People related is always start with the business. Companies are fundamentally just groups of people organized (hopefully efficiently) to build things together. The goal is that the company is greater than the sum of its parts. But when we’re dealing with humans and human emotions, it’s easy to forget that at the end of the day, no one has a job if the business isn’t successful. When you’re dealing with people issues, you have to start with the business always. 

  • The shape of your business should determine which execs to hire first and who should be the most powerful.

  • A company needs learners and guides. Folks in the biggest jobs they’ve ever had are learners, and they need people around them who have “seen it before” and can help avoid predictable mistakes.

• AMA. Every couple of months we do an Ask Me Anything session with me. In it, someone asked about how and when to look for a coach and what to look for. One of the things I find myself repeating when I talk about coaching is the difference between therapy, advising, and coaching. Therapists are massively trained to help you understand yourself but likely aren’t the experts on work. Coaches are there to help you become the best version of yourself as a leader and will usually bring the answers out of you with frameworks and thoughtful questions that help grow your thinking. Advisors have walked in your shoes and can do some of what coaches do, but they can also tell you stories that give you an answer or tell you what they would do. Before you go hunting for someone to support you, ask yourself which of these is the best fit for what you’re looking for. 

People I admire spotlight

Name: Mari Nazary

Role: CEO, AppAcademy

Reason Why I Admire Mari: Mari is a brilliant, thoughtful leader who combines the ability to deeply care about and build for the customer with the ability to build great teams. She has high standards and makes the people around her better. She just took over as CEO of AppAcademy and I’m so excited to see what she brings to that organization. Mari is a member of Glue Club and mentioned that one of the most valuable things she’s taken away from the New Member experience and the community is to “trust my gut. So much of what Molly shared resonated with my own personal experience but I never had a framework to lean on because it was mostly based on my gut. These lessons were invaluable in the sense that now I have validation and a name for things.”

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We built Glue Club to give startup leaders a space to learn what good looks like and help them skip some of the mistakes others have made. Glue Club membership begins with our New Member program, which includes "Lessons" taught by me and bi-weekly facilitated circles where you problem-solve collaboratively with your peers, finding solutions for challenges that you and your company are facing. If you’re a company builder who wants a community of people to lean on and learn from, come join us!