Give First: The Long Conversation of Being a Co-Founder
Release Date: 08/28/2023
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Get free chapters of my book, Good Talk, and master the art of conversations big and small: Please support the podcast! 💌 : https://spoti.fi/3QzcPAW 💌 : or with : https://bit.ly/support-tcf-monthly : Check out for the full transcript and video highlights: Key Chapters 00:00 Growing Up Together: A Family Legacy 02:58 The Birth of a Documentary Idea 06:02 Navigating the Journey: Challenges and Growth 09:02 The Lens of Community: A New Perspective 12:01 Conflict and Collaboration: The Art of Working Together 14:54 The Long Haul: Commitment and Transformation 22:15 The Transformative...
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My guest today is Ashley Goodall, a leadership expert who has spent his career exploring large organizations from the inside, most recently as an executive at Cisco. He is the co-author of Nine Lies About Work, which was selected as the best management book of 2019 by Strategy + Business and as one of Amazon’s best business and leadership books of 2019. It is an awesome book - highly recommended. If, after listening to this conversation you want to hear more (and I think you will!), take a listen to him and his co-author, Marcus Buckingham, talking on the HBR Idea Cast about lie #5 - -...
info_outlineDavid Hoffman built and sold big-data and data analytics company Next Big Sound to Pandora in 2015. He's now building Beam, which helps people create shoppable mood boards for DTC brands.
David reflects on his experience with mentorship and the long arc of the conversation that is being a co-founder and being in community. We unpack the Techstars motto "give first" and discuss the power of the Techstars community and the importance of community relationships in entrepreneurship.
We talk through the complex evolution that is founding and scaling a startup, his experience doing just that with Next Big Sound, and the challenges of becoming a leader inside a growing company.
One challenge is always scaling culture as a company scales, and David outlines some of the routines and structures that helped in defining his startup's culture. David also shares some insights on the post-startup-sale emotional roller coaster and the decision to build another company. Some of my other favorite insights from David:
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Living the “Give First” motto requires approaching everything with curiosity.
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“Grown ups” is a construct: When it is your idea and your company, you can make the decisions you need to make.
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Your Culture is made of your routines, whether it’s Friday bagels or snap-clapping after people share wins.
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Your MVP product can be much, much more simple than you think if it creates value for your customers.
David’s nuanced reflections are a gift, and I’m so glad he sat down for this conversation.
Head over to theconversationfactory.com/listen for full episode transcripts, links, show notes and more key quotes and ideas. You can also head over there and become a monthly supporter of the show for as little as $8 a month. You'll get complimentary access to exclusive workshops and resources that I only share with this circle of facilitators and leaders.
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