Across all of these break-out companies, a set of common patterns has evolved into a repeatable playbook that Gil has codified in High Growth Handbook.
When you carry it around, hold it by the corner.Well known technology executive and angel investor Elad Gil has worked with high growth tech companies like Airbnb, Twitter, Google, Instacart, Coinbase, Stripe, and Square as they've grown from small companies into global brands. It’s an almanac for anyone starting a company. The book spans many topics and it’s worth reading once and then keeping it on your desk. This is a simple, clear way of articulating how to evaluate management team members that founders and board members can debate. Keith Rabois: “A really great executive is six to twelve months ahead of the curve. Short circuit the process to get to a stronger working relationship. We all figure out how to work with each other over time, but it can take years. Seeing a document like this inspires me to create such a document. In the book, Elad reprints Claire’s document. Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce all do this to reinforce their dominance.Ĭlaire Hughes Johnson: “I wrote a document back when I was at Google called, ‘Working with Claire.’…It spread quite quickly through the organization…I think founders should write a guide to working with them.” That’s what it means to be a platform: distributing other products. Distribution is a long term sustainable competitive advantage.
The longer I’m involved in the world of startups, the more firmly I believe this. Marc Andreessen: “In fact, the general model for successful tech companies, contrary to myth and legend, is that they become distribution centric rather than product centric…Would you rather have another two years’ lead on product, or two years’ lead on having a state-of-the-art growth effort?” There are a few passages from the book that struck me. It explains the theory and the practice of building a company from his point of view and that of many luminaries. High Growth Handbook shines as a straightforward manual for startup founders.
I’ve admired the way Elad decomposes problems and proposes solutions from those early days in Building 42. He’s so smart and has so much cognitive bandwidth, he simply doesn’t have time to wait for the computer to wake from sleep. Elad carries his laptop open, powered on and by the top or bottom corner. The laptop is closed, in hand, between the hand and the hip. Most people carry their laptop in the same way. Back then, he had an unusual habit I noticed right away. I first met Elad Gil when I became an associate product manager at Google.
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