No one looks forward to tough conversations. The good news is that you always feel better once you’re on the other side. While it can be tempting to kick the can down the road, you’re better off tackling tough topics head-on. We talked to several experienced leaders about how they have navigated tough conversations with team members, employees, and even co-founders.

guides / Starting a Company / Startup Journey

Top 5 Takeaways from a Conversation with Stan Lapidus

Earlier this month, we sat down with serial founder, Pillar VC Founding Pillar and Petri Co-Founder Stan Lapidus to hear about his journey to becoming one of the top bio inventors of our time.

guides / Starting a Company / Startup Journey

How to Find a Co-Founder or Early Startup Team Member

Looking to find your co-founder or hire your early team?

guides / Starting a Company

10 Nuggets of Advice for Early Stage Founders

It’s not easy to make time to seek those people out when you’re a busy founder. We spun up the Founder Playlist to solve this challenge, meeting CEOs where they are with short, simple, concrete audio clips with advice from founders of some of the companies we most admire, CEOs like Brian Halligan (HubSpot), Corey Thomas (Rapid7) and Gail Goodman (Constant Contact).

guides / Starting a Company / Startup Journey

SaaS Tools for Startups

Blissfully created a wonderful guide to help you better understand the most commonly used tools in today’s startup SaaS stack.

guides / Starting a Company

Templates

View all Templates

Founder Restricted Stock Agreement

Open Google Doc

templates / Starting a Company

Reading Lists

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz

Buy on Amazon

readings / / Startup Journey

Starting a Company

Playlists

Top Advice for Founders

Getting Started

The Founder Journey

Is VC Right for Me?

Tough Conversations

Building a Remote Company

Co-Founder Relationships

Videos

What should I do if my co-founder is driving me crazy?

What happens if one of my co-founders leaves early?

How do VCs view familial founding teams?

Part 1: Should I start a company with my significant other?

Audio

How can companies thrive in this new normal?

How can I invest in building and maintaining a healthy relationship with my cofounder?

What early conversations should I have with my cofounder?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

How do I know when to quit my day job?

What is the impact of a peer network on personal development?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

Should I optimize for the highest valuation?

What questions should I ask a potential co-founder?

How can I convince a technical co-founder to join my team?

Do I need to have industry expertise?

What has been the most surprising part of the founder journey?

What is the number one piece of advice you give early stage founders?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

How can I recognize when people uphold our company values?

How can companies fall down on setting culture?

What should I do if I have a great idea, but another startup is already solving the same problem?

What should I do if there is another startup solving the same problem as me?

What is the number one piece of advice you give early stage founders?

What is a platform business?

What is a winner take all market?

How should I go about customer discovery?

How can I create a culture around operational excellence?

When I socialize my idea, how do I determine which parts need to remain confidential?

Do all CEOs need natural sales ability?

How should I decide on team roles and equity splits?

How can I get a start as an entrepreneur?

Where can I find a co-founder with deep expertise?

What is total addressable market?

If I build it, will they come?

How do I know when to kill my idea?

What things have you tried that didn't work out?

How do I come up with a business design?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

How do I figure out if my idea has legs?

What is the number one piece of advice you give early stage founders?

How can I create a strong culture from Day 1?

Part 2: How do I know when it's not working?

Part 3: How do I find a great idea?

What is remote inclusion?

How much do I have to love the problem I'm working on?

How do you convince a technical team they need a CEO?

How do I know when to bring on a technical co-founder?

How do co-founder swim lanes change over time?

How do I validate my idea?

How do I size a potential market?

How do I win my first customer?

How can I prepare my engineering team to work remotely?

When building a remote company, how do I handle international time zones?

How can I make remote employees feel like they belong?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

Part 2: Should I start a company with my significant other?

What is the number one piece of advice you give early stage founders?

Part 2: Should I bootstrap my company?

What is your number one piece of advice for early stage founders?

How did you know your co-founder was the one?

What do I do if my co-founder and I don't agree?

Part 3: How do I find a co-founder?

What is the number one piece of advice you have for early stage founders?

How do I know when to go full time on my company?

How do I decide what to charge for my product?

Part 1: Should I bootstrap my company?

How do I identify a target customer?

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