Likes & Launch
Month
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. - Wayne Gretzky
When asked about how I ended up at Union Square Ventures, I tell the truth: “I fell backwards into it.”
In the fall of 2012, I was working on building Incline. Our inaugural class was in session and I was spending 90% of my time working with technology companies in NYC to fill their open positions with technical veteran candidates. By the end of the class we had 80 hiring partners signed up from the fastest growing startups to established media companies, like the New York Times and Time Inc., who were growing technical teams.
A few days after Thanksgiving I got a simple email from Joanne Wilson, an amazing supporter from my gtrot days and beyond, introducing me to her husband Fred Wilson. The email said, “He is interested in talking to you about some possible opportunities.”
Our email exchange:
Fred: “We are seeking to hire someone to run the USV Network
I realize you have your own startup and aren’t looking for something new
But we would love to talk to you about this opportunity.
Would you be willing to come to USV this Friday to meet with my partner Albert and me?”
Me: “Not quite the email I expected. Friday morning works for me or I can adjust a few things in the afternoon.”
Fred: “yeah, i was pretty sure it would strike you as ‘out of left field’”
I quickly scrambled to learn more about the opportunity which was never listed as an open position. The only mention of the role was the from two years prior when they hired the first GM of the USV Network.
I immediately emailed Christina who just finished her two year rotation at USV. She was kind enough to hop on the phone to answer my questions. She also put me in touch with Gary, the current GM of the USV Network who was leaving to start his own organization. Gary met me for coffee the next day and shared more about the role (while stealthily using the time as an interview).
The 48 hours between getting the introduction email and showing up at the USV offices to interview for a job were strange. I never applied to a job or really thought about joining a VC firm. And to be honest, after starting my own company, I really didn’t really know if I would ever be able to work for anyone else.
I asked why they contacted me. Fred and Albert told me they never posted the job but asked their existing portfolio for referrals where my name came up a few times. I was flattered. I credit it to knowing a number of people in their portfolio through my work with Incline at the time.
After a great discussion about the role, the firm and the option to continue running Incline on the side, I decided to join the firm.
I’ve now worked here for 14 months and I love what I do. The GM roles are no longer rotational like the 2-year analyst roles, so I’ve got a few more big things I hope to accomplish here.
What’s funny about this to me is that looking back, I don’t know if I would’ve applied to the GM role if it were posted. I don’t think I would’ve picked myself. I would’ve convinced myself I wasn’t ‘right’ or didn’t have the skills or pedigree from an Ivy league school.
Thankfully it wasn’t up to me to decide if I was right for the role. I could have very easily missed the opportunity to learn so much from the USV team and USV Network at the hand of my own fear.
Don’t miss out on a job, a new venture, a degree, or an opportunity because you don’t pick yourself. Be bold.
If you are interested in joining the team at USV, we are running an open process for the next analysts. We don’t require a resume, just that you tell us more about yourself in two quick video answers. I hope you pick yourself or encourage someone else who wants to contribute to NYC Tech and USV. Apply here.
Photo and DIY vintage charger idea from Tidbits and Wine.
I’m guilty of checking my email within the first few minutes of waking up but I’ve found that I’m less likely to reply to those emails until I’m in the office. I’d like to think of it as a ‘light-weight’ way to ease into work in the morning but what it really comes down to is tools.
I try to take superior care of my biggest tool: my inbox. It’s a very powerful medium I use daily for getting things done.
I’m a big fan of google apps tools like appointment slots, canned responses, and boomerang for gmail. They help me get more repetitive tasks done quickly so I can get back to the good stuff.
The problem is, sending email from my mobile phone doesn’t have the extra features yet. Fortunately, I just learned at the recent USV Business Development Summit about a way to hack a ‘canned response’ or ‘text expander’ type tool into your iPhone or Android phone without a separate app.
iOS: Put autocorrect to work for you
Create keyboard shortcuts with common phrases is easier than I thought. On your iOS device go to:
Settings > General > Keyboard — Scroll down to “Add New Shortcut”
You’ll have the option to put in a phrase: this is where you can type or paste in the long text you would like to replace.
Using my calendar appointment slot hack as an example, I copy and pasted in my canned response (making sure not to hide the hyperlink):
Phrase: “Grab an appointment slot here: http://bit.ly/———. Please include your phone number in the invite.”
Shortcut: “ssched”
Now, whenever I type scched anywhere in my phone, autocorrect inserts the phrase above. Much faster!
Other things you can shortcut: address to your office, mailing address, conference call number, or a long website URL.
Android: Use Google Keyboard’s text expansion
Good news for Android users, no app is required if you use the Google keyboard. The process is similar to iOS. Android Police has done a great job of providing a step-by-step how to on the process here.
[http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/06/07/psa-the-google-keyboard-for-android-supports-text-expansion-heres-how-to-use-it/]
What other mobile inbox hacks do you use? Share with us in the comments or on twitter @br_ttany.
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. - Noam Chomsky
VetsinTech team at the White House. Thanks for sharing Craig.
Two weeks ago I was invited to the White House’s workshop on Veterans Entrepreneurship. Including White house staff, there were 90 people who worked together in this workshop. We were all gathered on the edge of what’s possible for transitioning Veterans.
Participants included non-profits, government organizations, private companies and public companies. As readers of this blog know, I have been involved in bridging the gap between technical military veterans and the tech sector through Incline which is now the New York City chapter of VetsinTech.
I didn’t know what to expect but I was excited to be welcomed beyond the White House gates. Upon arrival, we were assigned to one of 9 tables with different topics. I was part of the ‘Tech entrepreneurship’ table, our goal was to brainstorm all of the issues we felt Veterans were still facing in this area.
You’ve been #hustling for the past year at your startup. Your team has doubled and doubled again. What was once ten people huddled in a makeshift office is now a group of fifty people collaborating to make this one idea into a ‘real company.’
Grind/Dream poster by Joey Roth.
You’ve never been more excited or more exhausted. You stop to look back at where you were a year ago and are shocked at how little you knew. You took on budget or human resources or design or mobile because someone had to do it. You stepped up to the plate and you did the best you could. You helped get the company where it is today. Although you probably don’t hear it as much as you’d like from your CEO, thank you. Thank you. You are a part of what got the company here today.
The high from looking how far you’ve come quickly wears off when you look back at your inbox. Messages about that upcoming deadline. More engineers coming on board but not enough budget to add more hires who aren’t building the core of the product. You’ve added two people to your team but you still feel like you’re absorbing every loose end. You are the person who took on every challenge before, so why should that change?
Yes, you’ve found yourself reading a blog post about employee burnout but then you catch yourself. Burnout is for other people. Burnout is for people who don’t sleep more than 4 hours a day. Hm, maybe you should read do a little research on how people get by with 4 hours of sleep, you could do that just for a little while, right?
NO! Less sleep is never (#hustle mindset: rarely) the answer. What you need help with is reprioritizing. You have too many things on your plate that you can no longer see what’s important. There is no way that you’re doing an excellent job at too many things. It’s impossible.
How do you prioritize when everything feels business critical? First, not everything is business critical, and if it is, then why aren’t any of the other 20-50 people on your team working on this? Everything is not business critical.
Take a deep breath. Say it with me now: “Everything is not business critical.” Repeat it until you believe it.
Now, how do you know what is business critical? Make a priority list by using three questions:
