A hyper-practical guide for startup founders and CEOs looking to improve their leadership skills and company operations. Really great for those who have read other leadership books but seek tactical advice applicable to startups. It references various other books, providing a concise summary of each within its chapters. Most importantly, this book will **not** tell you how to reach [[Product-Market Fit]], which is the only thing that matters in early stage startup. However, it's still a useful read because: * Unless you can just brute-force by pulling 120-hour weeks, you likely can't reach PMF by acting completely contrary to this. * It includes a lot of great post-PMF advice * It discusses management of your own psychology, which matters to what your experience will be as you go through startup, regardless of outcomes. ### Structure True to his style, the book is meticulously organized. I'll break down the structure here and the key takeaways from each section. - **Beginnings**: Basics - **Individual Habits**: Focus on personal productivity and responsibility. - **Group Habits**: Ensure team alignment and productivity. - **Infrastructure**: Set up company tools and systems for ease of use. - **Collaboration**: Develop effective collaboration as the company grows. - **Processes**: Provide tactical advice for specific startup processes. ### Beginnings * Co-founders: how to line up equity. I actually disagree and think two-team cofounders should be 50-50 unless there's something very unique, so I'll skip this. * Team: TL;DR: shouldn't be more than six people pre-PMF * PMF vs Scaling: what's the difference. Again didn't focus too much on this since we're pre-PMF. ### Individual Habits - [[GTD]] and Inbox Zero: Keep your tasks organized and your inbox clear. - [[On time and present]] - [[Set a Top Goal every single work day]] - Write it down: Document information you find yourself repeating. - Gratitude and appreciation: Maintain a gratitude log and express appreciation to others. - Health and Well-being: Prioritize your physical and mental health. - [[Zone of Genius]]: Focus on tasks you excel at and enjoy. ### Group Habits - [[RAPID (Decision-Making Framework)]] - [[One-way vs two-way doors]] - [[Impeccable agreements]]: Make clear and agreed-upon commitments. - Transparency: Be open with your team; they are not oblivious. - [[Conscious Leadership]] - leading from "above the line". - Radical responsibility: Taking full responsibility for one's actions and well-being. ### Infrastructure * Most of this chapter and on matters much more as you're scaling a company post-PMF so I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it, but it talks about things like setting up a wiki, AOR, OKRs, etc. ### Collaboration - Meetings: its roles (Accountability, Coaching, Transparency), how to run them, how to set their cadences, etc. - Feedback: Use the SBI method and make specific requests. Feedback is symmetrical. [[Five A's for handling feedback]]: Ask, acknowledge, appreciate, accept (or not), act. - Org Structure, Titles. ### Processes - Recruiting: Follow the [[Who]] method—Scorecard, Source, Select, Sell. - Fundraising: really solid tactical guide. - Also has chapters for Fundraising (really good), Sales and Marketing (can't tell if they're good or not) ### Overall This book gives you a great starting point for every operational aspect of running a startup. There's no need to cargo-cult every single thing that Matt suggests, but as my coach told me once: > If you've never made apple pie before, try New York Times' recipe. It'll be *pretty good*, and you should definitely tweak it over time to make it yours, but it's *probably* better than what you would come up with from scratch for the first time. Similarly, for everything that doesn't [[Makes your beer taste better]], you could do a lot worse than taking Matt's advice.  PS: The book is given for free in a Google Doc [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WsN-oIG_Muy0zM7qGxoAPMnJlhWBwRzjDpoMOvzk0Nc/edit?tab=t.0), and Alex MacCaw has an interactive site that goes through most of the similar things [here](https://themanagershandbook.com/). Full annotations [here]([[The Great CEO Within, Matt Mochary, Alex MacCaw, and Misha Talavera(annotated)]]). #published 2025-01-11