Shipping your product quickly to get feedback is a lot like like playing the banjo in front of an audience - you need to know if they're into it or just want you to stop.

CEO of Figma on Building Product

• Why Read:

  • Gain insights on product development, customer relationships, industry networking, and leadership from an experienced tech entrepreneur.

• Featuring:

  • Lenny Rachitsky (@lennysan), Author at Lenny’s Newsletter and Lenny’s Podcast interviews Dylan Field (@zoink), CEO & Co-founder at Figma, Inc.

• Link: 

  • “Dylan Field live at Config: Intuition, simplicity, and the future of design”

Key Concepts and Tactics:

1. Ship your product quickly to get feedback

   • Insight: Launching early allows you to iterate based on user feedback.

   • Quote: "Get it out as fast as you possibly can. Everything they tell you about making sure that you get a product out really quickly is totally true. The faster you get it out, the more feedback you get. That is a positive thing. And now I index on that when we try to build."

2. Balance quality, features, and deadlines when launching

   • Insight: For new launches, prioritize two out of three: quality, features, or deadline.

   • Quote: "Well, another thing that Evan taught me was that for a new launch, you got quality, features, deadline, choose two. And I think that the beautiful thing about software is you can keep iterating on it. So it's not like a physical product where you have to always have quality in there, otherwise it's never going to have quality."

3. Reach out to influential people in your industry for feedback

   • Insight: Connecting with industry leaders can provide valuable insights and potential evangelists.

   • Quote: "The design community is amazing. And they said yes and then from there was able to learn from them, show them Figma, get their feedback. And I think it started honestly more as me fanboy and me getting feedback."

4. Continuously adapt and learn from various sources

   • Insight: Seek mentorship and learning opportunities from diverse sources, including employees and the community.

   • Quote: "I think all the above. And also just having a mindset of, you have to constantly adapt and grow and change and adapt. But I would say that mentors can come from anywhere. It can come from the community, all of you. Mentorship can come from the people you hire."

5. Take responsibility for the impact of your product

   • Insight: Recognize the responsibility that comes with creating tools that shape technology.

   • Quote: "The chance to serve them and to make software for them and hopefully improve their life in some little way is such a privilege. It's a responsibility and one I don't take lightly, but also I try not to carry that as a weight, but rather as pump me up and get me excited to go build for them."

6. Consider the long-term implications of advice

   • Insight: Recognize that advice often reflects the giver's perspective rather than universal truth.

   • Quote: "One piece of advice I've always appreciated is when people give you advice, they're not giving you advice, they're giving themselves advice in your shoes. I think that's an interesting one. So if I gave you advice here, I'm giving myself advice in your shoes."

Why You Shouldn’t Fundraise in Summer

Why Read: 

• Understand how summer affects fundraising, how you can optimize your timing, and strategize your approach for maximum effectiveness when engaging with VCs post-summer vacation.

Featuring:

• Chris Neumann (@ckneumann) , General Partner at Panache Ventures

• Link:

• “Why is Summer a Bad Time to Fundraise?”

Key Concepts and Tactics:

1. Recognize that summer months can slow down the fundraising process due to VC vacations.

   • "Let's start with the basics: the vast majority of VCs work through the summer months. Nobody I know is taking a 6-week holiday or shutting down the firm for two months. But almost everyone who works in VC does take some form of vacation during the summer."

2. Identifying the Practical Impacts on Fundraising:

   • Point: Be aware of the specific ways summer vacations can affect the fundraising timeline.

   • "Some of the practical impacts from the perspective of a founder include: It takes longer to schedule an initial meeting with a VC; The time between meetings increases; The amount time needed for a VC to complete their diligence takes longer (as analysts and others at the firm also take vacations); There is more inertia when it comes to building the type of excitement/momentum that leads to FOMO."

3. Recognizing the Importance of Momentum:

   • Point: Understand that slower processes can hinder the competitive dynamics beneficial for fundraising.

   • "Because you're trying to build momentum. If you're running a high-velocity fundraising process, your goal is to align as many VCs as you can into an efficient, effective timeline. That's unequivocally harder to do if you can't start with the baseline assumption that everyone you need to interact with at a firm is actually available when you need them to be."

4. Utilizing Summer Months Effectively:

   • Point: Use the summer to prepare for future fundraising efforts.

   • "Prepare for your fundraising round by building your fully-researched pipeline of potential investors; Practice and perfect your pitch; Build out your data room and all of the supplementary materials you think will be necessary (so you don't have to do this while you're fundraising); Consider reaching out to a small number of investors to get feedback as a dotted line (you can often get more quality time with prospective investors in the summer, as their schedules aren't nearly as packed); Focus your team on driving the key metrics you believe will be key to your fundraise (revenue, users, etc.) in order to show strong month-over-month growth going into your fundraise."

5. Planning the Optimal Fundraising Start:

   • Point: Time your fundraising efforts to align with VCs' return to full capacity.

   • "In terms of when you should start fundraising, there are three key dates to know: The third week of August is when most Bay Area schools start (San Francisco/Silicon Valley VCs with kids are back home and in the office); The fourth week of August is when Burning Man happens (many VCs without kids - any some with - are off cosplaying in the desert); The first Tuesday in September is when most Canadian schools start (at this point, every VC in North America is back to full capacity)."

6. Strategizing the Fundraising Process:

   • Point: Structure your fundraising approach to maximize effectiveness as VCs return from summer.

   • "Assuming that your process includes 'practice meetings' with investors that are lower down your target list, the third week of August is a great time to start. You can then ramp up initial meetings in the fourth week of August and into September. By the time you're on to second and third meetings and into diligence, all of the VCs you engage with should be at full capacity."

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