Masters of Scale

Sharing my learnings from the book, Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman

Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman

Behind the scenes in Silicon Valley, Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn, investor at Greylock) is a sought-after adviser to heads of companies and heads of state. On each episode of his podcast, Masters of Scale, he sits down with a guest from an all-star list of visionary founders and leaders, digging into the surprising strategies that power their company’s growth. In this book, he draws on their most riveting, revealing stories — as well as his own experience as a founder and investor — to distill the secrets behind the most extraordinary success stories of our times.

• This book explores real-life success stories that highlight the importance of timing, leadership, culture, and the ability to adapt. Scaling a startup can be one of the most exciting adventures of an entrepreneur’s life, and learning how to make the best of unpredictable situations can lead to immense growth and satisfaction.
• Kathryn Minshew heard the word “no” 148 times when she was seeking investors for the online career platform she was trying to get off the ground. But with just one “yes,” Minshew raised $28 million for The Muse, which now employs 200 people and serves 100 million users. The moral of the story? Don’t let a “no” hold you back – at least 99 percent of the time. 
  • Sometimes, a “no” clues you into potential fixes.
  • Pay attention to who tells you “no.” Those refusals have more to do with your relationships than with your idea.
  • ignore the “lazy no,” But carefully consider the “honest no” from someone whose opinion and wisdom you respect.
  • The best kind of “no” is the “squirmy no” – a reaction that polarizes a room. This scenario tells you you’re onto something so original that no one even knows what to think about it. While it can be tough to get buy-in with an unconventional idea, it also means you’re probably the first one to try the idea out.
• Fostering the right company culture is critical to scaling your startup.
  • make strategic use of that beginning phase when you have a small, loyal – even fanatical – group of users. Find your early superfans and hypercritics, and take time to learn from their passionate feedback.
  • Figure out what your guardrails are, what you’ll tolerate, and who to schmooze – including industry bigwigs and government agencies.
• Once a culture has established itself, it’s difficult to undo or change. Figure out what your core values are as well as how you’ll treat your employees and customers. Write a manifesto if you need to. Then, hire people who buy into the culture you’ve envisioned, because it will have a ripple effect: when you hire one person, you also get their network. When done right, culture can synergize the environment of a growing startup. It can raise morale and feed back into a loop where employees work even harder – which in turn causes the business to do better and attract more customers.
• Designer Tory Burch wanted to launch her retail store in New York City during Fashion Week. She had customers, friends and family, media, and a brand-new collection of exciting clothes. There was just one problem. She had no doors to open. The bright orange door that she had custom-designed hadn’t arrived. She had to make a choice. Should she hold off on the opening until everything was perfect, or should she let the hoards in through the empty doorway? Burch picked the second option. The day was an astounding success, indicative of the accolades her brand would go on to garner. 
• Scaling up too quickly can be risky – but moving too slowly can starve your company.
  • Business does not take place in a static environment. Things change every minute. An effective leader monitors these changes to gauge when to be patient and when to strike.
  • If you scale up and find yourself facing a big problem right away, ask yourself whether the issue could kill your business. If there’s a significant possibility that it could, stop and attend to it. 
• Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook exclusively for Harvard students. When he announced that he would extend it to Yale, Princeton, and other schools, the initial users expressed their dismay – but it didn’t stop them from using, and growing, the service. 
• When scaling up, respond to what your customers do rather than say.
  • Many founders conduct their own focus groups, which lead them to interesting and profitable observations.
  • Watching how your customers behave, and reacting to their behaviors, can yield exciting results.
• Ev Williams was working on a podcast-publishing platform called Odeo when he got some bad news: their behemoth competitor, Apple, had the same idea. This signaled the death knell for his product. Williams went back to the drawing board. He called his team together and held a hackathon. And lo and behold, something new emerged from this session: a group-texting platform that focused on status updates. Hello, Twitter.
• If you run into difficulty while scaling up, pivot to an even better idea.
  • Being flexible enough to pivot when things become impossible is an excellent life skill. In the business of scaling startups, it can breathe new life into failing products.
  • times of crisis are an opportunity to make a company more adaptable and flexible.
  • Sometimes, you’ll be working on a solution for a business idea, and that solution becomes its own business idea instead.
• Whether you’re switching, swerving, or completely rebooting, an opportunity to pivot can ultimately drive a company forward. But to truly harness that success, or drive any success to its maximum potential, you need a magic ingredient: leadership.
• When Angela Ahrendts went to work for Apple after a stratospheric career as CEO of Burberry, it was a tough transition. Ahrendts knew she needed to communicate her vision to all her new employees. But, as a parent of three teens, she knew that young Apple employees were unlikely to read long emails. So she made a three-minute iPhone video that was natural and real; It was an excellent start. The video was such a hit that she made one every week for four years
• When your company suddenly scales up, it’s almost like you’re now at a new, larger company. Everything changes. To keep employees inspired, it’s important to sustain a steady drumbeat of purpose and motivation.
  • you need compassion, wisdom, and clarity of vision.
  • being willing to listen, learn, and take advice – even from those in positions below you.
  • being able to accept constructive criticism.
• Howard Schultz was seven years old when he came home from school to find his father lying in bed, covered in a cast from hip to ankle. The World War II veteran had been involved in an accident at work and was now immobilized. Decades later, when Schultz became the owner of a little coffee operation called Starbucks, he made a deliberate decision: he’d build a company that took care of its employees, even before making a real profit. Starbucks became the first company in America to give every employee – even part-time workers – comprehensive health insurance.
• a company can carry an embedded mission forward – and that mission might be about much more than making money. 
  • The bigger your business, the more impact you can have. You can shape entire communities and regions, and the good you do can boomerang right back to you.
  • Sometimes, scaling up allows you to fill a need in society
  • Scaling up puts successful entrepreneurs in the position to do the kind of good that can be exponential.