Oh, and I gave birth to my daughter in silence all by myself on the couch. That was pretty intense too. While living in a squat, I also unfolded a dead guy starting to harden, to make sure we could later lay him down in a coffin. Life is full of strange adventures, I guess!
Removing from my budding startup team a highly motivated guy, bright, experienced in big companies... without damaging his ego AND without lying AND while being clear. If I can re-orient everyone I need to, as well as this guy until the end, I'd be so proud and happy! And I won't ever make enemies that way.
That was a very charged conversation emotionally, I was vulnerable and highly respectful, but still decisive and honest.
I refrained from exposing the case I had 'against' him to make the decision to move him from a potential cofounder role to an external advisory role. Instead, once decision was made, I committed for this to be as good as possible for everyone. I started bravely with the clear news, pointing out it had been my mistake to bring him on at that point.
I had taken serious time imagining his viewpoint. I talked about all the good he had brought to the project, for real, and all the good I valued about him, for real, and asked him to be an advisor (yes, he's been of value in that role, despite the hurt feelings).
What articles are/were hugely impactful for you?
On a given subject, what is the 'if you only read one' reference for you? Be it a video/real book/curated Twitter feed, whatever your medium. Thanks a lot for sharing!
You're certainly showing us what the original Jessica Livingston @YC rule means : no asshole, thank you for being a generous you ! Let's make this shine and inspire more YC alumni to become Advisors for this #epicbatch @startupschool