Operations

Businesses are formed through a number of different methods and structures. Different business structures are selected for a number of reasons: decision-making structures, financial implications, tax adjustments, flexibility, etc…One common example of a business structure or investor structure is the Limited Partnership or an LP. Let’s explore what exactly a Limited Partnership is, and the Pros and Cons of working within this specific structure. What Is a Limited Partnership? A Limited Partnership is a business partnership of 2 or more partners. Limited Partnerships are made up of partners that contribute a significant financial investment to the business. There are a few specifications that make a Limited Partnership what it is. Within the partnership, there is always 1 General Partner while the remaining member or members of the LP are considered Limited Partners. Beyond the breakdown of how the members of the LP are structured and held responsible, an LP operates in a few specific ways. For starters, they are pass-through entities. This means that the Limited Partnership itself is not subject to corporate income tax. Instead, the LPs profits flow through to the owners or members, or in this case Partners, and then those profits are taxed under individual income tax laws. Most states in the U.S. have specific laws governing the formation of LPs and most states require some form of registration of said LP with that state’s Secretary of State. Typically, LPs are formed as an ideal structure to raise capital for a particular set of investments that ensures limited liability for most members of the LP to protect losing more than they invest and maximizing their opportunity for gains. In tech, LPs are a common structure for many Venture Capital Firms or Private Investment Firms. In summary, remember these key takeaways about LPs: LPs have at least 2 members A Limited Partnership always has a General Partner while additional members are Limited Partners. LPs are pass-through entities. LPs protect most members’ assets with losses only ever being possible for the amount initially invested. Limited Partnerships are a great structure for raising capital for large, potentially risky investment opportunities – like software and technology companies. Related Resource: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages Related Resource: 6 Types of Investors Startup Founders Need to Know About How Does a Limited Partnership Work? Diving in more specifically to the structure of a Limited Partnership’s members, it’s critical to understand the difference between the General Partner and the Limited Partner(s). The General Partner oversees and runs the business including the day-to-day operations and management of the business, it’s activities, and it’s investments. Additionally, the General Partner takes on unlimited liability for the debt of the business as well as any obligations or activities as outlined in the partnership. The Limited Partner or Limited Partners do not make any decisions in the execution and operation of the business. However, they only have limited liability for the debt of the business, with liability only up to the amount they invested. Limited partners are sometimes known as passive or silent investors since they have no stake in the business and are more like general company shareholders with the type of influence they can have on the operations of the business. How Do You Form a Limited Partnership? The process of forming a Limited Partnership is fairly straightforward. As mentioned above, most states require Limited Partnerships to be registered with the state’s Secretary of State. So for most LPs in most states, the first step to forming an LP is to file as an official LP within the state your LP will be based in – the state your LP is registered in doesn’t mean that is where all your Limited Partners have to be residing, as they will pay individual income tax in their respective states, but it is where your LP will be registered to operate or where your LP will be headquartered. As part of registration with your Secretary of State, most states will require the LP to pay a filing fee. When an LP is officially recognized by the state government, the Limited Partnership will be granted a Certificate of Limited Partnership. This certificate includes the names and addresses of the general partner or partners, the street address of the LLP’s principal office, and a brief, formal statement of the partnership’s business. After the legal registration is complete, the next step to forming a Limited Partnership is to create a Limited Partnership Agreement. The LP Agreement will be a formal, legal document that governs how much ownership each Limited Partner has in the partnership, any partnership limitations or agreements that the General Partner must adhere to, and any other miscellaneous terms of the partnership. The Limited Partnership Agreement will serve as the foundational, fundamental outline of how your newly formed LP will operate. What to Include in a Partnership Agreement The Limited Partnership Agreement is a critical part of the formation of an LP. There are a number of pieces of information that should be included in a standard partnership agreement. Business Name: The formal name of the Limited Partnership should be clearly outlined at the heading of the partnership agreement. Business Purpose: The goal of the Limited Partnership should be outlined within the agreement. This should include the reason for establishing the LP as well as the purpose this LP will serve – what it’s investing in or why it’s formation will be a positive outcome for said business projects or initiates it will impact. Partner Structure: The Partnership Agreement should list out the roles and responsibilities of the General Partner and the Limited Partner(s). The agreement should also include the existing names of the GP and any current LPs – this can be amended at a later date if more LPs join or some exit the Limited Partnership. In addition to just outlining the specific roles of each partner, the partnership agreement should outline how specifically partners can leave the partnership. Ownership shares and capital contributions: This section of the Partnership Agreement should outline the specific capital contributions of the LPs within the Limited Partnership, as well as the equivalent ownership stake and shares that each LP is granted. This section should also cover how specifically any profits or losses will be divided among partners depending on their contributions and partnership status (Limited or General). Voting Rights and Decision Structure: Clearly outline how decisions within the partnership will be made. If there are voting rights for members beyond the General Partner(s) outline that. Additionally, outlining a plan for decision making should the GP have any trouble upholding their role or need to step down for any reason. Dissolution Guidelines: Like any business, not all LPs are going to have a successful outcome or last forever. As your forming your Limited Partnership, clearly outline what will happen should the lP ever dissolve – outline how assets will be divided, how knowledge will be dispersed, and any other structural outlines or decisions will be made. What Is An Example of a Limited Partnership Business? Now that we’re clear on what a Limited Partnership Business is and have the basics for the formation of one, it’s important to understand the types of businesses that may benefit from being established as Limited Partnerships. Commercial Real Estate Projects – Real estate, especially commercial real estate, typically requires a lot of capital up front in order to get a project off the ground and finished. This makes large commercial real estate projects a great candidate for a Limited Partnership Business. An experienced real estate investor or contractor may choose to form an LP for a large commercial project and serve as the general partner if the know space and market and are confident they can get a return. The LP structures secures that project capital up front from the limited partners and allows the general partner operators, maybe a lead investor or contractor or even construction company, to front the risk and manage the project. Estate Planning Businesses – If someone has a large estate that will need to be divided up and passed on, an LP is a good option to ensure this is done fairly and efficiently. An LP for an estate can ensure one primary partner is responsible for managing said estate and any ongoing businesses tied to that estate, while the Limited partners of said estate can benefit financially from a few very specific entities or allowances from said estate but will have no governing control of the assets. This LP is a great way for someone to ensure their estate is properly taken care of after they pass. Family Businesses – A business looking to operate without any external partners or investors, but rather, keep all financial stake within the business to family funds or money is a great candidate for a Limited Partnership. Within a family owned business, a specific family member can be designated as the General partner of the business and ensure all operations of the business run smoothly, while family money from other members serving as limited partners can finance the business. This keeps debt tied to the family vs. taking on any additional, outside debt. Limited Partnership Pros and Cons Like all business structures, there are pros and cons to forming a Limited Partnership. Pros Easy to Create – With essentially a 3-step process (Register with the state, pay a feel, write up an agreement), LPs are one of the easiest business types to create. This makes forming an LP as a way to fund and launch a business a great option. Additionally, LPs don’t come with formal reporting requirements like annual board meetings or shareholder meetings. The General Partner of the LP will handle decisions as clearly outlined in the partnership agreement. Personal Liability Protection – For the majority of stakeholders in an LP, the limited partners, there’s a limit to what they are liable for in the business. As stated, limited partners are only liable for the amount up to their investment so the risk is a lot more black and white and much less risky than other investment opportunities or business structures for the majority of stakeholders in an LP. Pass Through Entity – There is no self-employment taxes for limited partners and there are no corporate taxes for LPs, all partners are taxed with standard income tax so the financial structure of an LP is extremely straightforward and attractive for the participants. Less Formal – Outside of outlining the guidelines between the General Partner(s) role and the Limited Partner(s) role, there aren’t a lot of required formal structure or guidelines for running an LP. This allows LPs to be one of the most informal options for running your business which for many types of businesses is a great benefit, especially if the business is straightforward and extra structure or obligations would be unnecessary or frivolous. Cons Unlimited Personal Liability for the General Partner – While the Limited Partners benefit greatly from an LP structure, an General Partner in an LP is taking on unlimited personal liability with the business. This can be a huge risk and be extremely detrimental to a personal finance situation if said business does go under or doesn’t pan out as intended with its specific investments. For a lead investor to take on a GP role, the risks of unlimited personal liability are certainly something to consider. Limited Partner Participation – If having a stake in decisions about yoru investments is important to you, then investing as a limited partner in an LP could be a major con. Limited partners don’t have any say or influence on what happens within the LP which can be a con if you end up not liking the outcome of certain GP decisions or existing investments or outcomes within your LP. Ownership Changes – LPs come with a number of challenges with ownership and leadership. On the leadership side, it’s not a flexible structure for bringing in new management. Based on the way LPs and GPs are determined, from financial and liability stake, it’s not a straightforward process to bring in new operators – it requires a certain amount of financial contribution and changes ot the limited partnership agreement. On the ownership side, this also makes it hard to transfer to other investment entities like LLCs due to the way the capital and liabilities are divided out. An LP may not be the right structure if selling the business is part of the end game plan. After diving into the details of Limited Partnerships, how they are structured, and the pros and cons of selecting a Limited Partnership to establish your business, you may still have a few questions on the mind. Limited Partnership: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) How Are Limited Partnerships Taxed? LPs will not pay income tax. They are pass-through organizations so the individual partners of the LP will pay income taxes on their investments, earnings, and losses. How Do Limited Partners Earn Returns? Limited Partners will earn returns via dividends when their investments via the LP produce returns. Limited Partners will receive dividends in proportion to how much they invested in the Limited Partnership business. What Securities Laws Are Limited Partnerships Subject To? In general, LPs are subject to all state and federal security laws and must be registered unless a clear exemption is stated and available in their state or at the federal level for their specific business. What Is the Difference Between a Limited Partnership and a Sole Proprietorship? A sole proprietor is someone who owns an unincorporated business by themselves. A Limited Partnership requires at least 2 partners – a general partner and a limited partner – but may have more than 2 partners as well. What Is the Difference Between a Limited Partnerships and an LLC? An LLC, or a Limited Liability Company, is a company where there is limited liability to all owners. This differs from an LP because there is not one sole partner that has unlimited liability, so all members of an LLC have more protection for their investments. Both types of businesses are pass-through businesses from a taxation perspective. Find and Secure Funding for Your Limited Partnership With Visible Collect KPIs and metrics from portfolio companies, add investment data, and built beautiful reports and Updates to share with your limited partners all from one platform — learn how venture capital firms are leveraging Visible to level up their LP communication and fundraising efforts here. Related Resource: Investor Outreach Strategy: 9 Step Guide

On episode 4 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Aishetu Dozie, CEO and Founder of Bossy. Bossy is a cosmetics brand with an intense focus on community and empowering women. Aishetu has years of experience in banking (at just about every major firm) and was looking for a new direction. She enrolled in a Stanford program and the rest is history. About Aishetu As Aishetu continues her founder journey she is learning and growing along the way. From her struggles to raising venture capital to supply chain issues amid COVID Aishetu has tackled every problem thrown at her. The conversation does not stop at bootstrapping Bossy — Aishetu shares all sorts of amazing stories on own personal life and journey as a founder. Plus, she was recently featured on How I Built This so we were particularly thrilled to hear about her experience. Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Aishetu. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn From Aishetu How she transitioned from banking to beauty How Aishetu has faced the struggles of 2020 How Bossy has built a community How Aishetu has bootstrapped Bossy How being a guest on How I Built This impacted her business Related Resources Bossy Beauty Aishetu’s Twitter Aishetu’s How I Built This Episode Bootstrapping 101: Pros & Cons of Bootstrapping Your Startup We created the Founders Forward Podcast to learn from people like Aishetu. For founders looking to learn from a newly minted founder that is figuring it out, Aishetu has you covered. As you scale your business, having the right guides at your side can make all of the difference. Each episode we’ll talk to fellow founders, investors and experts. We’ll dive into their zone of genius as well as hear about their past mistakes to give you a better chance of success.

What is organizational alignment? Generally speaking, a startup is a fast moving organization. The goal is to grow quickly and attack a market. If a startup has raised venture capital, this is particularly true. A startup is likely hiring and deploying capital at a quick clip. Staying aligned as a team as new faces continue to pop up in the office is a key to success. Mix in the state of remote work and organizational alignment is vital. Organizational alignment is a strategy where company employees and stakeholders are aligned to grow, achieve goals, and execute on company mission, vision, and values more effectively and quickly. Related Reading: How To Manage Remote Teams: 16 Tips From a Remote Startup Importance of organizational alignment As we alluded to earlier in the post, startups are fast moving organizations generally with a focused goal or vision. Being able to effectively communicate, make decisions, and grow is vital. Below are a few of the important aspects of organizational alignment. Business strategy When starting a business there is likely a set business strategy that executives and founding members believe will be the key to success. Organizational alignment will allow everyone involved, plus new hires, to stick to the strategy to efficiently grow. Decision-making Making quick decisions is important in the growth stage of a business. In order to best and most efficiently make it is important that everyone is aware of what is happening with the business. By having all stakeholders engaged the decision will come quicker with more conviction. Business performance At the end of the day a more aligned organization will lead to better business outcomes as a whole. Company/corporate culture One of the biggest benefits of organizational alignment is the ability to lift and solidify a company culture. Gone are the days of employees being attracted by ping pong tables, free lunch, and company happy hours. Top talent is attracted to an organization because of the work and the company culture. They are in search of transparency, ownership, and responsibility in the workplace. Organizational alignment is a great way to help employees feel as they are solving problems and helping the business grow. Employee Engagement Piggybacking off of the idea that organizational alignment will help promote a strong company culture it will also help employees engage. When employees are aware of what is going on and their feedback is welcome, they will be more engaged and more invested in the success of the company and their personal growth. How to build organizational alignment There are countless methods and approaches to create company alignment (more specific frameworks below) but we have found there are 3 areas to focus on that will help companies build organizational alignment. Individual Goals and Purpose Before you can start building alignment across the entire organization, individuals need to have a deep understanding of their own purpose and goals. If an employee is not feeling the ownership and importance of their role aligning them with the rest of the organization won’t give them the benefits organizational alignment can offer. One aspect of this is understanding the role and position they are filling but also on the leadership team to understand their desires to make sure they are filling the right position. As Jeff Boss put it in an article for Forbes, “Ask your people what motivates them, why they’re doing what they’re doing, where they see themselves in three years and what might happen if they don’t get there. Set the conditions for candor now to prevent the loss of talent later.” Team Goals and Purpose Once an employee has a clear understanding and their role you can begin to align the individuals in a team or business unit. Because everyone knows their position everyone should be able to come together and align themselves as a team. No one should be questioning who owns what or how they can contribute. Different teams likely have their own set of metrics and KPIs that they are responsible for. Every individual in a team should know how they can contribute to the growth or achievement of their team’s KPIs. Cross Team Alignment Now that individual teams are aligned and aware of their goals they can start aligning across an organization. Business units and teams can’t be siloed and expected to impact the business as best as possible. In order to best perform all teams need to be informed and aligned. Jeff Boss uses an example of sales and marketing teams: “It doesn’t matter how great your sales teams perform if your marketing teams fail to get the message out, and vice versa… What impedes alignment between teams, they say, are disparate systems, lack of transparency and visibility on goals, and skewed expectations—all of which fall under the umbrella of poor communication.” Organizational alignment starts with an individual knowing their role and position in the organization. From there a startup can set up a system and framework to best align their individuals and teams. Organizational alignment model/framework examples Below are a few of our favorite frameworks that have stood the test of time to help organizations stay aligned: McKinsey 7-s model Originally introduced in the 1970s the McKinsey 7-s model has certainly stood the test of time. As defined by the team at Corporate Finance Institute, “The McKinsey 7S Model refers to a tool that analyzes a company’s “organizational design.” The goal of the model is to depict how effectiveness can be achieved in an organization through the interactions of seven key elements – Structure, Strategy, Skill, System, Shared Values, Style, and Staff.” The 7s are split into 2 groups — hard and soft: As defined by the team at Strategic Management Insight, “Strategy, structure and systems are hard elements that are much easier to identify and manage when compared to soft elements. On the other hand, soft areas, although harder to manage, are the foundation of the organization and are more likely to create the sustained competitive advantage.” We put quick definitions of each “s” below but you can learn more here. Strategy — The business plan and strategy behind the organization’s product, go-to-market, and growth. Structured — How the organization is structured and organized. Systems — The chain of command, communication, and decision making framework across the organization. Style — How individuals interact and work with each other. Can resemble company culture. Staff — The human resource and talent related to hiring, alignment, and recruiting. Skills — The specific skills of individuals and teams that allow a company to execute on a strategy. Shared Values — The mission, vision, and values of an organization. Image from the team at Mind Tools. The team at Mindtools explains how to execute on the 7-s model in 4 steps: Start with your shared values: are they consistent with your structure, strategy, and systems? If not, what needs to change? Then look at the hard elements. How well does each one support the others? Identify where changes need to be made. Next, look at the soft elements. Do they support the desired hard elements? Do they support one another? If not, what needs to change? As you adjust and align the elements, you’ll need to use an iterative (and often time-consuming) process of making adjustments, and then re-analyzing how that impacts other elements and their alignment. The end result of better performance will be worth it. V2MOM – Salesforce model One of our favorite alignment strategies at Visible is the V2MOM Model from Salesforce. As Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, described it himself, “The vision helped us define what we wanted to do. The values established what was most important about that vision; it set the principles and beliefs that guided it (in priority). The methods illustrated how we would get the job done by outlining the actions and the steps that everyone needed to take. The obstacles identified the challenges, problems, and issues we would have to overcome to achieve our vision. Finally, the measures specified the actual result we aimed to achieve; often this was defined as a numerical outcome.” The components of the V2MOM can be found below: An example from Benioff and the team at Salesforce can be found below: Learn more about V2MOM and how you can use it at your organization in our blog post here. How to measure organizational alignment Organizational alignment can be quite subjective. Because of this there are a lack of quantitative metrics that you can use to measure organizational alignment. Yes, you can look at revenue, headcount, employee retention to make sure things are going in the right direction but there is a chance that employees still feel lost and are not aligned with other team members. However, this is not a bad thing. You can use a qualitative approach to measure your alignment. Managers can send surveys, poll employees, or just ask questions during a 1 on 1 to understand how well their organization is aligned. Organizational alignment tools Obviously organizational alignment is vital to a company’s success there are countless tools and tricks to help companies stay aligned. OKRs As defined by the team at What Matters, “The definition of “OKRs” is “Objectives and Key Results.” It is a collaborative goal-setting tool used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious organizational goals with measurable results. OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable and clear goals.” An objective is the overarching goal that needs to be achieved. The key results are what need to be measured and accomplished along the way to complete the objective. OKRs are a great way to keep everyone on the team focused on the same goal (objective). Employee engagement There are also countless tools to help organizations measure employee engagement. One of our favorites is TinyPulse. TinyPulse allows teams to send out quick employee surveys to generate an employee engagement report. This can be used by managers to pinpoint what employees may be struggling to feel aligned with the organization as a whole. Team Updates At Visible, we recommend using team updates to create an aligned organization. We see quite a few customers send out a weekly team update to help keep their team headed in the same direction. A quick example might look like this: A weekly update sent on Mondays recapping key metrics, wins and losses from the previous week, employee shout outs, and any interesting finds from the previous week. Give your team the transparency and communication they deserve with a quick update. Send your first team update now. Related resource: Why the Chief of Staff is Important for a Startup

Everyone, especially startup leaders and founders, are constantly looking for “hacks” to be more productive. A quick Google Search suggests “to-do lists, management tools, OKRs, etc.” But what if we told you one of the easiest ways to increase productivity is right in front of you? We recently had the opportunity to interview Jeff Kahn, CEO and Founder of Rise Science, on the Founders Forward Podcast. Rise is the only app that unlocks the real-world benefits of better sleep. Being a sleep expert and a startup founder himself, there is no doubt that Jeff spends time pondering how to be more productive. While Jeff offered countless tidbits of knowledge to better your sleep and health, 2 things stuck with us when it came to productivity. Scheduling Around Your Circadian Rhythm As defined by SleepFoundation.org, “Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions and processes.” As Jeff explains it, “You actually have a part in the brain that’s controlling all the cells in your body and organ systems, basically when to be active and alert and when not to be. And as a result of that sort of on and off activity and recovery state we actually have these different times when we should be performing at different times when we’re just not as performance.” So what does this have to do with productivity? There are natural times when you are more productive and alert than other times. This means that you could be most productive at 9am and have a “dip” in the afternoon when you are less productive. Jeff encourages leaders (and everyone) to schedule their days around this biological phenomenon. “What this means is you need to be tuned into when you’re going to be at your peak performance and when you’re not, and then be able to plan your day accordingly.” As Jeff and Mike Preuss, our CEO, explain, they use their circadian rhythms and “dips and peaks” to schedule their day. For example, Mike has a peak (AKA is most productive) in the morning so tries to block this time in his day to do more strategic thinking and planning. Whereas when he is in a “dip” he may schedule demos and do other tasks he does not need to be 100% as his best performance for. This isn’t the first time someone has brought this up on the Founders Forward Podcast. Amanda Goetz, Founder of House of Wise, actually tracks her sleeping patterns and circadian rhythms to schedule her day as well. How do I track Circadian Rhythm? There are different applications and rituals that people will suggest to track circadian rhythms but we actually use Rise ourselves at Visible. They have what they call an “energy schedule” that is based on your sleep schedule so you can see your natural peaks and dips throughout the day. For example, here is my energy schedule from the app: There is actually a second “peak” not shown in the screenshot (which I was in as I wrote this) when I tend to get my best writing done. So what is Jeff’s other tip to productivity? Categorizing the Day Throughout the course of a week, a founder is pulled in every direction. Maybe it is fundraising, or customer calls, or HR, or finances, etc. In order to stay fully prioritized Jeff “categorizes” his day. This means that Jeff buckets his different activities/calendar events throughout the day into different categories. “I basically organize my day into sort of categories. Let’s say I’m working on a fundraise or I’m working on something on B2B or product or consumer or HR or whatever it happens to be, I sort of have these different categories. And every time I start a new task I track that and track the category. And what I found, there’s sort of two useful learnings.“ The first useful learning is that tracking his task allows Jeff to look back on a week and understand if he focused his time in the right place. Going into a week Jeff will have one (or a few) overarching things he would like to focus on. If he looks back at the week and sees that his time spent on the focus area was low, he knows he needs to change something in his scheduling. The second learning is that categorizing his task allows him to fully understand how time he spent on “focused work.” Over time Jeff has determined his optimal amount of time he should be working over the course of a week. How do I categorize my day? Jeff uses a tool called Toggl. It allows you to prioritize and categorize your day. Jeff has set up a Zapier Zap between Toggl where he sends his status to Slack so his team can see what he is working on. If you’re interested in learning more about sleep, productivity, and founder life check out the rest of the podcast with Jeff.

On episode 3 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Jeff Kahn, the CEO and Founder of Rise Science. Rise is the only app that unlocks the real-world benefits of better sleep. Jeff has 10 years of sleep science experience and research. Before starting Rise Science Jeff spent time publishing academic articles and supporting world class athletes and teams with better sleep. There is no doubt about it that Jeff knows about sleep. About Jeff Being a founder is difficult. Mix in 2020 as a whole and the stress and anxiety of being a founder can be overbearing. Jeff shared his story of going from sleep science student to founding a sleep app. He discusses how sleep can be an easy way to improve your overall well being (and leaves us with plenty of sleep takeaways). The conversation does not stop there — Jeff also has plenty of tidbits about his life of a founder and how he leads and stays productive. Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Jeff. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn From Jeff The 100 year history of sleep science (in 5 minutes) Simple takeaways to improve your sleep How sleep impacts your leadership skills How you can leverage circadian rhythms to do better work How managing sleep (and sleep debt) can improve your overall well being How Jeff categories his day to be most efficient How iteration and measurement improved a key activation metric 10x for Rise Related Resources Rise Science — Check out and download the application. Toggl — Application that Jeff uses to categorize and prioritize his day. Traction — Book from the founder of DuckDuckGo mentioned by Jeff. How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit — Rahul Vohra, Founder of Superhuman, explains how they found product market fit. We created the Founders Forward Podcast to learn from people like Jeff. For founders looking to improve their overall health and leadership skills, Jeff has you covered. As you scale your business, having the right guides at your side can make all of the difference. Each episode we’ll talk to fellow founders, investors and experts. We’ll dive into their zone of genius as well as hear about their past mistakes to give you a better chance of success. To stay up-to-date with the Founders Forward Podcast subscribe to the Visible Weekly Newsletter below:

On episode 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast we are joined by Amanda Goetz, CMO of Teal and Founder at House of Wise. Before taking the leap into her second time as a founder, Amanda was the VP of Marketing at The Knot. With her experience in branding and recent jump to starting House of Wise we couldn’t think of a better guest to chat about all things branding and founder life. About Amanda House of Wise is empowering women to take control of their sleep, sex, stress, and wealth with luxury CBD products made with real women in mind. Give Amanda a follow on Twitter to stay up to date on the House of Wise. If you’re interested in learning more about CBD and wellness, be sure to give the episode below a listen. Amanda shared her story from founder to operator back to founder, how startups can leverage part time executives, how to build a brand, and how she deals with the stress of being a founder and part-time executive, and much more. Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Amanda. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn From Amanda How she went from founder to operator to part time founder/executive. How startup founders can leverage a part time executive How she structures her day and stays productive The importance of knowing your body and rhythms to be a better leader and executive How she has stayed sane with the pressures of being a founder How she raised capital for House of Wise Related Resources Amanda’s Twitter House of Wise TealHQ We created the Founders Forward Podcast to learn from people like Amanda. For founders that are taking the dive or seasoned founders alike, Amanda has plenty of powerful takeaways. As you scale your business, having the right guides at your side can make all of the difference. Each episode we’ll talk to fellow founders, investors and experts. We’ll dive into their zone of genius as well as hear about their past mistakes to give you a better chance of success. To stay up-to-date with the Founders Forward Podcast subscribe to the Visible Weekly Newsletter below:

Finding deal flow is a daily challenge for investors. Every investor has their own "secret sauce" for sourcing new deals. However, there are underlying technologies that investors can leverage to better their deal flow. In this webinar, we cover: Using tech to uncover and find new deals Best Practices for Managing Potential Investments & Relationships Best Practices for managing current portfolio companies Other tech in the VC toolkit 5 minute demos of Visible and 4Degrees

Getting regular, high quality, and actionable data from portfolio companies is important. It allows you to make better decisions, support your portfolio, share insights with portfolio company founders, report to LPs and more. This practice should also be highly valuable for founders. They should be able to share wins, challenges and get help from you, their stakeholder. It should only take them 3 minutes to complete (if not, either something may be wrong with the request or structurally wrong with the company). Below are some best practices to make sure you get: Timely information (e.g. 100% completion) Structured data(comparing apples to apples) Actionable insights (how can we help companies) Timing & Cadence Same time every period Set the expectation that you will be sending a request the same time every month. e.g. your request will be due the 20th post month or quarter end. Don’t randomly switch between the 10th, the 30th, etc. Founders will not have an expectation and know they can submit whenever they want. Luckily Visible makes this easy for you. You’ll be to set you schedule and we take care of all emails, due dates and reminders. Appropriate Cadence We recommend the following cadences. This is 100% customizable as every fund is different. Weekly – Accelerators in Cohort Monthly – Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A Quarterly – Series B & later Request Content Less is more. Don’t send a request asking for every metric under the sun. Only get the information you truly need. If you are truly providing value back to the founders, then start small, get a rhythm and expand the data. Metrics 5-15 Metrics. Depending how closely you work with companies, ask for 5-15 metrics and no more. Use a metric description! If you are asking for Burn and don’t provide context, you might get 15 different variations. Should it be negative? Should it be trailing 3 months or current month? Should it include financing? Be descriptive about what you want. **Here is our Metric Library** that has some helpful descriptions. Qualitative Info How can you help? Always make sure to use a qualitative section to see how you can best help the portfolio. Also let the founder share their wins and challenges if it makes sense! Rollout Let your current (and new) portfolio companies know to expect a regular request from you and what to expect. Intro Template Feel free to use our Intro Copy Template if you need some inspiration. Custom Domain All of your requests will come from you. However, with Visible you can fully white label the request emails so they come from your email and domain.

Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, recently began a new project called Spearhead. The program gives founders $1M to start angel investing, and seeks to educate those who wish to enter the space. The Spearhead podcast, meant to scale these efforts, is a treasure trove of insights not just for those who wish to be angels, but for entrepreneurs looking to raise a Seed round. You can find the full podcast & transcribed episodes at spearhead.co. Here are 7 insights for founders from the podcast: Angels build brands. Be aware of who you’re associating yourself with. Investors in early stage companies need not just deal flow, but access to the best deals. To get access, angels build brands. They do this in many different ways – Jason Lemkin built the SaaStr conference, Naval built AngelList, and Fred Wilson blogs. You should be mindful that the brands you associate yourself with in the early days can have an impact on the future of your company. Angels with great brands can get you access to key hires, new customers, & helpful mentorship. Future investors may also use the brand of your angels as a signal as to whether or not they should invest. If your early stage investors have have a track record of success, securing later funding gets easier. Avoid angels who put too much on the line. It can lead to bad behavior. If an angel invests so much into your company that they stand to lose a large portion of their net worth if you fail, this could lead to tense situations. This applies to family member & friend investments as well. Angel investing is a high risk sport, you should only play with people who understand this. Don’t use FOMO as a fundraising tactic. The best angels refuse to be pressured into a deal. Telling a high level angel investor that they ‘only have 24 hours to get into the round!’ can backfire. There is a fine line with this, as social proof and scarcity are tools that you need to leverage when fundraising. However, being overly aggressive or pushy makes people hesitant about working with you – especially investors with experience and strong brands. Social proof is key. Angels are often wary about getting involved in deals where they have no network connections to the founders or fellow investors. Naval & Nivi explain this by saying that good angels should be cautious about deals that are made up of complete strangers. If a founder is raising money and none of their direct connections or past investors are involved, that may be a bad sign. Similarly, if an angel with excellent judgement writes a huge check to a company, it sends a message to other investors that they’re a strong bet. Cold emailing is part of the fundraising process, but you’ll have far more success with people you already know. Your network is critical. Build it before you have to. Get your psychology right. Great founders often toe the line between visionary & madness. To build a massive company, you need to attempt something that most people don’t think will work. It takes a special mindset to do this. Naval explains that great angels don’t expect founders to be ‘coachable’ or have perfect records, as they sometimes have to operate as an outsider at first to be successful. Instead, founders should be aggressive and seek to build traction. However, you should avoid the perils of over-aggressiveness. If you prioritize hyper growth at the expense of traction, you can end up ‘blitzfailing’ as David Sacks explains on a guest episode of Spearhead. You need to keep your genius in check, and ensure that you’re prioritizing the right things in your business. Build a technical network. Angels are looking for huge returns in exchange for taking a chance on you. This is an all or nothing game, and you’ll need to be very right when others are wrong. It’s often the only way to generate massive returns. This is why you should solve technical challenges where you have what Naval calls ‘specific knowledge.’ Many of the most valuable startup opportunities are in technology. Build relationships with scientists & technologists at the source of new developments. These people can give you access to angels who seek to invest in tech companies, in addition to talent and insight that comes from the source of innovation. Get your team right. Angel investors are betting on founding teams more than their initial ideas. Pivots are common in startups, and savvy early stage investors understand this. When a company pivots, the common denominator ends up being the team the angels invested in. Naval explains that you should seek to create a company of world class builders, salespeople, & community creators. These are vague categories that take on different meanings in different industries. A builder could be a software engineer or a logistics expert, while a seller could be a fundraiser or a marketer. The key is to have both. An amazing product with no distribution won’t win, and Naval calls the outsourcing of product development a “red flag.” Team up with skilled people who have the 3 traits Naval & Nivi look for in partners – intelligence, energy, and integrity. If you do this, you’ll attract investment, and be more likely to whether the inevitable storms that come with starting a company. When marketing any product, you start by understanding your customer. Why wouldn’t you do the same when selling investment opportunities in your company? We think that Spearhead is a great entry point into understanding the psychology of an angel investor, and hope that you can use these insights when raising funding for your early stage startup. Want more advice delivered to your inbox every Thursday? Subscribe to our Founders Forward Newsletter. We search the web for the best tips to attract, engage and close investors, then deliver them to thousands of inboxes every week.

Leading under the current circumstances is an audition to lead for the coming years. Being able to step up as a leader amid the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to cement a strong future for your company and yourself. Last week, Scott Dorsey, Managing Director of High Alpha, joined us to chat about all things leadership and fundraising. Prior to High Alpha, Scott co-founded ExactTarget and led the company as CEO and Chairman from start-up to global marketing software leader. ExactTarget went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March of 2012 and was acquired by Salesforce in July of 2013 for $2.5 Billion. Post-acquisition, he led the Salesforce Marketing Cloud which encompassed 3,000 employees around the world. It is safe to say that Scott knows what it means to be a leader. Scott started ExactTarget during the Dot-com Bubble and successfully IPO’d shortly after the Great Recession. The webinar was full of stories and anecdotes from Scott’s time building ExactTarget. Check out our favorite takeaways below: Cash is King While cash has always been king, Scott mentions that it is even more important during a downturn. As a founder, you need to have a deep understanding of your cash flow and burn rate. It may be difficult to fundraise during a downturn but you need to be able to show your investors that you can (1) make it through a downturn and (2) thrive on the other side. If you can successfully display that you’re in a good cash position and ready to thrive after, you’ll improve your odds of raising capital. Closer than ever with Customers During uncertain times, it is more important than ever to be close to your customers. Your customers are going through the same things that you are going through. Establish and preserve your relationship so you can grow together on the other side of the downturn. In the early days, Scott suggests companies project confidence, show they’re stable, and are growing & innovative. One of the best ways to do this is by envisioning your 3, 5, and 10 year journey with potential customers. Where will you be in 10 years? What will the product and relationship look like? Clients want to lock-in on a long-term relationship. If you don’t have everything built in the immediate, that’s fine. Show that you can be all the way there in the future. The Friday Note During uncertain times most leaders communicate less. However, communication is one of the best ways to make it through a downturn. Scott has almost become synonymous with the “Friday Note.” Simply put, the Friday Note was an email Scott sent every Friday to everyone in the company letting them know what was happening with the business. During the Great Recession, Scott found himself communicating with employees less. From that point, Scott made it a point to send a note every Friday to the team so everyone always knew what was happening and there was a path to 1-on-1 communication. In fact, Scott turned all of his Friday Notes into a book when ExactTarget was acquired by Salesforce. Personal Board of Directors According to Jim Rohm, “You’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” With that being said, it is important to surround yourself with a diverse mix of people who are smart, friendly, and can grow with. Scott himself has a personal board of directors made up of about 5-6 people. These are people that Scott can lean on for guidance, faith, personal balance, etc. This is your inner circle — don’t be afraid to approach people you admire to ask for help. We hope this is helpful as you work through these uncertain times. Scott is the definition of a leader and a reminder that great leaders and businesses can be built during downturns. As a reminder, you can check out the full webinar recording here.

Leading under the current circumstances is an audition to lead for the coming years. Being able to step up as a leader amid the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to cement a strong future for your company and yourself. In this webinar, you’ll learn: How to communicate with team members, investors, and customers during uncertain times How to be an effective leader through turbulent moments How Scott started ExactTarget during the dot com bust, managed The Great Recession, took a company public, and was eventually acquired by Salesforce for $2.5B How to raise capital amid COVID-19 and uncertainty

Seth Godin wrote “beware of experience asymmetry.” Reading his post, I thought about the time I got my first mortgage. I remember thinking, Am I getting a good rate? How much house should I buy versus how much house can I buy? It was stressful. I felt vulnerable. The internet and publicly available data helped me call around and shop rates. (I still would have paid handsome money for a local guide.) Seth calls out venture capital in his post. This is an important place to get a local guide. In my opinion, the best local guide is another venture firm. This may sound counterintuitive, let me explain. If you’re looking to make a deal, having more than one venture firm in the mix will help you get a truer understanding of your market value and secure the fairest terms. If you have more than one venture firm looking at your business, congrats. You are in rare air. Most are lucky to even get one interested. In those less-competitive cases, it’s still important to find a local guide. It could be a fellow founder, angel investor, trusted advisor, or a blog post from 2012. Regardless of your path, always surround yourself with local guides for the various stages of your business. When fundraising, run a process with multiple firms and always do your homework on potential investors. Call up the companies in their portfolio that weren’t home runs. You will learn a lot. It is hard to turn down money but sometimes you might want to because it is much easier to change your preferred airline than it is your cap table.

Last week, our CEO surveyed founders asking them, “How likely are you to refer your current lead investor(s) to fellow founders?” in his weekly note. The results from the survey are below: The Investor NPS An NPS score of 23 falls below the average for the airline industry. Not a great industry to be compared to in terms of customer satisfaction scores. Granted, there can be quite a bit of bias when surveying a founder asking their opinion of an investor (e.g. passed on a round). Nonetheless, founders are clearly looking for more out of their investors. Once a check is cashed, there is no turning back. With the average length of a founder + investor longer than the average marriage in the U.S. (8-10 years) it is important for both founders and investors to strive for a strong relationship. Founders will get out of their investor relations what they put into it. At the end of the day, the investor and founder relationship comes down to communication, starting from the first fundraising meeting to company exit. Before a fundraise, a founder should have a set of expectations from their investors outside of capital. It is the duty of the founder to communicate and gauge this during conversations and pitches. Easier said than done. Determining what investors to talk to, how to talk to them, and what to expect from them is a difficult process for founders. Fundraising is an Asymmetric Experience Fundraising is an asymmetric experience. Investors see hundreds of deals a year where founders may only talk to a handful of investors in a year. Investors are strapped with an abundance of data used during the decision-making process. As Seth Godin writes, “In these asymmetric situations, it’s unlikely that you’re going to outsmart the experienced folks who have seen it all before. It’s unlikely that you’ll outlast them either. When you have to walk into one of these events, it pays to hire a local guide.” Our goal is to uncover more data, advice, and resources to become a “local guide” for founders to lean on during the fundraising process. In order to do so, we’ve started laying the ground work with Visible Connect, our community-sourced investor database. We will be able to uncover things like investor NPS with Visible Connect and create more symmetry in the fundraising process. Find Investors with Visible Connect Interested in learning more? Check out the Visible Connect database here.

Our learnings and takeaways from 5 years of being a remote first startup. Remote work has been a core tenant of how Visible gets work done since 2015. It is crazy to believe that five years ago working remotely was not nearly as mainstream as it is today. In that time, we’ve learned a ton, mostly through experimentation and failure. The coronavirus and pandemic in 2020 accelerated the adaption of remote work as more companies are transitioning to a remote or hybrid workplace. Being a remote-first organization, we believe that team members do their best work when, how, and where they want. Below we share our guide to getting started with and implementing remote work at your organization. By no means are we perfect or do we know all of the answers. This guide is simply our learnings and takeaways from 5 years of being remote. Why We Became a Remote-First Startup Rewind to 2015 and Visible looks just like any early stage startup. We had some fresh capital, early team members, and were eager to get to market with a product. There was not necessarily a hard set reason for starting remote but naturally swayed that way as we added employees across the globe. Advantages of Remote Teams It was clear that everyone enjoyed the remote work setting. As the team at Buffer discovered in their State of Remote Work report, 97.6% of employees would like the option to work remotely for the rest of their careers. As we dove into remote work, the advantages were obvious: Team members do their best work when, how, and where they want. Working primarily asynchronously allows work to get done while communication becomes the lifeblood. Our hypothesis is that the #1 challenge for most in-person work environments is open communication whereas we believe this is the biggest strength of all remote-first organizations, Team members can prioritize their personal well-being to bring the best version of themselves to work (now one of our company values: inside out). The talent pool for hiring is worldwide. No physical office and being able to hire outside of major tech hubs means a lower burn rate (you don’t have to shell out for market SF salaries). Don’t forget the ruthless competition and recruiting dynamics. An opportunity to learn and be at the forefront of something which has the potential to be the future of work Since then, we have discovered many other pros and cons. Disadvantages of Remote Teams On the flip side, there were a few disadvantages spotted. Always on — When working from home, it can be difficult to shut down and feel like you are truly “off.” A routine and habits to start and end your day can help greatly when trying to manage your workday from home. Isolation — In an office you have countless interactions. When working from home, employees can feel isolated. A co-working spot or a visit to a local coffee shop can be a good way to combat this. Time Zones — Communicating across many time zones can be difficult. However, you can solve this when setting expectations and hiring within a given timezone range. You can check out a few of the struggles with remote work from the 2021 State of Remote Work below as well: Building a remote organization is certainly challenging, but the reward and pleasure of working remotely far outweigh the challenges (at least in our opinion). 16 Proven Strategies To Manage a Remote Team Over our 5 years building a remote-first organization, we have stumbled upon a few strategies that we have found to be beneficial. Our 16 strategies can be broken down into a few buckets — culture tips, communication, team-building activities, hiring, and more. Remote Work Culture Tips Inherently, building a company culture when all team members are dispersed is more difficult than when everyone is in the same building. For organizations exploring remote-first work, the ability and ideas behind remote work need to be rooted in the organization’s culture. At Visible, starting as a remote-first organization and having a team comfortable with remote work, our culture has naturally formed around these ideas. In the past, people have associated startup culture with ping pong tables and a fridge full of beer. However, startup culture is not built in an office; it is built on how individuals work, collaborate, and communicate. 1. Create a Remote Work Mission Statement If you Google “remote work culture” (or anything related) you’ll notice that most blogs mention the difficulties of building a strong culture as a remote organization. Our mission and values have naturally evolved over the course of time but our culture has always been rooted with remote work and a deep focus on each team member’s own well-being. We have a number of core values at Visible but the two that have stood the test of time and have enabled a strong remote culture are: “Inside Out” — We believe that team members should take care of themselves and their family first. Remote work enables this because they can focus on their own health then bring their entire self to work. “Harmony” — There is no such thing as “work/life balance”. There is just life. We strive to bring harmony to all aspects of our life. As it relates to work, this means some days may require staying on to 8pm as we work through a customer issue and some days you may cut out at 2pm to get on your longboard. Regardless of how your company culture takes form there is no denying the importance of communication, especially at a remote organization. 2. Set Clear Expectations Just because you are not in an office, it does not mean you should have working hours and expectations. It is important to have expectations well defined and documented. A couple of questions we suggest that you think about and answer when setting your work expectations and policies: What are work hours/time zone expectations? Can people work from anywhere? Which communication channels (email, Slack, Asana message, video) are used for what purpose? What work-from-home office equipment do employees have to buy? 3. Ensure Everyone Has the Tools They Need Tools and software are at the core of a productive remote-work environment. We’ll dig into the software tools and apps we use below but always suggest you have great internet, a comfortable desk and chair, and a quiet room to take calls and virtual meetings from. 4. Build Trust and Watch for Stress or Burnout As we mentioned previously, it can be difficult to shut off from work when working remotely. Leaders need to understand and keep an eye for stress and burnout from the team. In order to spot stress and burnout, there needs to be a level and trust and comfort between the team. Check out some of our tips for building trust and collaboration below: Remote Work Communication and Collaboration Tips If communicating as a remote team was easy, every organization would be remote. There are definitely challenges when communicating when you are a virtual team. Most people believe that communication is easier when you are all in the same building. However, with a set of expectations and a communication system in place, remote communication can easily be heightened to match the level of being a physical office. Trust, transparency and open communication is at the core of communication; remote or not. Trust is vital, especially to remote work, when it comes to hiring, team building, and individual growth. Many individuals may think that trust can only be built when sitting at a desk next to someone. We believe that trust is something that is built through communication, regardless of your location. Trust is just built differently when working remotely. 5. Don’t Just Mimic In-Person Meetings Communication will naturally force different methods. Do not try to mimic an office when working remotely/from home. As Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, writes, “This also isn’t a time to try to simulate the office. Working from home is not working from the office. Working remotely is not working locally. Don’t try to make one the other. If you have meetings all day at the office, don’t simply simulate those meetings via video. This is an opportunity not to have those meetings. Write it up instead, disseminate the information that way. Let people absorb it on their own time. Protect their time and attention.” Written communication has become one of the most important things that we do at Visible. Remote or note, written communication is vital to just about every company. Jeff Bezos often relies on his 1997 letter to shareholders to portray company values and vision. We are constantly tweaking our methods and finding ways to communicate using our suite of tools. At Visible, that has meant using Slack, Zoom, Notion, Jell, written notes, and our own product to facilitate communication and build trust (more on the tools we use in a later section). 6. Share Video Meeting Guidelines As we shared in our blog post, “How We Work: Zoom Calls,” we try our best to communicate in Slack but have a series of set meetings and one-off meetings that place over video. In order to make video meetings as productive as possible, we try to make sure everyone is in a quiet place without a distracting background. Depending on the type of call, we generally like everyone to have their audio unmuted and video on to mimic an in-person meeting as much as possible. 7. Schedule a Weekly All-Hands Meeting This gets us warmed up for the week. We’ll see how everyone’s weekend went and dig into the week ahead. Mike (our CEO) will start by giving a quick recap of our company-wide metrics, goals, news from the previous week, and priorities for the coming week. We will then review our current product & marketing boards to see if there are any obstacles, outstanding questions, etc. This is not a time to go in-depth but rather schedule a follow-up time to pair with your colleagues. Related Reading: How to Build Organizational Alignment Easily 8. Use Collaboration Calls for In-Depth Work Collaboration calls are a time for us to get together as a team and work on a larger project or idea. Generally, we will decide on our Monday kickoff call what we will discuss on a team collaboration call. Some ideas: Review a product cycle item — What is the status of a current product cycle item? What is needed from others here? Is there a mockup that someone would like to present? Etc. Play a game — Use this as a time to play a collaborative game as a team. Brainstorm — Working on a bigger product or marketing idea that you need input from others? Use this as a time to present and collaborate on bigger ideas that involve the entire company. Be prepared with activities to guide the brainstorm session! Other talking points: Give a shout-out to a team member and thank them. Tell them why! Tell us a story about something Visible related! Could be a customer story, a bug you found, something you designed, etc What did you learn last week? (Doesn’t have to be Visible related!) What is something you are proud about from last week? 9. Set up Recurring One-on-One Meetings One-on-one calls are to make sure we are identifying opportunities to serve one another better, a chance to deepen our relationship as well as uncover any challenges before they grow into something larger. The time should also be spent talking about near terms goals & priorities but also long-term development as well. Every one-on-one check-in is the employee’s time and the time can be used for whatever they deem most valuable (90% of the time for the employee). To make sure the time is used in a mutually beneficial way we want to make sure the employee is providing a quick update (before the call) with how everything is going, how they are feeling, and what challenges they are facing. 10. Use Show & Tells To Share and Connect Every Thursday a team member presents a show and tell. The topic does not have to be work related. It can range from your favorite tacos to how venture capital works to budgeting apps for personal finance! Remote Team-Building Tips Having different opportunities for casual conversations and team building is a surefire way to improve remote work for everyone. One of our favorite ways is by playing virtual games (Jackbox Games, CodeNames, etc.) to loosen up and have fun. We have also seen success when giving individuals the opportunity to connect and work with cross-functional teammates. 11. Create a Virtual Water Cooler The “virtual water cooler” in Slack has been a great way to connect with teammates outside of work. As we wrote in the post above, “We do not have hard-set guidelines for what should be posted in the #watercooler channel but it generally consists of the following: Food/what we ate — Pictures or recipes for what we are cooking at home/eating at restaurants. We all love to eat at Visible so this is big for us. Random videos/pictures/stories from our day-to-day lives — For example, a current event or something big that may be happening in someone’s respective city/neighborhood/etc. Travel and Hobbies — Being a remote company, a lot of us spend a good amount of time in different locations. We love to share pictures and stories from our time in new places. Work Inspiration — This is also where we share examples and inspiration of something cool we see a different company doing. Anything from a new product feature to an intriguing marketing email. Fun Stories — If someone runs into a fun story, stat, or fact they run into online, we tend to share it in #watercooler.” 12. Have Fun With Regular Non-Work Activities Bringing teammates together with non-work activities is a great way to build camaraderie and relationships. Check out our post, 34 Remote Team Building Ideas for Growing Startups, to learn about some of our favorite specific activities. 13. Plan Yearly Company Offsites To Get Together Nothing beats the energy from getting to meet with team members in person. We relentlessly prioritize getting together two times a year as a time. Offsites serve three purposes: To have fun To give us the chance to connect in person and collaborate on big, strategic initiatives. To see a more human side of your team. To see how tall your colleagues are ;). Offsites have become an integral part of our culture and how we work together. Over the course of a week we are able to break down big problems and initiatives then channel that into focused work when we depart back to our homes. Over the last few years, we’ve had offsites in the following locations: Copenhagen Indianapolis Montreal Chicago Dublin Amsterdam Lisbon Barcelona Tulum The term “offsite” gets thrown around a lot in the startup and corporate world but what does an offsite actually look like to a remote organization? Choose a Location and Date for the Offsite At Visible, we are spread out across the world. We have employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. With that being said, finding a location for our offsites can be tricky. A couple of things we look for in an offsite location: A location that everyone can get to in a reasonably timed and priced flight. We do not want someone to have to fly for 24 hours with 2+ layovers, etc. A location that is not too expensive once you are there. Breaking bread is a cornerstone of our offsites, so having a place where you can go out for a nice meal without breaking the bank is important to us. For example, a dollar went a long way in Lisbon compared to Copenhagen. A location that has a tech culture. It is fun to go somewhere with a strong tech/startup culture. In the past, we’ve been able to meet and work with our customers. Somewhere new. Being a small team, we are able to go to places that are new to each of us. Inevitably, this won’t always be the case but is a fun factor for now. Once we pick a location, we will book accommodations. Our goal is to give everyone their own bedroom, have a place to work as a group, and be in a central location that is within walking distance to restaurants, bars, and transportation. We’ve done everything from a high-end hostel, to single Airbnbs and even a houseboat on the canals of Amsterdam. Depending on the city, different options may make more or less sense. As we are all travelers ourselves, we have found Airbnbs to be the most practical for us as a group. In order to maximize our time, we generally have to include a weekend or a weekend day (which no one ever has an issue with). This allows us to wrap the offsite around a weekend and not miss an entire week of our usual day-to-day work. We send out a Doodle which makes it incredibly easy to coordinate everyone’s availability. Decide How You’ll Work During the Offsite Deciding when and how to work during an offsite is something that we are constantly tweaking. While offsites are intended to strengthen personal relationships we have accomplished some awesome work. The last few offsites we come with a big vision or theme for the week. From here, each individual (eventually may just be unit leaders/managers, etc.) is responsible for coming up with a group session related to their business unit. For example, we kept hearing from our customers about the pain points of fundraising. This became a focal point of our fall 2019 offsite and how the “fundraising” product was born. We came back with a beta version of the product, design for future versions, our Connect database (named at the offsite), and a marketing webpage for the new Fundraising product. Decide What Non-Work Activities You Will Do As mentioned, everyone is responsible for coming up with a work session for the offsite. In tandem, we pair up with a different co-worker (someone we may not always work directly with) and come up with a team activity that is unrelated to work. We are assigned a day with our partner and set out to find an activity. This has led to some of our best memories and is often what we look back on at future offsites. A couple of things we have found to work best: Boating/Sailing — A fan favorite has been sailing and boat cruises we’ve taken as a team. We have generally found these on Airbnb Experiences but are an awesome chance to check out a new city and relax with teammates. Cooking Classes — A chance to work directly with a teammate, plus eat great food. Will certainly be including more of these in the future. Escape Rooms — Fun way to work on team building. Sports/Hiking — Another chance to find a new skill and work as a team. We all learned how to longboard at our last offsite! Dinner — Believe it or not, coordinating dinner for a large group can be tough. We would highly encourage having reservations in advance to avoid long waiting times or eating at subpar restaurants. We learn something new about running an offsite at each one. By no means do they go off without a hitch, but they are invaluable to us and something we relish. Remote Hiring and Onboarding Tips Hiring for a remote organization is a double-edged sword. You have the world as a hiring pool but… you also have the world as a hiring pool. What we mean is that you have the ability to hire anyone in the world so you don’t have to compete with tech hubs and “hot” companies for top talent. However, this means that you are likely getting a huge number of applicants and need to have a dialed system to vet and hire candidates. 14. Post Jobs on the Right Remote Boards Leveraging job boards are a great way to get the word out about a new position. There have been countless job boards specific for remote workers as well as traditional options. Some popular options: AngelList Remote.co We Work Remotely 15. Simulate Remote Work During the Interview Process You likely do not have the opportunity to meet with them in person so being comfortable with video calls and evaluating work/writing is crucial. As we previously mentioned, building trust does not need to take place in a physical office. It takes place in evaluating communication and work. This same idea is relevant when hiring. At Visible, we are generally in search of “self-starters” and someone that is comfortable working alone/remote. Like most companies, our hiring process starts with short video calls with Visible team members. Once we have determined if they are a fit for Visible, we try to simulate remote work as much as possible. To start, we use a paid project for the candidate. From the second we start a paid project, we are building trust with the potential candidate. Generally, the project is related to a future Visible product, marketing plan, idea, etc. To best simulate remote work, we invite the candidate to a Slack channel where they can ask questions and interact with the team. Hiring for a remote position is challenging but rewarding. No matter how you approach hiring a remote employee, communication and trust should be front and center of the process. 16. Start Onboarding Remote Employees Before Day One Onboarding an employee across the country or globe can feel odd. In order to make sure a remote onboarding goes smoothly, we suggest a few of the following steps: Timeline — Set up an agenda and expectations for the first few days/weeks for a new hire. We use a Notion doc and create a day-by-day agenda for the first week so they know exactly what to expect and what needs to be completed. Introductions — Give new employees an opportunity to pair with different teams and teammates. It is a great way for new employees to get a lay of the land and build relationships. Software — Part of our timeline/onboarding document, is setting up the software and explaining what each one does. Merch — Send a shipment of your merch and team gear so they feel welcome! Technology — Make sure your new hires have the hardware they need to get the job done. Remote Work Tools To Level Up Your Team As we mentioned previously, Slack and Zoom have combined to essentially become our office but we have a number of other tools we use to help communicate and facilitate remote work. Slack for Messaging, Company Updates, and Fun Slack is the lifeblood of our business. 95% of our communication takes place in Slack. We break our channels into different business units and try to have as much automation as possible within Slack. For example, we have a channel where we can see when a new trial is started, a channel that funnels in our Intercom conversations, etc. We do try to keep most of our Slack conversations in public channels. As a note, we are a smaller team so most channels are not too noisy and anyone is welcome to mute a channel that they find irrelevant/distracting. Zoom for Video Conferencing As we mentioned earlier, we use Zoom for any necessary face-to-face meetings. As a distributed team, meetings are a crucial medium for our team to connect, share & collaborate. Here are some general guidelines for all meetings. Video should always be on by default (unless you have some serious connection issues). Your microphone should always be on and not muted. We want to feel like we are next to each other in a meeting. Visual and verbal queues & feedback are important ways we communicate. Try to find a quiet place with limited background noise. When applicable, send out an agenda, documents, etc prior to the meeting for the attendees to review. Jell for Daily Standups Jell — Jell is a tool we use to post personal standups on a daily basis. Each morning, every team member fills out a simple prompt that asks what they are working on that day. From here, the answers are sent to a channel in Slack where we can see where other team members may need help. Notion for Task Management and Internal Documentation Notion — We recently switch to Notion for (1) our task management and (2) our internal Wiki. We use Notion to monitor our current product cycle, current marketing tasks, and customer success tasks. Each team member has full access to all boards to see the status of different projects and tasks. We also use Notion as our internal Wiki. This is where we host everything and anything about Visible and how we work. If someone has a question about a company policy or workflow, they can check Notion. We are also diligent about documenting meetings so we this is where team members can find notes and discussions from past meetings. HIVEGEIST for Working Remotely The HIVEGEIST community consists of remote working professionals who share their vision of a decentralized life. With HIVEGEIST, you not only belong to the strong network of our members, you also immerse yourself in the local community. Use one-time code, VISIBLE20, for a 20% discount on the first month for your community. Visible for Aligning Our Team We use Visible to dogfood our own product and for our CEO to send out a weekly Update to the team. A weekly note from our CEO allows everyone to have a holistic view of what is happening with the business and where current metrics stand. Final Thoughts on Managing Remote Teams As technologies continue to advance so will the way we work. Remote work may not be a perfect fit for every company but we believe that it is here to stay. Each day we learn something new about working remote and the benefits that come with it. If you’re interested in getting started with remote work or want to learn more, shoot us a message to marketing@visible.vc Other Resources on Remote Work Below are the blog posts, guides, and other resources that we have looked to when implementing remote work at Visible: Our 9 Favorite Posts on Remote Work The 2021 State of Remote Work Why Everyone Loves Remote Work Remote Stories Why Naval Ravikant Thinks Remote Work Is The Future How to Lead a Remote-Friendly Startup How Remote Workers Make Work Friends Remote First Capital

Naturally, communicating when times are tough is intimidating. No one likes to share what is potentially bad news. However, when times are tough it is more important than ever for leaders to communicate with their stakeholders. Loads of VCs and founders have written about the importance of communication during a crisis over the past few weeks: “First [of six disciplines for challenging times], transparent communication… There is no better example than Winston Churchill. As you articulate communication plans, speak with transparency, candor, and gravity.” — Tomasz Tunguz in Six Startup Disciplines for Challenging Times “When people get Happy Talk instead of Hard Talk, it doesn’t reassure them. In fact, it does the opposite: It causes them to question the credibility of their leaders, which heightens their anxiety and makes them feel rudderless.” — David Sacks in Happy Talk Versus Hard Talk “Culture should be a priority. And today it is more important than ever. For the amount of time we spend working it should be positive, enjoyable, challenging in a good way and everyone there should feel connected to the company. Happy people make for happy atmospheres regardless of the hard work being done.” — Joanne Wilson in Culture is Important Now More Than Ever “Communicate, communicate, communicate. It is even more important in a remote environment.” — Seth Levine in Tips For Working from Home From The Foundry Network “Regardless of the times, entrepreneurs should send a weekly email update to their constituents — employees, advisors, mentors, and investors. People want to know what’s going on. People want to help. Regular email communication is the most repeatable, and scalable, method.” — David Cummings in Weekly Communication “Key learnings – a) understand and optimize your cash position b) increase communication with team, investors and customers. More the better. c) organize around your customer – shift resources to help them. d) look for opportunities that others won’t see e) stay optimistic!” — Scott Dorsey on Key Learnings from Leading Through 2008 Crisis Everyone can come out and say that now is the time to communicate but that does not mean everyone will do so. Communicating when times are tough is easier said than done. Considering our bread and butter is investor and stakeholder communications, we decided to take a look at our data and see if leaders are in fact stepping up during these tough times. The results? Startups and leaders and taking communication incredibly seriously. First, we took a look at Update recipients by month: This chart is simply the total number of Update recipients by month. Clearly March has been our best month to date. It is refreshing to see leaders and founders doubling down on communication. So how are the recipients receiving the Updates? Very well. The chart below is number of Update Reactions, our version of a thumbs up/like, by month: The result? Investors, team members, and other stakeholders are trying to be as supportive as possible. It is incredible to see leaders double down on communication and their stakeholders pass along support. Leaders who can step up now will ensure that their team, investors, and other stakeholders are at ease. Plus, they’ll position themselves for success when we get through the current crisis. As Naval Ravikant wrote, “Leadership in the coming months, at every level, is the audition to lead in the coming years.” If you are ready to get an Update out to your investors or team, start your Visible trial here.