First Round Capital

Most people describe finding PMF as an art, not a science. We're here to change that. Introducing PMF Method. After 20 years and 500+ investments in pre-product-market fit companies, we've drawn on our data and worked with some of the world's most iconic enterprise founders, distilling what they did in their first 6 months into a free 14-week intensive experience that helps sales-led B2B founders build epic companies. In tactical sessions, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close your first sales — all while keeping 100% of your equity. You'll work alongside a tight group of other builders at your same stage, and get to learn from the hard-earned insights from founders of $1B+ B2B companies, like Vanta's Christina Cacioppo, Looker's lloyd tabb, Plaid's Zachary Perret, Ironclad's Jason Boehmig, Lattice's Jack Altman, and Verkada's Filip Kaliszan. The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs from 5/29 to 8/28. Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply — just get your application in by 5/7 (or tag a founder friend below!) More details, FAQs, and application link in the comments below 👇

Today, Paylocity announced its planned acquisition of Airbase. I’m so thrilled for Thejo Kote and the team. Here's a few observations after working together closely for the past 6 years… 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 I first heard about Airbase in 2017, when it was still in private beta and an early bet on a category that would later generate a lot of heat. Thejo was a repeat founder. Like many CEOs, he was frustrated by out-of-control spending on the corporate card. He set out to build something better: the same type of control that comes with an invoice based system, with the benefits of credit cards. Revisiting my notes from around the time of our investment, one line stands out: “He is applying a consumer sensibility to an enterprise problem, attacking it in a full stack way.” Thejo could go up and down every part of the company building stack — leading as PM and coding much of it himself, while diving into the financial details and telling the right story — which is rare. 𝗚𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 One of Thejo's superpowers that stood out early on is how deep he is on the problem. He didn’t rely on his firsthand experience alone to build something. Instead, he took the time to validate that this problem was not unique to him. When I first met him, he had already spent a ton of time with dozens of prospects and already had a pretty well-formed initial product, which isn't typical. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 When Thejo sent over a copy of Airbase’s early values, the first one stood out. (If you visit Airbase’s “About us” page, you’ll see it mirrored in this line: “We help finance teams control their destiny.”) Thejo set out to build a company in that mold, even as others were heading in a different direction in the ZIRP era. He bootstrapped initially (First Round was his first partner in 2018), put the entire early product team in India, and focused on building a profitable business with a disciplined fundraising approach. He's also high integrity and cares deeply about his team. Another line from Airbase's original values summarizes his ethos well: "Irrespective of what the Silicon Valley stereotype may be, you can be nice and successful." That’s all to say that while there are a lot of different ways to build a company, the winning combination of ingredients I’ve seen over the years are: going unreasonably deep on the problem, doing things your own way and moving exceptionally quickly while maintaining ridiculously high standards. Airbase’s original company values capture this nicely: "There is always tension between moving fast and maintaining quality and that tension is worth struggling with. A sense of urgency should never be a casualty at the altar of quality. They should always wrestle each other with neither getting the best of the other." Thejo lives these values every day. I can’t wait to back whatever he builds next.

Today, Paylocity announced its planned acquisition of Airbase. I’m so thrilled for Thejo Kote and the team. Here's a few observations after working together closely for the past 6 years… 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 I first heard about Airbase in 2017, when it was still in private beta and an early bet on a category that would later generate a lot of heat. Thejo was a repeat founder. Like many CEOs, he was frustrated by out-of-control spending on the corporate card. He set out to build something better: the same type of control that comes with an invoice based system, with the benefits of credit cards. Revisiting my notes from around the time of our investment, one line stands out: “He is applying a consumer sensibility to an enterprise problem, attacking it in a full stack way.” Thejo could go up and down every part of the company building stack — leading as PM and coding much of it himself, while diving into the financial details and telling the right story — which is rare. 𝗚𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 One of Thejo's superpowers that stood out early on is how deep he is on the problem. He didn’t rely on his firsthand experience alone to build something. Instead, he took the time to validate that this problem was not unique to him. When I first met him, he had already spent a ton of time with dozens of prospects and already had a pretty well-formed initial product, which isn't typical. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 When Thejo sent over a copy of Airbase’s early values, the first one stood out. (If you visit Airbase’s “About us” page, you’ll see it mirrored in this line: “We help finance teams control their destiny.”) Thejo set out to build a company in that mold, even as others were heading in a different direction in the ZIRP era. He bootstrapped initially (First Round was his first partner in 2018), put the entire early product team in India, and focused on building a profitable business with a disciplined fundraising approach. He's also high integrity and cares deeply about his team. Another line from Airbase's original values summarizes his ethos well: "Irrespective of what the Silicon Valley stereotype may be, you can be nice and successful." That’s all to say that while there are a lot of different ways to build a company, the winning combination of ingredients I’ve seen over the years are: going unreasonably deep on the problem, doing things your own way and moving exceptionally quickly while maintaining ridiculously high standards. Airbase’s original company values capture this nicely: "There is always tension between moving fast and maintaining quality and that tension is worth struggling with. A sense of urgency should never be a casualty at the altar of quality. They should always wrestle each other with neither getting the best of the other." Thejo lives these values every day. I can’t wait to back whatever he builds next.

🚨 New Job Alert 🚨 I'm hiring for a Programs Director role at First Round Capital in San Francisco. Looking for someone who is passionate about working with founders every day, deeply understands the early stage company building journey and has a knack for bringing together communities and executing impeccable events. Do you know anyone who could be excellent?

Hiring the first marketer for your startup? Ditch the classic 30-day strategy exercise during the interview process. “I’m not a big believer in take-home exercises, especially for very senior roles,” says Krithika M., who was the first marketing hire at Stripe and now OpenAI. Instead, bring candidates in for a live strategy session. “You want someone who can get very deep on your funnel. So I would usually start by getting together for a workshop and whiteboarding,” she says. When Muthukumar is hiring for marketers, she asks herself this coming out of one of those sessions: “Did I learn something from that conversation that’s going to change my thinking about what I'm already trying to move ahead in my company? That's a mark of a great marketer.” On The Review, she shares more hiring tips for founders looking for an inaugural marketer.

“I'll be a little contrarian here and say that I don't think we scaled taste at Stripe. Instead, we invested in processes and systems that ensured that everything that went out the door had taste," says Krithika M. When designed with intention, internal reviews can decentralize knowledge for new team members and make sure every piece of content feels true to the brand. “What I see often happens at scaling startups is that everything is in the head of the founders or the one early marketer who knows everything. And by the time a new person comes in, they don't know how to succeed. Too much of it relies on social capital,” she explains. On The Review, she reflects on her nine-year run at Stripe, dissecting the internal review framework her team leaned on to steward the brand and scale the marketing org.

Great marketers don’t just recycle the formulas that won them home runs at their last gig. This is an essential quality for a startup’s first marketing hire, which Krithika M. has been twice now — first at Stripe, and now as VP of Marketing at OpenAI. If you’re a founder looking to bring on a marketer, Muthukumar recommends asking these questions to find someone with these chops: “Is this person coming in with a playbook or a set of things that they feel very comfortable doing? Are they suggesting you do something just because of the stage of your company?” she says. “Or can they get really customized for your needs? Do they understand what you’re trying to do differently and create marketing strategies that complement that?” Read more of Muthukumar’s thoughts on what defines a successful founding startup marketer at the link in the comments.

“The job of a marketer, especially in the early days of a startup, but on a constant basis, is that of a diagnostician. Depending on how you answer diagnostic questions, you’ll invest in very different hires, work streams and strategies.” As both Stripe’s and OpenAI’s first marketer, Krithika M. has spent most of her career at dizzyingly fast-growing startups — where she’s been continuously tasked with cutting through the noise to identify hidden opportunities and non-obvious weaknesses. In the latest on The Review, she walks us through how she’s repeatedly tackled the role of founding startup marketer, breaking down what it takes to start and scale the org. Link to the article in the comments.

We’re hiring! We’re looking for a creative Program Director to join our Founder Success team in San Francisco. This role will lead the ideation, curation, planning, and execution of First Round's programs and event strategy, designed to offer founders targeted support during their early company-building years. You'll drive programs like our founder retreats, 1:1 mentorship “matchmaking” between founders, sourcing assistance and more (like getting the chance to create new programs from scratch). If you are amazing at: 1) Curating remarkably impactful experiences and 2) Building tight-knit, long-lasting communities Apply today!

You don’t outgrow the need for design partners. This was my biggest takeaway from my conversation with Eilon Reshef on Gong's path to product-market fit. I was super surprised that even at Gong's current scale (Series E, $7B valuation), his team of 20+ PMs still use them, working with up to a dozen design partners at any given time. That tradition stretches back to building the initial product in 2015. The earliest signs of traction weren’t splashy — in fact Eilon didn’t even make much of them at the time. But in hindsight, he can trace an important milestone of product-market fit back to a quiet victory just after launching: 11 out of 12 of the first design partners converted to paying customers. Tons more learnings from Eilon on design partners, as well as the non-obvious signs of early PMF, and how to balance long-term product strategy with customer input in the First Round Capital Review article below.