Michelle recently shared how we passed $40m in all-time revenue at Squared Away. Check out her post on X. I wanted to share a few thoughts on how we got here, lessons learned, all of our financials, and my personal journey to get here.
To think we started this company
Last month, I made an offer to everyone at our company: $25,000 to quit.
6 people took it.
But, why?
Because I fucked up. I'm sharing the story to be open about what happened, why I did it, and maybe it can be helpful to others going
The following post is an excerpt from David Marquet's book "Leadership is Language." David was the captain of a nuclear submarine and one of my favorite leaders in the world. David asked me to share when we were launching our biggest project with Apple and how
7 years ago, I called my best friend Robert Stephens and asked him for advice. His response was not what I was looking for. He said,
Do you want my Advice or do you want my Validation?
I just sat there for a second. Doubting my actual intentions. Thinking. What
Reply and say hi, it's always great to hear from you.
Every once in a while, someone tells me something that completely changes the entire way I see the world. That's what happened to me after a conversation with Ted Klontz, one of the best psychologists
David Marquet, author of Turn the Ship Around, which is one of my favorite books on leadership, is writing a new book coming out soon called “Coach.”
It’s about how to coach yourself and the questions, tools, and playbooks that can help us all see what is hard to
A year ago, I wrote this internal memo to our team at XMTP Labs. It's something I think about a lot, and even as we've grown and come a long way since a year ago, I still think about this almost every day. Here's
Anyone in the world can now send free global payments with a private and secure text message. This is just the beginning of individuals having more control, privacy, and ownership over their assets, identity, and now communication.
I'm thrilled to announce that Coinbase Wallet is now part of
Richard Feynman once said that “you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”
I shared this post recently as a screenshot on Twitter and I had 100s of people reach out and say it was something they were struggling with and the post really resonated
Hey friends,
You're receiving this email because you signed up on my personal website or LogosLabs.com. I'm excited to share our latest investments with you, I've removed sensitive information. To get all the information, simply become an LP in our fund. Here'
Below is a copy of the post [https://blog.xmtp.com/series-a/] we shared about
our Series A over on the XMTP blog. I personally couldn't be more excited to be
building this company with my co-founder Matt Galligan [twitter.com/mg].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
XMTP has raised a $20M
> This was an internal memo we sent to our LPs in The Logos Fund [logoslabs.com].
To receive the full version and invest with us, join our fund as an LP here
[angel.co/v/l/jw1pO]. Share this email with friends and tell them to subscribe
here: blog.
This is the email update that was sent to all Logos Fund LPs about our first
unicorn, Remote.com. To become an LP & learn more about our fund, click here.
[http://angel.co/v/l/Mg6Z9]
Hi all,
This update is a special report for a special day. We
The Logos Fund [http://logoslabs.com/fund] invest in founders building startups
defining remote work globally. We invest $50k-$100k in the earliest stages of
your company. The rolling fund is managed by Shane Mac
[http://twitter.com/shanemac] & Chris Herd [http://twitter.com/chris_herd]. This
report was
Yesterday, I posted this Tweet
[https://twitter.com/ShaneMac/status/1344335095470174209?s=20] about my new
camera + lighting + audio setup at home. Everyone started asking what to buy to
make this setup happen so here you go. Everything you need to know is below.
Matt Galligan helping me set up
I went from "remote work will happen over the next 10 years" to "it's already
here, now what?" in under 6 months. To me, the shift was always inevitable but
the timeline I could have never imagined happening this quickly. Remote work is
here
Sometimes you get an email that you want to share with everyone. That's the
email I got from Grace Meyer
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-meyer-25b048164/], student at the University
of Auckland. She decided to review our interview for her college course
requirement.
> "One of my
Being CEO can be the loneliest and hardest job sometimes. Hell, any job can be
lonely and hard. When it gets hard, it's easy to start doubting yourself. So, I
started writing a simple message.
I'm not sure when I started doing this.
One day, before
This idea went from a text message "We should build this platform" to a full
featured product in less than 4 months. It all started when Justin Kan, founder
of Twitch & Investor, decided to quit drinking and start a community on
Telegram. I called the best engineer
I went from hating dating apps to kinda enjoying them again by changing one
thing. It was so simple.
I forgot how fun it is to let friends play your Bumble [https://bumble.com/].
Flip through your Hinge [https://hinge.co/]. See your top 5 on The League
[https://www.
ask. celebrates 10 years with a blockbuster interview with Chase Jarvis. Next,
David Marquet and others in a series specifically designed to go deep on the
questions that define our lives and our work.
1. ask. is back with a new podcast episode and a calling to let anyone host
Brad always tells it like it is.
We are excited to announce an official partnership with Datawords.
[https://datawords.com/]
This newly signed partnership will allow Datawords to help current and future
clients integrate messaging and voice marketing tools to their digital marketing
strategies. It will enable Assist to benefit from Datawords’ tech and
multicultural expertise to
Machine Yearning
[https://medium.com/assist/dreaming-about-the-machine-3d778494e848] posts its
fourth episode this week, and already we’re breaking our format. We approach the
podcast like everything in life: stay rigid, get stuck, nothing but problems
follow…
We’ve used this podcast to jump start conversations about how much we don’
Introducing Machine Yearning, our new podcast
In a world where no one is the expert and where everyone, even if they don’t
want to let on, is scrambling to figure it out — why not come clean and get
real?
That’s the point behind Machine Yearning, our new podcast.
We’re excited to announce an official partnership with TimeTrade
[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/timetrade-partners-with-assist-to-give-customers-new-ways-to-engage-with-brands-300638959.html]
. TimeTrade is the leading intelligent scheduling platform for the enterprise.
Below is an interview with Cimarron Buser and Assist co-founder Robert Stephens.
Cimarron Buser is SVP Business Development at TimeTrade. Since the day
8 years ago I made a video. I was young, excited, and starting to share things
via video online.
I have no idea why I felt the need to send the video to Seth Godin. But I did. I
don’t even remember what I said in the video I
The Assist platform [http://assi.st] now supports the Google Assistant and their
launch of transactions.
We are excited to launch some of the first commerce experiences on the Google
Assistant and chart new territory on this new hybrid space that is both
messaging and voice.
Just ask your Assistant
We at Assist couldn’t say it better than Lee Mayer at Havenly
[https://twitter.com/thehavenly/status/879336022668083200] & Nadia & Lydia at
Dia
[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/diaco-update-binary-capital-nadia-boujarwah?published=t]
, but we do want to voice our absolute support to Niniane Wang, Susan Ho, Leiti
Hsu, and
Today is one of those days where I’m reminded that building companies is simply
about bringing together the right group of people. I’m excited to share that
Liat [https://twitter.com/LiatBycel] is joining Assist as our Chief Revenue
Officer.
She brings experience and leadership from more than
When I met Laura, I instantly knew she was someone we needed on our team. I
couldn’t be more excited to work alongside Laura and learn from her past
experience working with IBM and Apple.
Laura Meyer joins Assist from IBM where she managed sales to Apple, Inc. and
The CEO of Relish stops by the studio to talk about sports, feminism, diversity
and her new company.
Ashley is the CEO of The Relish, a new media sports company for female fans. She
has an inspiring story and shares her love for sports, women in business and
serving an
Taken right from the Assist handbook for new team members
I wanted to share why we believe giving everyone a personal assistant is the greatest perk you can offer. And a few other thoughts.
Productivity Perks > Posh Perks
There’s a lot of talk, especially in technology, about cute
It is a simple idea:
What if everything started with a question? What if a moderator helped everyone
share their best stories?
There’s something magical about turning off your phone, bringing together great
people and having a moderator who brings out personal stories over dinner. It’s
an intense
This was our first dinner in San Francisco.
It is a simple idea:
What if everything started with a question? What if a moderator helped everyone
share their best stories?
There’s something magical about turning off your phone, bringing together great
people and having a moderator who brings out
It all started 4 years ago. It was a simple idea then and it’s a simple idea
now. I set out to ask 1 question to a wide range of leaders all over the world.
the idea
In a short time, I’ve been lucky and humbled by this
This interview was truly special to me. I sat down with my mother and had an
open conversation about work, love, taking care of yourself, and caring for
others. It was one of my favorite memories with my mom. She’s incredible.
I hope you enjoy.
https://soundcloud.com/startbyasking/
Jason Fried [https://twitter.com/jasonfried] has always preached the simple way.
This interview is a fun little interview on why he likes tea so much.
Enjoy.
https://soundcloud.com/ask-interviews-14429595/why-drink-tea-w-jason-fried
Subscribe to everything ask. [http://startbyasking.com]
iTunes Podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-interviews/id1057357810?mt=
I believe Robert Stephens [http://twitter.com/rstephens] (co-founder @ Assist
[http://assi.st]), Founder of GeekSquad and CTO of BestBuy, sees the future of
technology like very few in the world. I never imagined at the time of this
interview that one day he would be my co-founder.
Hope you
Ryan Carson [http://ryancarson.com/] is a pioneer in the internet world. Now CEO
of Treehouse [https://teamtreehouse.com/], his views on culture are some of the
best in the world.
https://soundcloud.com/ask-interviews-14429595/whys-culture-matter-w-ryan-carson
Subscribe to everything ask. [http://startbyasking.com]
iTunes Podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/
T.A. McCann [https://twitter.com/tamccann] is both a friend, our investor and
the reason I got into startups. This story reminds me of how much it really is
about the process and the persistence to achieve anything you want.
I hope you enjoy this interview.
Subscribe to everything
Simon Sinek has changed the way to think about building companies and
innovation. He shares why great companies and leaders always focus on the why.
I hope you enjoy this interview.
https://soundcloud.com/ask-interviews-14429595/why-start-with-the-why-w-simon-sinek
Subscribe to everything ask. [http://startbyasking.com]
iTunes Podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/
This interview has changed everything I think about in leadership. It truly is
one of my favorite stories.
David Marquet took over the largest nuclear submarine in the Navy and turned the
worst performing ship in the navy into the best. He did it by changing from the
leader who
If bots are going to live up to their hype, we have to move beyond the fixed
decision trees and pre-defined scripts.
Last week, Mikhail Larionov [https://www.facebook.com/mikhail99] from Facebook,
wrote a post
[https://medium.com/@vernon99/messenger-bots-decision-trees-vs-webviews-64b36eb0905e#.v3tnihj53]
about decision trees vs web views. He argues
I’m fascinated by this thought.
Is there a specific question that can help you understand who not to hire if you
are focused on building the highest performing team in the world?
Recently, I had a conversation with former Navy Captain David Marquet
[http://www.davidmarquet.com/]. He told
We are excited to announce that the Assist platform is powering one of the first
brands on Google Home, Lonely Planet [http://lonelyplanet.com].
Lonely Planet has always been one of our favorite brands and now we can learn
about the best places in the world by simply asking Google
This story is about having no fucking clue what will happen, one lucky email, and the ignorant road to raising part of our $1.5m seed round in 5 days before New Year’s.
July 5th, 2013. Sitting in Spanish Bay, CA with my girlfriend browsing Instagram.
This is the
We are excited to share the first ever charity accepting donations on Messenger.
We believe it is one of the simplest ways people can donate on mobile.
charity: water [http://charitywater.org] has become one of the best brands when
it comes to using social media to engage and inspire
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Assist is currently 98% white males. It’s time to change that.
1. Update 1: As of August 29th, 2016 we are now 86% white males.
2. Update 2: As of September 15th, 2016 we are now 75% white males.
3. Update 3: As of April 17th, 2017
This post is the combination of ideas that can happen today and those that we
would love to see happen tomorrow. We have developed a handful of foundational
concepts that we believe can help any individual or business understand the
potential of messaging.
We hope you enjoy and please send
Go where no one is doing business, people are just having fun. Don’t sell shit,
don’t ask for anything. If they follow and listen to you, they’ll hear about
your next thing…
I met my current co-founder on Twitter back when people were saying Twitter was
silly.
Nothing has opened more doors and opportunities in my life than Twitter.
I didn’t go to an Ivy League school. (Not even close [http://www.wiu.edu/]) I do
believe that signaling theory exists and there’s a ton to gain by attending a
school like Stanford.
But I
We are on a mission to bring the best local services to every messaging
platform.
We are excited to announce our latest partnership with Olset
[https://www.olset.com/], the world’s leading personalization engine for booking
hotels. They power some of the largest travel sites in the world and
We are on a mission to bring the best services to every messaging platform.
That’s why today we are excited to announce that we are featuring Resy
reservations on Assist. Discover and book reservations without leaving your
favorite messaging app.
Resy has made one of the best reservation experiences
> We believe that messaging is the new browser and the way results are displayed
will drastically change in this new world.
If this is true, I’ll always remember what Greg Isenberg
[https://twitter.com/gregisenberg] once told me:
> In real estate, it’s all about location, location,
We strive to make using services as simple as sending a text. A major piece of
this is simplifying results to feel manageable and great inside messaging.
We call this the “Top 3.” It’s our best search result for messaging.
If Google thought the right amount of results was
We are excited to announce that you can now hire a courier and get anything
delivered in 100+ U.S. cities.
The Postmates [http://postmates.com] API makes it possible to get anything
delivered from point A to point B. Assist makes it as easy as sending a message
on
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 years ago businesses were told to get a website. 10 years ago a Facebook
page. 5 years ago an app (but apps are too expensive). The next phase of the
Internet will be bots.
Every business in the world will have a bot. It will allow any customer
The reality of app overload.
Apps dominated the last 5 years. “There’s an app for that” became a real thing.
At some point though, downloading another app and re-entering the same
preferences, became a nuisance and app discovery is a real problem. Apps are
amazing for some things but
I hear this question all the time:
> “How should I go about raising money?”
To start, raising money is actually really hard and there are lots of nuances
but maybe a different perspective can help some people trying to raise a round.
Also, the single best way to raise
I was having a coffee this morning with a friend who was telling me about his
last startup job. The one line I remember was this:
> “…he [the CEO] required us to be in the office til 7pm. Anyone who left early
just felt guilty. I got fired.”
Listen,
This is one of my favorite questions.
The answer shows one of the most powerful traits needed in early stage
companies:
Self-awareness.
For founders and early employees (really any person), I believe that
self-awareness is one of the most critical traits needed to be able to succeed
through the unknown
It’s pretty amazing that if you would have invested in Dominos Pizza circa 2010
then you would have made 874% returns. It dwarfs the returns of Apple, Google,
FB, Twitter, pretty much every public technology company.
The top line is Dominos.
Dominos pizza compared to top performing tech companies.
I love looking at behaviors I see everyone do but they hack another product to
do it. Meet Fiddler.
Every single dinner party I’ve been at over the past year has had this happen:
Someone in a relationship wants to play their single friend’s Tinder.
They love the
My favorite advice is this:
> Determine how to ignore most advice.
Advice is cheap. In business, opinions are even cheaper. A bunch of people with
no context and different experiences telling you the answer. They don’t know
what you know. Believe that. My skin crawls every time I
Handmade paper letter with handwritten welcome note to you. Photo credit:
@rstephens
In yesterday’s news we talked about how to quit
[https://medium.com/assist/how-to-quit-11a2d89bfff2], in today’s news lets talk
about how we start.☺Here is what we do at Assist (and the purpose) for every new
When a new team member joins our company, we have them start by reading a
handbook to help understand our culture, mission and team.
One piece of this document which you read on the first day shares thoughts on
how to quit. I want to share our insights because honestly
The Assist founding team at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
This post was originally written by the Quip team and posted on their blog
[https://quip.com/blog/].
Assist [http://joinassist.com] is a startup focused on building simple and
useful products to connect people. This philosophy is apparent in
9 months ago I was speaking at a conference in Chicago and a lady in the front
row asked me a question.
> She asked, “what drives you?”
I think I said “People.” Or something that is as generic as boxed wine and the
same regurgitated answer I would expect
There’s something happening here that’s different…
There’s something happening that’s different with Taptalk. I’ve been using it for about 2 months and yesterday I told my mom to download it.
Today was the most I’ve shared with my mom since moving away from home
This morning I opened Secret [http://secret.ly/]. A new app which let’s you
anonymously share thoughts amongst friends but you can’t see which friend is the
author of the post, just that you are a “friend” or “friend of friend” with that
person.
There’s been many
Next week, I’m heading back to speak at my high school. Looking for inspiration,
I posted this question on Facebook today and the amount of responses blew me
away. I wanted to share what everyone said in a single post. I hope you enjoy.
> Passionate > cool. Nick
My grandpa always told me that basketball is won by rebounds. The stats show that people miss more shots than they make so whoever is there to rebound where the ball is going will win games.
Whether it’s your team or your competitors, knowing where to be after someone
What we really need to do here is use technology to remind people that we are
human, that civilization is meant to connect people. @jack
This morning was the first time my dad ever sent me a photo of himself. As
trivial as it sounds, it made my day. He
It’s so easy to say you’ll do it tomorrow. Then it never happens.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Six months ago, I made the best life change that I’ve ever made.
I started swimming. I wanted to be healthier. To make sure I would make it a
habit, I forced myself
Medium is interesting. It’s a new publishing platform but it also has the same
dynamics of a marketplace.
Supply and Demand. Chicken and Egg. Writers and Readers.
What I find really interesting is their approach to building the platform.
They seem solely focused on the writer. Better tools, better
People are hired to do work. Doing work can be seen as what you produce.
I’ve seen so many people, including myself, show off all the things that they’ve
built. In the past, I’ve found myself thinking about how much work we did by how
much was
Last week, a co-worker asked me how to manage all the people in their network. I
guess since my last company was a Social CRM, people seem to think I actually
have a clue about managing my network.
Let’s just start by saying there is no magic solution or
After I packed my car and moved from the small town of Bartonville, IL to Seattle (almost six years ago), I started feeling like I was missing the special moments with my family back home.
Especially watching my only niece grow up.
Taylor was eight years old then. Obviously, we
