The Importance of Optimism in Startups

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Reid Hoffman: Every startup must transition from a band of roguish pirates into a disciplined navy. Get the timing wrong and you'll quickly be lost at sea, he says. Aparna Saren, CMO of Capital One Business talks about hiring for her head of product. She was concerned the candidate would be intimidated by the challenges ahead.

Early-stage startups are a lot like pirate ships — they need a buccaneering spirit to survive. But every startup needs to shed its pirate nature at some point, and evolve into something more akin to a navy — no less heroic, but more disciplined. Dara Khosrowshahi, as Uber CEO, took on the most extreme pirate-to-navy transition in startup history. Though Uber blitzscaled to become the most valuable startup in the world, it was also notorious for its toxic culture — and Dara turned the company around. His method? Truth-telling and doing the right thing

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