Encore: Cloudflare Co-Founder Michelle Zatlyn’s Advice on Hiring, Fundraising, Scaling, and more
Apr 17, 2024
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Co-founder of Cloudflare, Michelle Zatlyn, shares insights on fundraising, hiring, and frugal practices. She reveals how they found talent without recruiters, turned weaknesses into strengths, and achieved product-market fit. The podcast also touches on extreme frugality, customer feedback, and the importance of a skilled Product Manager for company growth.
Attract top talent by showcasing a compelling vision, offering equity, and leveraging inbound interest through thought leadership content like a company blog.
When hiring for startups, prioritize task-focused roles over future management positions to ensure immediate delivery on product requirements.
Balance the startup's vision with customer feedback, iterating based on user responses to achieve product-market fit and sustainable growth.
Deep dives
Finding Success in Tech Startups
The key to success in tech startups lies in solving big problems, having a clear vision, and being on-trend with tailwinds. Progress is made through iterations, leveraging lean startup methodologies, focusing on shipping products, and maintaining momentum.
Recruitment Strategies for Startups
Startups can attract top talent by having a compelling vision, offering equity, and leveraging inbound flows through thought leadership content like a prolific company blog. Additionally, recruiting internationally can be effective, appealing to tech enthusiasts worldwide.
Hiring for Startup Growth
When hiring for startups, prioritize current task-focused roles over future management positions. Seek individuals who can deliver on product requirements immediately rather than those geared towards scalability and team management.
Balancing Vision and Feedback
Balancing the startup's vision with customer feedback is crucial. While having a clear mission is essential, being open to feedback and iterating based on user responses ensures product-market fit and sustainable growth.
Progress and Momentum in Product Development
Product development success lies in consistent progress and momentum. The cadence of shipping products, receiving feedback, and iterating based on user engagement drives growth and solves challenges for startups.
Michelle Zatlyn (@zatlyn), co-founder, president, and COO of Cloudflare, joined Village Global co-founder and partner Ben Casnocha for a masterclass with our founders in late 2020.
They discussed:
- The origin story of Cloudflare, including how the co-founders met, and how Michelle realized that she too could start a company.
- Her advice on fundraising after raising more than $300M for Cloudflare, including why you should keep the rest of the VC partnership in mind, and how to show rather than tell in your pitch.
- How they found the best talent, including why their blog brought them plenty of inbound interest, and why searching far and wide around the globe for engineers helped them build their team quickly.
- Why they don’t use recruiters at Cloudflare.
- How to turn a weakness into a strength.
- How to process feedback and when it makes sense to ignore it.
- Stories of extreme frugality in the early days of the company, including building their own Ikea desks.
- How an emotional response by customers helped them know they had product-market fit.
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Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.
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