80: Hiten Shah, CEO of FYI and Former CEO Kissmetrics

How would you feel if you had a billion dollar opportunity right in front of you and you squandered it? That’s what we talked about this week with Hiten Shah, CEO of FYI and former CEO of Kissmetrics. Hiten coined the term “my billion dollar mistake” in an iconic blog post several years ago. In it, he detailed how his team at Kissmetrics was 3 years ahead of the market, well funded, had great customers and ultimately lost the lead. It was a lesson in management, leadership and self awareness.

This week I chatted with Hiten about all things leadership and management - we dug deep specifically into lessons learned from that experience, but also broadened it out to his observations of what’s going on in the market today - how are Founders in 2021 approaching fundraising, what are the common mistakes they’re making and what, if any, downstream impacts will the abundance of capital have on the early stage ecosystem.