Y Combinator Startup Podcast

#135 - Camille Fournier

Jul 17, 2019

Camille Fournier, Managing Director at Two Sigma and former CTO of Rent The Runway, discusses the underrated role of management in tech startups. She reveals why many individual contributors never experience effective management and shares insights on how new managers can thrive in their first 90 days. Fournier emphasizes building team cohesion in remote environments and navigating challenges like letting team members go. She also tackles the balance between technical expertise and leadership, showcasing skills that create successful, empathetic managers.

49:38

Creator website

Episode guests

Camille Fournier

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Episode notes

Intro

3min

The Importance of Management in Tech Startups

7min

Building Team Cohesion in a Remote World

4min

Navigating Challenges as a Rookie Manager

24min

Navigating Team Recognition and Engineering Management

3min

Navigating the Intersection of Management and Leadership

4min

Crafting Effective Leadership Through Clarity and Trust

3min

Camille Fournier is a Managing Director at Two Sigma and the former CTO of Rent The Runway. She’s also the author of The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change.

You can find her on Twitter @skamille.

If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org. The course begins on July 22nd and goes for 10 weeks. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

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Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:47 - Why do many individual contributors (ICs) never experience a good manager?

3:27 - How did the ideology of management being bad become pervasive in startups?

5:27 - What should a new manager do in their first 90 days?

8:57 - Getting better at 1:1s

11:17 - More tips for the first 90 days

13:17 - Remote management

15:12 - Mistakes rookie managers make

19:27 - Letting people go

23:37 - Being a manager and still wanting to write code

27:57 - Feeling overwhelmed as a manager

31:27 - Getting a team to gel

38:42 - Giving people kudos

39:57 - Non-engineers running engineering teams

42:07 - Staying legit technically as a manager

43:27 - Management vs leadership

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