Jack Altman, co-founder and CEO of Lattice, and Miles Grimshaw, General Partner at Benchmark, discuss building and scaling a software business, the importance of customer interactions, building a thriving community with Slack, selling enterprise SaaS products, the changing dynamics of the employer-employee relationship, and the impact of empathy and identifying professional values.

Jack Altman, Founding Lattice ($3B), talks about creating company culture, advantages of startups over big companies, hiring and firing strategies, building relationships with VCs, thoughts on AI, and leadership. They also discuss the annoyance of having the last name Altman, growing up in St. Louis, and the challenges and rewards of podcasting.

Jack Altman is the co-founder and CEO of Lattice, a people success platform for building engaged, high-performing teams. Lattice has raised over $330M, and was last valued at $3B. He is an expert in building company culture, and wrote a book on the topic, titled: “People Strategy”.In today's episode, we discuss: The importance of self-awareness and how to develop it The value of difficult conversations and advice for having them Common mistakes when scaling a company How to approach firing decisions and the associated internal optics How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees How to get drastically more out of your team members Adapting to the challenging new economic environment Referenced:Jack’s book: https://www.amazon.com/People-Strategy-Culture-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1119717043Jack’s company, Lattice: https://lattice.com/First Round Capital's Newsletter: https://review.firstround.com/newsletterWhere to find Jack Altman:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtmanTwitter: https://twitter.com/jaltmaWhere to find Brett Berson:Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettbersonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/In this episode, we cover:(2:40) Founders must continually grow with their company(7:23) How to identify hiring errors vs management errors(9:46) Managing the tension of delegation vs control(11:51) How to cultivate self-awareness(14:59) The one thing founders should never give up(17:22) How to build a product org(19:06) Hot take on micro-management(21:05) The importance of context setting as CEO(22:09) What founder transparency actually means(23:43) Examples of “context setting” as a leader(26:09) The value of uncomfortable conversations(27:16) How to have uncomfortable conversations(28:30) Founders must own their most difficult decisions(31:48) Optimizing speed vs accuracy in decision-making(33:50) The hidden biases in group discussions(35:05) When Jack experimented with removing himself from all meetings(37:48) The most unusual element of Jack’s leadership approach(38:34) 4 pieces of advice for CEOs(41:20) How to talk to customers(42:59) The many sources of learning for CEOs(46:45) Instructive framework for maximizing employee performance(49:56) When long-time employees don’t scale with the company(55:07) How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees(58:19) Identifying team members that “aren’t a fit”(59:57) Should you tell people why someone was let go?(62:42) Managing in the challenging new economic environment(68:18) Aligning an employee’s career goals with company goals(74:27) You're probably underestimating your team's potential

Jack Altman and Auren Hoffman discuss the rise of founder-led funds and their impact on the startup ecosystem. They explore the value of founders as investors, the advantages of being an operator when it comes to investing, and the challenges of deploying large amounts of capital in later stage investments. The speakers also debate the potential increase in value of three IPOs and discuss sponsor ads for Mercury and Coda.

Guests: Satish and Scott roast Logan for becoming a media personality. Matthew Prince exposes Cloudflare’s 1st customers: Turkish escorts. Dario Amodei predicts the future of AI. Dev Ittycheria gives 3 steps for holding people accountable. Jack Altman jokes about growing up with Sam. Daniel Ek on money and happiness. Matt Mochary shares his hiring and firing frameworks.

At nine figures in revenue and 550 people, the CEO of Lattice, Jack Altman, has seen every stage of building a startup.    In this week’s Workshop Wednesday — held every Wednesday at 10 a.m. PST — Altman talks more in-depth about his viral tweet storm, sharing the eight things you think as a first-time founder that usually aren’t true.   This episode is an excerpt of Jack and Jason's conversation. Watch the full video, including Q&A: https://youtube.com/live/2sNsZdFjWOE?feature=share   ***** SaaStr Europa is back! And this time, we’re heading to London for 2 fun-filled days of content, networking, and SaaS. Join us June 6th and 7th for SaaStr Europa 2023. Use code FAVE100 for $100 off tickets at saastrlondon.com. *****   Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saastr/ Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8    

Sam Altman, an entrepreneur with an ambitious plan to raise $7 trillion for a chip mission, and Jack Altman, a startup founder who raised 150M for Alt Capital, discuss the challenges of transitioning into venture capital. They also emphasize the importance of diversifying marketing efforts, building alternative channels to mitigate platform risks, and creating high-quality content to stand out in a saturated market.

Apurva Mehta and Jack Altman discuss Sam Altman's investment success, the role of SPVs in investments, CalPERS increasing exposure to venture, and liquidation preferences. They dive into investment strategies, trust in the ecosystem, and the importance of alignment between partners in managing multiple investors through SPVs.

Jack Altman, Co-founder and CEO of Lattice, discusses founder-company fit, the power of referrals in hiring, the value of hiring former founders, strategic decision making, the pros of being an agreeable founder, and different entrepreneurial styles in this entertaining podcast.

Jack Altman, co-founder and former CEO of Lattice, now invests full-time with Alt Capital. He shares how joining a startup post-product-market fit can be the best career move. Alt discusses crucial insights from scaling Lattice and the top traits every founder should possess. He reflects on his fundraising missteps and emphasizes the importance of building products for long-term use. Transitioning into investing, Alt highlights his passion for supporting startups while navigating the complexities of the tech ecosystem.