lowercase opinions \ by maria

First time founders have often come out of academia, or a big corporate, or another institutional environment where excellence meant depth.

“How did you go bankrupt?”

Scaling startups is hard.

In high-growth tech startups, we often fall into the trap of trying to do everything ourselves.

It’s distressingly common to see benign neglect used as a management “tool”.

When my phone rings and I don’t answer, which I often don’t, my voicemail greeting instructs you to text or email or call back later.

A few years ago I was rejected out of an interview process because I was “not a good culture fit”.

I have often sort-of joked that my life goals are to get cooler and smarter.

I’ve officially been working in startups for eleven years: five companies four job titles three unicorns (and counting..!)

Over the course of ten years in startups, I’ve gone from administration and office manager to COO.

Working in the People space is absolutely fascinating because it’s so multidisciplinary.

Meetings have a really bad reputation.

If your boss puts an hour in your calendar titled “Feedback”, you might well not be able to focus on anything until you hear the news.

We’re reluctant to waste time on chatter at work - but we shouldn’t be.

What we value is foundational to how we approach our lives, how we prioritise our time, and how we interact with one another.

Hello!

This is a question we don’t ask ourselves often enough when we’re hiring.

Updating your CV or LinkedIn is super tedious but necessary.

We have a natural tendency to justify, deflect, or shut down criticism.

There is so much discourse around the startup idolisation of working harder.