Masters of Scale Quotes

“But ignoring those details won’t work—not in the long run, says Y Combinator’s president from 2014 to 2019, Sam Altman. An acolyte of Paul Graham’s, Sam adhered to the core Y Combinator dictum: It’s better to have one hundred users who love you than a million users who just kind of like you. It’s counterintuitive. You may be thinking If a million people “kind of like” my product enough to buy it, isn’t that better for business than a hundred obsessive oddballs? To which Sam would say…definitely not.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“entrepreneurs don’t think what they’re doing is crazy—though other people do, because it’s threatening to the status quo.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Starbucks is not profit driven,” says Howard. “Starbucks is values driven, and as a result of those values, we have become very profitable. Not every business decision should be an economic one. Our financial performance is directly linked to the enduring values and culture that we are constantly trying to enhance and preserve.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Many great founders have a secondary purpose, something outside their main business objective they’re trying to get done in the world. In fact, you could say that every successful company is like a Trojan horse carrying the founder’s second purpose forward.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Part of maintaining that consistent drumbeat is for leadership to behave in a consistent way that reinforces the culture and values of the company. For example, often organizations reward people who achieve results without regard for how they achieved them, rather than asking: Did they do it in a way that’s consistent with our culture and values? This tendency to celebrate and reward the “what” instead of the “how” is one of the ways companies lose their character as they grow. You need a clear vision not only of what you want to achieve but also how you want to achieve it, and you should share that vision, loudly and often—especially if your company has achieved scale and you’re cascading those messages to five thousand, ten thousand, or fifteen-thousand-plus employees. With more people, there is more distance from the leadership—which means you need to pound the drum harder and more often just to be heard.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“One of the most common mistakes companies make as they scale is to drift from their consistent drumbeat. This can happen when new employees join by the hundreds—or by the thousands—and they’re so far removed from the leader that they don’t really hear the beat. So while they may understand the “what,” they may not be clear on the “how.” Meaning, they may know what their job is and what the company is trying to do, but they don’t appreciate how the company goes about doing what it does. The “how” is all about culture and values of a company, which must be communicated clearly.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Lastly, you have to be able to effectively communicate both the vision and the conviction—whether through words, actions, or ideally both—to create a compelling narrative that will stick with people.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Courage of convictions is about upholding and defending that vision, even (or especially) when there is resistance.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Clarity of vision is about what you’re trying to accomplish as an organization. It’s critical that people have a clear sense of where they’re trying to go—why they’re trying to scale this particular mountain. “The more unique and compelling that vision, the more likely people will be to follow it,” Jeff says.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“While Jeff leads with compassion, that alone won’t necessarily inspire people. If you’re trying to create a cohesive culture, there are three specific beats a drum major can lay down. “Number one is to have clarity of vision,” Jeff says. “Two is the courage of one’s conviction. And three is the ability to effectively communicate those two things.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Even all these years later, don’t expect Chris to start hijacking Vampire Weekend concerts by launching into twenty-minute drum solos. That’s fine for some, but as Chris says: “I always felt if a show went by and I was not particularly noticed, that was a successful show for me. I feel like it’s almost cooler and more badass as a drummer to be ego-less about it. It’s not about showing off. It’s about serving totally the band context and the song.” So what can a business leader learn from the drummer of Vampire Weekend? A lot, it turns out. Because every leader has to create a cultural drumbeat for their company—one that can, in Chris’s words, get the whole band in sync. A great leader’s drumbeat doesn’t force people to follow them; it inspires them to want to move in the same direction.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Whether your staff is seventy thousand or only seven, a leader needs two things to create a strong unified team: an elevated mission and everyday human contact. Angela managed to squeeze a little of both into that three-minute video.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Leadership at scale—and leadership as you scale—means you’re constantly adapting and evolving. You can’t follow a single style or approach. You’re always leading through transitions. Your company is always changing around you. And this means you’re naturally going to have a very resilient kind of leadership, producing a resilient team and company.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Angela agonized over the decision. She asked herself, “Why is it when your life is perfect that somebody wants to flip it upside down?”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“The shift Even the most focused entrepreneurs who are pursuing a particular vision must constantly shift and adjust to changes in technology, the market, or the world in general. Pivoting in this way doesn’t mean giving up on the vision; in fact, they’re often more successful at pivoting because they’re guided by a vision. The switch Pivots often occur within an existing business: for example, when the company switches from one strategy to a different one. It’s important to get early feedback on changes like this—or at least communicate those changes to as many of your stakeholders as you can before you flip the switch. The swerve Some pivots are reactions to an unexpected development: a new problem or opportunity that suddenly manifests itself. It might be blocking the path forward, requiring a deft sideways maneuver to avoid a crash, or it could be something compelling that has cropped up on the side of the road. You may find it’s worth swerving to investigate and perhaps pursue this new possibility. The reboot A pivot can sometimes—not often, but sometimes—be a complete departure from the original mission of the company. A total reboot like that can work, but it rarely goes off without some bumps. The rebound: Pivoting in a crisis Crises can cause some unwelcome pivots. But they also can offer opportunities to learn, experiment, and make improvements to your current business. So, even while navigating a crisis, look toward the future and ask questions like “Within these constraints, what are the newer creative possibilities? How can we make our business more flexible, and stronger, over the long run?”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“In some ways, entrepreneurs are built to thrive in challenging times and conditions, says BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti. “I’ve noticed that times of crisis favor founder-led companies, because they’re headed by people who like improvising. They think about things through first principles and are okay adapting and changing their business.” “During times like this,” he adds, “you have to be totally open to changing everything that you’ve been doing and pursuing opportunities you didn’t know existed.” That plays to the strengths of founders. As does the fact that entrepreneurs are just used to struggling—they often relish the struggle.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Plans change. People pivot. So, you should think, “When the time comes, let me pivot intelligently and early.” That doesn’t mean you don’t have persistence with your original plan or idea. It doesn’t mean you panic and bail as soon as the going gets tough. It just means knowing that pivoting is part of the game.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“One of the keys to Tobi’s success: He turned Shopify into a platform that not only allowed merchants to easily set up online stores but also enabled app developers to build specialty stores for merchants. By opening up Shopify in this way, Tobi made a conscious decision to let developers make money off his platform, rather than trying to keep it closed so he could capture all of that app revenue himself. “What we did to get the platform off the ground is to basically leave all the economics for Shopify on the table and give it to the third-party app developers,” Tobi says. This helped him to rapidly attract more and more users to Shopify. And in retrospect, these decisions paved the way for their widespread success. But they were tough calls at the time. “It’s hard to do, because you are leaving a lot of economics that you could easily take for yourself on the table—or actually, you are investing it into your own future by giving it to other people,” Tobi explains. “And that’s very hard to do for most businesses.” The combination of a strong platform, a well-populated app store, and a community of developers helped protect Shopify against competition and built a positive feedback loop that ratcheted up innovation, attracting more users and more developers.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“This is a crossroads many entrepreneurs will recognize. Entrepreneurs always have to solve side problems along the way to realizing their original vision. And every so often, you solve a problem that’s so vexing and so prevalent that your side solution becomes more valuable than your original idea.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“The truth is, most entrepreneurs pivot many times before they find their footing. And often, even after they find their footing. And it can feel perilous. You have to steer toward a new opportunity, often before it comes into clear focus. And, equally challenging, you have to turn away from something—specifically, an idea that previously inspired hopes, dreams, and investment of time and money. Human beings don’t let go of old ideas easily. In pivoting, you risk blowback from your co-founders, your staff, your investors, and your users. For those reasons, it can be the single greatest test of your leadership skills.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Watch what they do, not what they say Watching what your customers are doing—or trying to do—with your product can light the way forward. But you have to be careful to pay attention to what they do and not just what they say. Expect to have your theories of human behavior tested Your theory about how individuals and groups behave should underlie your strategy, your product design, your incentive program—every decision you make. But be open and alert to when your customers show you a different theory or direction. That could become your product’s point of differentiation. Follow the leaders: Your customers To grow your business, you may have to give up control. Look for instances when your customers hack or hijack your product, and then go along for the ride. Get Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy working together Customer data is your Mr. Spock, detached and logical. Customer emotion is your Dr. McCoy, passionate and all too human. Think of yourself as Captain Kirk, responsible for making the two work together to get the best out of each.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“When you define your culture by attributes (humility, curiosity, collaboration…), you create a lens for determining cultural fit beyond someone “feeling” right. You allow candidates who don’t look or sound like you to identify with your culture and feel a sense of belonging; and you help your hiring managers to identify those candidates with a lens that circumvents their implicit bias. And that actively prevents a monoculture from taking hold.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“And however you arrive at your culture’s key attributes, this step—writing it down, communicating it out—is key. Why? Partly because it’s generative. An engaging, up-to-date culture deck reinforces culture for existing employees and draws the right people toward you—including those who might otherwise not have realized they’re for you. A culture deck creates a flywheel in which great culture begets more great culture. And great culture in turn creates great work.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“As Mariam and so many before her learned—everything associated with scaling up costs money. Hiring. Marketing. Product development. To grow quickly, you need a war chest—not just of cash but also expertise and support. And it’s almost impossible to know how much money you will need. But it’s safe to assume you will need a lot—especially if you’re trying to grow quickly. Which is why “Reid’s rule” for raising money is: Raise more than you think you need. (It’s right there in his last book, Blitzscaling. Rule #8, “Raise Too Much Money.”) Because if there’s one thing you can be sure of as an entrepreneur, you are guaranteed to run into unexpected problems and expenses.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“When you’re letting a fire burn, it’s important that your team realizes that, yes, you see the problem, and yes, your neglect is deliberate. If your team accepts this, it’s a good sign that you’ve hired the right people: people who can recognize and then calmly deal with problems as they arise—and who have a good sense of which fires are critical enough to require immediate attention, and which ones can be allowed to just burn for a while.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“It would be easy to look at the state of SurveyMonkey when Selina arrived and characterize it as chaotic or mismanaged. But that would show a deep misunderstanding of how companies scale. Every successful startup is in a constant state of triage, and it’s common for fast-growing companies to pile up massive vulnerabilities as they prioritize strategic growth over long-term stability.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“When you’re growing quickly, there will always be fires—inventory shortfalls, servers crashing, customers whose calls aren’t answered. You won’t always know which fire to stamp out first. And if you try to put out every fire at once, you’ll only burn yourself out. That’s why entrepreneurs have to learn to let fires burn—and sometimes even very large fires. When you have a fast-scaling company, the focus must be on moving forward. And you can’t do that if time is spent dealing with spontaneous, scattered eruptions. Fighting every fire can cause you to miss critical opportunities to build your business—you’ll be all reaction and no action.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“It turns out Evite had a built-in viral coefficient—when people send online invitations, the person receiving that invitation may turn around and send invitations to others, and so on. Unbeknownst to Selina (until she kicked the cord), Evite had been growing of its own volition.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Rapid decision-making has been key to Google’s explosive growth, for at least two reasons. The first is that it allowed them to outpace competition in the fast-changing ecosystem of online search. The second—and less understood—is that fast decisions fuel innovation. Nothing kills creativity like running into bureaucratic red tape. “Most large corporations have too many lawyers, too many decision makers, unclear owners—and things congeal.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

“Even as PayPal was zooming out of the gate, there was no point at which the company could rest easy. Escape velocity is not a fixed speed. It’s always relative to competition. Your fastest competitor determines how hard you hit the gas. And PayPal had a fierce competitor in eBay, which was itself rolling out a new online payment system.”
― Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs