Zack Urlocker’s Post

The biggest shock to first-time founders is experiencing the total lack of external validation for the first time. In school, and at jobs, there's always someone telling you what you need to do to get an "A," to get a good performance review, to get a promotion. And if you're doing those things, a constant stream of "good jobs" and "attaboys." When you start a company, it's just you struggling to get the attention of the market, sometimes for years. IME the biggest cause of early-stage startups failing is founders deciding they don't want to grind through this. Every once in a while, a founder calls me asking what to do about this. The answer is: The only thing you can do. Keep going: https://lnkd.in/gnRsPtU3

Most startups fail because they don’t know how to close deals. As Co-Founder and CEO of Mobly, I've built and led sales teams that have collectively closed over $50M in ARR. I'm receiving many DMs from founders seeking guidance on building sales teams, lead capture strategies, and achieving startup exits. So, I've opened up 5 exclusive 1:1 mentorship slots on Intro What can we cover together? ✔️ Going from 0 to 1 ✔️ Fundraising advice ✔️ How to make your first sales hire ✔️ Sales operations + leadership tips Honored to be on @Intro alongside world-class experts like Zack Urlocker (former COO at Zendesk), @Marc Cohen (Global multi-billion dollar international leader), Edo Perry (CEO & Co-Founder ELEMENTS, Climatech Expert) & Megan Cunningham (Personal brand-builder. Clients: Airbnb, Google, Apple, Amazon & more). Comment “interested” and secure your spot now: intro.co/ZachBarney

It's incredibly disappointing to read about how Mozilla has treated Steve Teixeira and I just want to say publicly that I, and I'm sure all the other people who have worked with him, are fully on his side on this and are hoping justice will prevail here as well as for his good health. Reading the contents of the lawsuit, they are absolutely damning. From demoting him due to illness, to disproportionately targeting minorities and women in a layoff, this is the definition of a corrosive corporate environment. I've worked on a few teams that were pretty damn bad, ones that just felt crushing to me at times, but this is at another level. Steve is the reason I came to Meta. He had just started as new Director of Meta's Developer Infra org. I was content at Tableau and hadn't been looking but Meta asked me to interview and I figured I'd go through the process for the experience, assuming I'd probably fail anyway. Somehow I managed to snag an offer, but was about to turn it down when I asked to speak to the hiring manager. I ended up speaking with Steve in my car in the parking lot of Gold's Gym (I like working out!) and I was so impressed by his candor and just general vibe, I decided to take the offer the next day. He was an amazing leader and just an all around great guy. Keep up the good fight Steve. We're all on your side.