Essays on building startups, hiring and teams.https://philipjoubert.com/https://philipjoubert.com/software-explosion/https://philipjoubert.com/software-explosion/The first holy shit moment for AI coding was the launch of Github Copilot in October 2021. For the first time, developers had an AI partner that actually understood context and provided boilerplate code for common patterns.  The second holy shit moment came a year later, in November 2022, withTue, 08 Oct 2024 11:09:07 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/startups-that-dream-bigger/https://philipjoubert.com/startups-that-dream-bigger/Conventional startup wisdom tells us to focus, focus, focus. Success, we’re told, comes to those who find a narrow niche, dominate it and then expand from there. Parker Conrad believes this is all wrong. Maybe it was good advice 10 years ago but now everyone is doing it andMon, 16 Oct 2023 07:13:07 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/lessons-for-elons-biography/https://philipjoubert.com/lessons-for-elons-biography/I finished reading Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography this past week. It’s awesome! Definitely one of my favorite biographies and a book I’ll return to many times. The dude obviously understands something about building transformative companies, and it's awe-inducing to see how he operates. He'Wed, 20 Sep 2023 06:31:49 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/career-advice-for-the-mediocre/https://philipjoubert.com/career-advice-for-the-mediocre/I humbly present the best advice I can offer to forge a lukewarm career in tech: 1. Stay comfortable. Avoid colleagues who are smarter and more ambitious than you - they’ll only make you feel bad about yourself and you’ll struggle to stand out. Also, never work for aSat, 16 Sep 2023 10:52:04 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/i-have-the-same-phone-as-elon-musk/https://philipjoubert.com/i-have-the-same-phone-as-elon-musk/You could argue that having an iPhone isn’t actually something to write a blog post about. After all, there are over a billion people who can say the same. But that just makes it even more incredible. The richest person in the world has the same phone, uses theSun, 10 Sep 2023 17:43:36 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/why-are-you-paid/https://philipjoubert.com/why-are-you-paid/In this post, I explain the core factors that determine salaries. I’m going to start off by making a bold statement: your salary is largely disconnected from how valuable your job is to your employer or society. This may sound crazy the first time they hear it, but justThu, 30 Mar 2023 06:19:01 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/the-cheat-sheet-for-building-startups-in-south-africa/https://philipjoubert.com/the-cheat-sheet-for-building-startups-in-south-africa/Many South African founders have been heavily influenced by startup advice from Silicon Valley. The advice you get from places like YC Startup School is incredibly valuable, but it’s also mostly written for American founders. Having worked on various startups in South Africa for the last 14 years, ISat, 25 Mar 2023 06:15:49 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/dont-chase-stupid-dreams/https://philipjoubert.com/dont-chase-stupid-dreams/“I want to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.” - LinkedIn user I saw this in a post on my LinkedIn timeline a while back, and it’s been on my mind since. What struck me was not the post itself - that was just a run-of-the-millFri, 24 Mar 2023 12:01:43 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/just-do-the-basics/https://philipjoubert.com/just-do-the-basics/"When your mind is telling you that you're done, you're really only 40 percent done.” - David Goggins That quote from Goggins is about pushing yourself beyond your physical limits. It applies equally to the execution of “the basics” in startups. Almost everyone declares victory far too early inFri, 24 Mar 2023 11:45:41 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/peter-principle-how-star-employees-become-mediocre-managers/https://philipjoubert.com/peter-principle-how-star-employees-become-mediocre-managers/If you take 30 seconds to scroll through your LinkedIn, you’re bound to see several people announcing their latest promotion. And why not? Celebrating achievement is awesome! At the same time, some of these people have just been promoted into a job they will fail at. Let me explain…Wed, 22 Mar 2023 11:24:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/habits-for-high-velocity-product-development/https://philipjoubert.com/habits-for-high-velocity-product-development/Could your product team double their velocity with the right structure and culture? A few months ago, our CTO and I set out to make this transformation in our product team. The project is still ongoing, but the needle is moving 💪 We took a clean-slate approach and reconsidered everything:Fri, 10 Mar 2023 11:22:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/fake-startup-advisors/https://philipjoubert.com/fake-startup-advisors/ChatGPT-3 speaks with absolute conviction despite having no idea what it’s saying. Many people criticize the current state of AI because of this, but the same can be said for many startup advisors. In emerging startup ecosystems, you often find people who get a tiny bit of experienceFri, 10 Mar 2023 11:13:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/how-much-should-founders-pay-themselves/https://philipjoubert.com/how-much-should-founders-pay-themselves/Rolling up to your loss-making company in a Lambo is a jerk move. Nobody wants to work hard for someone who they feel isn’t in the trenches with them. I’ve spoken to a lot of founders who say things like “as CEO I should be earning theWed, 08 Mar 2023 10:54:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/the-beer-api-org-design-for-dummies/https://philipjoubert.com/the-beer-api-org-design-for-dummies/Org design is the hidden black art that affects every interaction in your company. It's also incredibly hard to learn because the impact of decisions on structures and roles play out over months. That’s not to mention the fact that these decisions are usually made by a smallFri, 03 Mar 2023 10:51:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/what-airport-security-can-teach-us-about-managing-risk/https://philipjoubert.com/what-airport-security-can-teach-us-about-managing-risk/We recently discovered a critical bug in our product. It was in production for about two weeks and almost certainly cost us a lot of money 💰 In the immediate aftermath of a situation like this, there’s a strong urge to prevent it from happening again. Ideas to add safeguardsWed, 01 Mar 2023 10:31:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/impact-of-ai-on-software-engineering-jobs/https://philipjoubert.com/impact-of-ai-on-software-engineering-jobs/“AI will reduce the demand for software engineers.” That’s what another founder told me over breakfast this weekend. He’s dead wrong. And in this post, I’ll explain why AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot will actually *increase* the demand for developers. Let’s start off whereMon, 20 Feb 2023 10:26:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/winning-the-marshmallow-test/https://philipjoubert.com/winning-the-marshmallow-test/Does winning the Marshmallow Test make you unhappy? The Marshmallow Test is a psychological study on delayed gratification. Researchers put one marshmallow in front of a preschool kid with the promise that if they wait 15min (without nibbling), they’ll get two marshmallows. The researchers tracked these kids into adultWed, 15 Feb 2023 10:21:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/retaining-junior-employees/https://philipjoubert.com/retaining-junior-employees/Junior developers require a big upfront investment to level them up but often end up leaving as soon as they start making real contributions to the company The approach I use was originally created by Reid Hoffman. His insight was to break an employee's tenure into distinct, mission-drivenTue, 31 Jan 2023 10:11:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/why-nobody-wants-to-hire-junior-developers/https://philipjoubert.com/why-nobody-wants-to-hire-junior-developers/Startups don’t want to hire junior developers. And I get it. Bringing a junior developer on board is a huge commitment - far larger than the salary bill would suggest. Often the value of their work is less than the ongoing cost to level them up, at least initially. SoMon, 30 Jan 2023 10:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/strong-cultures-offend-people/https://philipjoubert.com/strong-cultures-offend-people/Elon Musk said that Twitter 2.0 will have a hardcore culture that includes “working long hours at high intensity and only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” A lot of people were upset by this. How could Elon exploit workers and create such a hostile work environment? WhatTue, 17 Jan 2023 09:34:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/gender-pay-gap/https://philipjoubert.com/gender-pay-gap/On average female developers in SA earn 17% less than male developers. Are companies deliberately discriminating against women or is something else going on?Wed, 23 Feb 2022 13:07:33 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/impact-of-remote-on-south-african-tech-talent/https://philipjoubert.com/impact-of-remote-on-south-african-tech-talent/Narrative violation: The number of SA devs looking to move abroad is actually decreasing. It’s down 14% in the last three years and I wouldn’t be surprised if it drops further. Here’s my theory about how remote work is reversing the brain drain... The world was aWed, 16 Feb 2022 10:36:35 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/positioning/https://philipjoubert.com/positioning/I've been thinking a lot about positioning for the last few weeks. Not the kind of positioning you might associate with the Kama Sutra, but rather positioning in the sense of where a product stands in relation to others offering similar products. In particular, I've been thinking aboutMon, 07 Feb 2022 10:36:50 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/why-i-invested-in-agrigistics/https://philipjoubert.com/why-i-invested-in-agrigistics/Last year I decided to start making a few angel investments. It’s a fantastic way to meet new founders, learn about industries and share in the excitement of an early-stage startup. One of the first companies I invested in is Agrigistics [https://agrigistics.co.za/]. They're buildingSun, 30 Jan 2022 17:32:09 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/mental-models-for-surviving-high-growth-startups/https://philipjoubert.com/mental-models-for-surviving-high-growth-startups/> “Do you know the best thing about startups? You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” - Marc Andreessen If building a startup was easy, everyone would be doing it. At the same time, it doesn’t have to feelMon, 24 Jan 2022 07:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/22-immutable-laws-of-marketing/https://philipjoubert.com/22-immutable-laws-of-marketing/What do you think when you see Volvo? Safety, right? 🚗 Back in the 60's two marketers realised that people subconsciously categorise and rank brands. From this insight, they created product positioning [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positioning_(marketing)]- one of the core pillars of modern marketing. Al Ries andSun, 23 Jan 2022 20:38:37 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/how-i-discover-and-read-books/https://philipjoubert.com/how-i-discover-and-read-books/Books are f--king awesome! They let you spend time with the greatest thinkers in the world - even the dead ones! All for the cost of $10. Of all the ways to learn new stuff, books are my favourite. With that introduction it should be no surprise that I readSun, 16 Jan 2022 21:29:18 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/how-offerzen-does-annual-planning/https://philipjoubert.com/how-offerzen-does-annual-planning/Strategy and planning seems to be a bit of a black art for startups. I thought I'd share OfferZen [https://www.offerzen.com/]'s planning process in the hope that there are a few useful nuggets here. I don’t think we’re a bastion of good planning yet,Mon, 10 Jan 2022 07:32:13 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/what-maths-exams-can-teach-you-about-management/https://philipjoubert.com/what-maths-exams-can-teach-you-about-management/In my 3rd year of university I signed up to be a maths tutor for first-years. Most of the students studied hard and understand the theory well enough, but somehow still did poorly on the exams. This puzzled me and initially I wasn’t sure if I’d actuallySun, 26 Dec 2021 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/how-to-hire-a-players-for-your-startup/https://philipjoubert.com/how-to-hire-a-players-for-your-startup/Hiring is the most important lever you have as a founder. Early hires especially have a massive influence in that regard and they set a trajectory for the company’s culture that is hard to change later. As a founder, you need to develop the skillset to recruit top talentWed, 21 Jul 2021 19:44:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/before-meetings/https://philipjoubert.com/before-meetings/When preparing for a meeting I consider three things: 1. What’s at stake? Key concept that captures the heart of the meeting. Stake is something that can be referred to when asking why the team is having the meeting at all. 2. What outcome do I want? The resultsWed, 14 Aug 2019 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/ndas-are-mostly-dumb/https://philipjoubert.com/ndas-are-mostly-dumb/You've got a startup idea you've been thinking about for a while and it just smells like a winner - this could be the next Airbnb or Stripe. Awesome! Leaving your job to start a company sounds really scary, so before you really start working on the idea youSun, 14 Jul 2019 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/how-to-do-boring-work-fast/https://philipjoubert.com/how-to-do-boring-work-fast/Grinding is doing simple (and sometimes hard) things repeatedly to get to a worthwhile goal. It’s generally totally undervalued by smart people, as a strategy for winning. The people you compete with are often smarter than you, but you can win by grinding harder. As one example of grindMon, 24 Jun 2019 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/using-metrics-to-focus-your-team/https://philipjoubert.com/using-metrics-to-focus-your-team/Like a skyscraper, you need a solid foundation before you can start building upwards. If you’ve ever watched a full timelapse of a skyscraper being built you’ll see they spend months laying the foundations and it appears like the builders make almost no progress. Then suddenly the buildingFri, 14 Jun 2019 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/the-best-books-for-startup-founders/https://philipjoubert.com/the-best-books-for-startup-founders/Startups * The Lean Startup [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean-startup] * Zero to One [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050143-zero-to-one] * Scaling Up [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22212880-scaling-up] * The Four Steps to the Epiphany [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/Fri, 24 May 2019 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/how-to-find-advisors-for-your-startup/https://philipjoubert.com/how-to-find-advisors-for-your-startup/Everyone wants mentors and advisors, but few of us actually manage to get them. This article is about my approach to finding advisors. My biggest success with finding advisors came once I shifted from looking for an all-round mentor, and instead zeroed in on people who could help meMon, 11 Mar 2019 22:00:00 GMThttps://philipjoubert.com/book-summary-good-strategy-bad-strategy/https://philipjoubert.com/book-summary-good-strategy-bad-strategy/A strategy contains 3 building blocks: 1. Diagnosis - Identify critical instances to forward progress 2. Guiding Policy 3. Coherent set of actions Use your relative advantages to impose out-of-proportion costs on the opposition and complicate their platform of competing with you. Bad Strategy Bad strategy is not simplyWed, 20 Jun 2018 19:23:00 GMT