/James Hawkins

How We Found Our Ideal Customer Profile tl;dr: "Creating an Ideal Customer Profile is one of the most important things we've ever done." James shows how this is reflected in the companies revenue. It enabled the company to make important decisions - they were better placed to describe what the company does, what the site looks and feels like, pricing model, and more. James also describes how the company approached creating this profile.

featured in #385


How To Run A Transparent Startup tl;dr: James covers topics around how to: (1) Avoid context overload. (2) Share financial performance. (3) Build product openly. (4) Share strategy. (5) Be open around people topics, such as pay structure, hiring and firing decisions. And more. 

featured in #364


The Really Important Job Interview Questions Engineers Should Ask (But Don't) tl;dr: "It's normal for candidates not to ask harder questions about our company, so they usually miss out on a chance to (1) de-risk our company's performance and (2) increase the chances they'll like working here." James gives several examples of interview questions candidates can ask about product-market fit, financial runway and more.

featured in #339


Reflecting On YC, 2 Years On tl;dr: "YC is seen as the world's best, and most prolific, three-month accelerator program. Upwards of 7,000 founders have taken part. Yet, no one really talks about what happens afterwards." James discusses the network, database of investor reviews, office hours, fundraising, and more. 

featured in #332


Counterintuitive Lessons Learned About Devtool Pricing tl;dr: Changing your pricing has a real chance to grow twice as fast with just a few hours of work. "Here is a breakdown of the counterintuitive lesson I've learned as a cofounder." 

featured in #311


I Used To Think You Don't Need Product People. I Was Wrong tl;dr: James' company grew rapidly by assembling a small product team and following 6 steps, including: (1) Hiring product managers who can code, and who were "scrappy, anti-plan type folk." (2) Focus on optimizing leading indicator metrics as high up the funnel as possible, for a faster feedback loop. (3) Structuring the company for autonomy. And more. 

featured in #309