I want every little girl — every child, really — out there to know this is what a venture-backed CEO negotiating for tens of million of dollars looks like.
Kristen Anderson
5,427 posts
Kristen Anderson
@FintechKristen
Exited founder. Former big tech PM. Making things people want. Opinions my own, but could become yours if you're not careful.
San Francisco, CA
Joined November 2013
- A year ago today, we were almost out of money. We had a consulting client who owed us ~$450k, but was trying to negotiate down on the amount, despite work being fully delivered in September. Then, "the holidays" hit. 1/
- Rich kids have one very important advantage in life: they see from early childhood how to find leverage and use money to free up time. It's a crazy important skill for VC-backed founders and part of why the learning curve can be so steep for non-rich people (like how I grew up).
- Replying to @FintechKristenFounders out there - the holidays can be hard. Most people aren't working. You're under tremendous stress. Keep going. You never know when you might just get caught up in a miracle. /End.
- HBS students seeking internship: I'd like to work for your company. Us: Great we need some help in acquisition and ops. Them: Yes I am quite good at strategy. Maybe I could do product work too? Us: Them: Yes, Senior Product & Strategy Lead. Sounds good. Us: Them: Hello?
- I just looked at a 950sqft 2 bedroom in Chelsea and was told with a straight face that if I signed the lease to move in today I could pay $8590/mo for the next year, but if I signed today for move in next month it would be $9050/mo. 2 bedroom. 950sqft. Wtf is going on.
- I told my father when I was 17 that I was born to be a CEO. He laughed and said, "I know." Reaching that goal less than 15 years later has been both exactly what I thought and also nothing like what I could have imagined. (A vulnerable thread on leadership.)
- So the thing about having kids that I feel like no one says because it seems obvious, but before you have them it really isn’t: You have to be home by 6pm pretty much every night. Like not most nights. Every night. Imagine a 6pm curfew for the next 10 years. That’s little kids.
- Ok I'll say it. Elizabeth Holmes ruined black turtlenecks for really pale female founders with larger than average-sized eyes. I'm not thrilled.
- When we got in to YC in January 2019, we were processing about $10,000 of income each week. Last week, we processed more than $1,000,000 of income. We've 100x our processing rate and our team has only doubled. Leverage in scalable technology blows my mind. 🤯
- Making a unicorn has been a lot of hard work, but it is so very rewarding. 🦄
- My unsolicited take one week into Bay Area life after a shitty opener: Feels like a lot of people got very rich, felt really guilty, did a lot of misguided things in the name of helping "the poor." Screwed over the middle class. Ignored antisocial behavior. We should fix this.
- Really important reminder: Your boss is not your therapist. Your manager is not your emotional stability. It's an unfair and unhealthy expectation and NOT what it means to bring your whole self to work.
- We’re shutting down. catch.co/thank-you/ We started building 6 years ago with a crazy idea that our benefits shouldn’t be tied to traditional employment and a W2 form.