The Tuesday Roundup

For today’s Tuesday Roundup, I’m going to briefly expand on my “Building a Learning Town Square” newsletter from last Thursday by sharing a few books I always recommend to new hires at our portfolio companies as well as aspiring founders and HVL’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence.

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Measure What Matters by John Doerr

This one is a classic that teaches you how to create OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) which can really set your company up for success. Not only does it give examples of how successful your company can be, but it also helps you understand when to pull the plug. We give this book to all new HVL hires and the framework has allowed us to fail fast and grow quickly.

Note: I’ll dive into more detail on goal setting in this Thursday’s newsletter.

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

When getting your startup off the ground, it’s crucial that you have a tight-knit team. I’m a fan of all Lencioni’s books but this one has helped me over the years with building cohesive, efficient teams. This certainly isn’t a “quick fix” when you’re having issues with your own team but it is a great guide with good tactics to continually work on.

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3HAG Way by Shannon Byrne Susko

Your 3HAG is your 3-year Highly Achievable Goal. This is sometimes hard to set if you’re in the very early days of your startup but as soon as you have enough data to set a 3HAG, it can then point you and your team towards one common goal. It helps with alignment, transparency, and autonomy amongst team members.

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One quick note to end on — if you’re local to Birmingham, Alabama, I’ll be speaking at Red Mountain Theatre on October 3rd at 12pm. The topic is “Reimagining Startup Success Outside of Silicon Valley” and it’s free to the public. RSVP here if you’d like to attend!