Lessons from Andy Rachleff

• When hiring, look for drive over skillset. Skills can be taught or trained, but mindset and passion cannot.

• Value intellectual curiosity over every other trait. The moment that you stop loving to learn is the moment that you plateau. The best entrepreneurs and investors are constantly looking for answers to their own questions.

• In order to recruit the best candidates, you need to create fear that if they say “no”, they are going to lose the chance the chance to join. This is a part of good storytelling that isn’t talked about enough. If you want to influence people, you have to make them scared of the idea of missing out.

• A board member who tries to tell management what to do is a pain; a board member asking questions to ensure management is intellectually honest is a valuable. Nobody likes being told what to do. People like arriving at the answer themselves. Good board members let founders arrive at that answer without interference. 

• The only way to make money is to be right and non-consensus. This seems to be forgotten today where everybody wants to be politically correct and not say the wrong thing. Money doesn’t care about any of that, and it rewards those that don’t follow the herd.

• You want products that are bought, not sold. All software companies today aim to be a product-led growth company. You want the market pull to outweigh the company push for product adoption.