Last week, I was lucky enough to jump on a call with the founder of Pulley, Yin Wu. Backed some of the best investors out there including Stripe, General Catalyst, YC, Elad Gil, just to name a few, Pulley is the ultimate tool for cap table management. In addition, Yin is a 4-peat founder, one of which led to an acquisition by Microsoft, and three of which, including Pulley, went through YC.
In our conversation, we covered many things, but one particular theme stood out to me the most: how she built a culture of ruthless prioritization.
Why go through YC thrice?
You guessed it. Having started my career in VC at a startup accelerator, I had to ask. It’s a question I’ve been wrangling with a while. Most incubators, accelerators, and fellowships are designed for the first-time entrepreneur. With that being the case, what do repeat, much less serial founders, stand to gain from going back?
Yin’s answer was simple and made complete sense, “The first time, the reason was for the community.” YC’s community is known to be one of the best, having produced founders like the Patrick and John Collison of Stripe, Brian, Joe, and Nathan of Airbnb, Kyle and Daniel of Cruise, just to name a few. Not to mention their annual Camp YC, Bookface, happy hours and more.
“The third time, I went back to YC for the distribution.” Pulley’s customers. Founders.
A world-class team, not family
In our conversation, another one of the things I had to double-click on was her tweet earlier in the month:
I’ve seen many founders define their startup culture with family. It makes complete sense. Most people out there would love to join a team where they feel comfortable being around their co-workers. Where they are part of a community. With whom they can be friends with and hang out after hours with.
The keyword here is “most”. When you’re a lean, mean fighting machine, you don’t have the luxury of hiring “most” people. You’re looking for the few. The few that uniquely believe in what your team is building. And to attract the differentiated few – the true believers – you have to define the rules. The more bifurcating they are, the more candidates will self-select themselves in or out.
So rather than a family, she’s looking for a world-class team. “Family isn’t someone who always gives you feedback. We’re building a high performance sports team. You either win the championships or you don’t. Or an orchestra. In an orchestra, you either hit the note or you don’t.”
A world-class team to help founders start companies, where you’re not worried about trying to be nice, but you can have the tough conversations that will help your teammates improve.
The side of the road test
So, how does Pulley find world-class teammates?
| Company | Test | Question |
| Stripe | Sunday Test | If this candidate were alone in the office on Sunday, would that make you more likely to come in and work with them? |
| Netflix | Keeper Test | If a person on your team were to quit tomorrow, would you try to change their mind? Or would you accept their resignation, perhaps with a little relief? |
| Consulting | Airport Test | If there was a long layover, would you want to be stuck with this person at the airport? |
Much like Stripe’s Sunday Test, Netflix’s Keeper Test, or the Airport Test in consulting, Pulley has their own version, and they take culture fit a step further. If your car broke down on the side of the road, would you trust this candidate to come when you need help?
When it comes to building a world-class team, every teammate you have needs to be an individual you can count on to have your back. More than someone you can hang out with and inspire you to come to work. Inspiration works when you’re at your best. But when you’re in “wartime” to quote Ben Horowitz, you need someone who’ll be by your side at your worst. Who’s on your speed dial when things go south?
Move fast and ruthlessly prioritize
When you’re a startup, focus may be one of your most powerful assets. Focus, by definition, means there will be tradeoffs. For Pulley, it’s not move fast and break things; it’s move fast and ruthlessly prioritize.
So, what’s Pulley’s formula to incredible growth with over 1000 companies as customers in less than a year? It’s a notion Yin calls planning poker. For those who are familiar with the concept of counting cards, it’s about attributing points to various problems and solutions that have arisen. If it’s a customer request, then that problem gets a point. “Prioritize what the customers asks for first.” Often times, coming before the team’s other tasks as well. And of course, if it’s a broken feature, that jumps straight to the #1 priority.
The greatest superpower of Pulley’s culture is that it’s a system designed towards one goal. To help founders start companies. Because of this goal, Pulley is not only 10x better than the solutions currently on the market, but also 10x faster, with customer onboarding done within the day.
The lagging indicator for success
My 6th grade teacher once told me, when I was distraught that my work had been copied by a classmate: “Be proud that someone has even bothered to copy you. That means your idea is worth copying.”
And his words don’t fall too far from the startup apple tree. The modicum for success is by the number of imitators you’ve inspired – whether it’s Rahul Vohra‘s product philosophy/Sean Ellis’ PMF metric (>40% of users “very disappointed” if they no longer had access to your product) or YC’s SAFEs or David Nussbaum’s SPACs that are all the rage today, led by world-class sponsors, like Chamath Palihapitiya.
Take, for instance, Andreessen Horowitz, or more succinctly known as a16z. They pioneered the thought that brand is crucial to a VC’s career, at a time when other VCs didn’t care much for building upon marketing and PR. They also confronted an ample amount of headwind for their agency-like model a decade ago, when VCs mostly focused on small partnerships. Last year (2019, for those reading after 2020), again, they were a part of an early movement in becoming a registered investment adviser – an RIA for short. Including Softbank, Foundry Group, General Catalyst, Touchdown Ventures, and many others to follow. And an RIA is allowed to recommend, advise, and manage their clients’ portfolios, which prime all of them to deal with the cryptocurrency and blockchain wave too.
Soon after a16z’s success, measured by the startups they’ve invested in and their respective liquidity events, many more followed on building brand and their agency-like model.
Likewise, I know for a fact, I’m going to be citing Pulley’s cultural manifesto – my words, maybe hers one day – in the years to come. And I won’t be alone.
In closing
I’m once again reminded of what Steve Jobs said years ago, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently – they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
I believe Yin is one of them. And I’m excited to see the ripple effects of what she and her team are working to accomplish at Pulley.
Yin, to supplement our conversation, also sent me David Sacks‘ Substack essay, Your Startup Is a Movement. In it, he defines 13 traits that define what he calls “Movement Marketing.” One of which, Yin underscores as she and her team of founders are building a mission, not just a company. The evidence is clear. Pulley’s customer base is growing rapidly- so much so, that Yin pushed off Pulley’s Series A announcement till 10 months after the fact. True to their name, they are pulling customers in.
As of the time of this post, the team is hiring like crazy. If you’re looking to be a member of a world-class high-growth team, now’s the time!
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
For more on culture and hiring, I’ve written more about them here and here.
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