First Round
Newsletter (Digital)
We believe that there is powerful, untapped knowledge out there that can transform the way people build technology.
There's just one problem: It's trapped in other people's heads — people who are at the top of their fields, who rarely have time to share what they've learned (even when they want to). The Review is about liberating this knowledge to inspire and accelerate action. To deliver on this mission, we'll make you three promises….
We'll get out of the way and let experts speak directly to you about what they believe is most important. (That's why we choose not to use bylines.)
Every article will serve up tactics that you can use today to change your company and your career.
We will never be boring. The stories you find on here are crafted to teach, to engage and to stick.
We launched The Review in 2013 to cut through the noise so that you can make an impact. Source
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Media Outlet details
| Scope | International, Consumer |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United States of America |
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesFirsthand: Six Years at Vanta, My Reinvention is the Only Constant
The sun never came out the morning I got my dream job. I'd done my final-round Apple interview at 7 a.m. and knew it had gone well. I was just beginning to come down from the adrenaline high, so it took me a few minutes to notice the sky was still completely dark. By noon, wildfire smoke would choke out the sun and turn the Bay Area sky an otherworldly orange. I almost didn't hear my phone ring with the good news from Apple because the birds outside my window were going berserk.
Firsthand: Seven Years Inside Applied Intuition, the Quietly Dominant Physical AI Company
As part of our series highlighting what makes a company truly distinctive, our second installment of Firsthand features Applied Intuition as seen through the eyes of Malhar Patel, one of the early hires who’s been at the company through every phase. Internally, the shorthand is Applied. (Shortening to AI would have been a little cheesy.) Most people in tech, even the very plugged-in ones, don’t know much about Applied Intuition.
“AI-Powered” Isn’t a Position
A lot has changed since Arielle Jackson (First Round’s Head of Brand and Product Marketing) wrote her first Review article in 2015 on positioning your startup. For over 10 years, she’s helped hundreds of First Round founders with early positioning, brand identity, launch communications and marketing hiring — and while many of the fundamentals remain, her advice the last couple years has shifted as AI changes how companies do all of these things.
Firsthand: How I Bet On Clay (And It Bet On Me)
The morning I signed my Clay offer letter, I shut my laptop in defeat. When the last startup I worked at had shut down almost a year prior, I thought I’d go all-in on cultural journalism and filmmaking. Instead, I was joining a ten-person B2B data company to write about cold email. I told a friend not to be surprised if I left in a month. Three years later, I’m still here — and the job I feared regretting became one that I love.
Reluctantly Influential: Inside Lenny Rachitsky’s Demandingly Chill Life
Lenny Rachitsky says his goal with Lenny’s Newsletter was just to live a chill life. From where I sit — as we face each other on the leather couch in his Marin County home, jazz playing, steam rising from his mug — he got what he wanted. But I wonder if success has taken him quite far from that goal. “I have a lot of flexibility throughout the day,” he reminds me. “I can go on walks with my family and pick up my son from school. But on the other hand, I work a lot now. I always want to work.
Guideline's Path to Product-Market Fit — The Early Decisions That Powered Its Acquisition by Gusto
It’s 2014 and Kevin Busque is too busy to be verifying 401(k) contributions on every pay period. As co-founder and VP of Technology of TaskRabbit, the same-day service platform widely credited with catalyzing the gig economy along with Uber and Airbnb, he is focused on scaling the company rapidly. TaskRabbit recently launched in London, its first international market, and its headcount has grown to 70.
Serval's Path to Product-Market Fit — Win Enterprise Buyers by Treating Them Like Consumers
“What’s your biggest pain point?” no longer deserves its status as a classic customer discovery question. You might have heard a compelling answer to this question ten years ago, but ask this to any modern enterprise software buyer, and you’ll get shrugs. Jake Stauchrealized how little mileage this opener had when he started talking to IT leaders to suss out startup ideas.
Definition, Formulas & How to Reduce It
Founders often underestimate how unforgiving churn can be. Even modest attrition compounds quickly, eroding monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and forcing teams to spend heavily on acquisition just to stay flat. As Brian Rothenberg, former VP of Growth at Eventbrite, put it: “Growth isn’t just about acquisition. Retention and churn management are equally critical to avoid a leaky bucket problem.” What is Churn Rate?
Technical Debt
Debt isn’t always bad. In its early days, a startup might deliberately hardcode a feature to capture new customers because that’s its priority at the time, knowing it will later require refactoring. The danger is ignoring the balance. Just as credit card debt can spiral, unmanaged tech debt compounds — slowing releases, inflating the backlog and undermining software quality.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs vs. Metrics Not every performance metric qualifies as a KPI. Metrics are any measurement you can track, from web traffic to video views. KPIs are the vital few that tie directly to strategic objectives. KPIs: Answer critical business questions. Example: Customer churn rate to measure retention. Metrics: Provide context but may not drive decisions. Example: Average attendance to a webinar. A common pitfall is tracking what’s easy to measure instead of what matters.