Michael Miao

Recently, @ajayvashee and I hosted our Annual State of the Market dinner with several @IVP portfolio company CFOs and friends of the firm. Here are the key insights from our discussion, paired with snapshots of the slides. 📊🧵 (1/15)

When is it too early to hire a finance leader & when is it too late? Hosts and KP’s very own @LM_Braswell and @josh_coyne put the question to two experienced finance operators in the first episode of Builders, our new series. Adam Swiecicki, Chief Financial Officer at @Rippling, prioritizes strategic finance, favoring “the banking, private equity background” and “somebody who’s seen another startup before.” @themichaelmiao, VP of Finance and Business Operations at @glean, agrees and outlines what matters most. First, there must be “an understanding of the economics of the business.” Second, the person must be “very comfortable in spreadsheets” and “comfortable with just like a mess.” Both point to the same early profile. A generalist. Comfortable with ambiguity.

@kwharrison13 @LM_Braswell @glean @Rippling Sales Capacity Hot Ones Challenge

@LM_Braswell @themichaelmiao @glean @Rippling Missed opportunity to make @themichaelmiao talk about modeling growth off rep attainment numbers while eating the spiciest wings in existence. That's the genre crossover we need.

If you’re building (or hiring) a finance or BizOps function, this is for you! Adam Swiecicki and @themichaelmiao get practical on how they hire, what they measure, and how they run the finance teams at @glean and @rippling Builders Ep 1: youtube.com/watch?v=Sn422o…

@MMCandyCheng @PaulYacoubian @kleinerperkins @josh_coyne @LM_Braswell You guys caught me in my element! Of course I get filmed pouring a beer in the preview reel 🤣

@PaulYacoubian @kleinerperkins @josh_coyne @LM_Braswell Pliny the Elder, not just any beer. @themichaelmiao has great taste.

Introducing Builders, a new video series from Kleiner Perkins, hosted by @josh_coyne and @LM_Braswell. Filmed around our kitchen table in San Francisco, each episode is a focused conversation with founders and operators building category-defining companies. The first two episodes coming up feature Adam Swiecicki (@Rippling), Michael Miao (@Glean), Aatish Nayak (@harvey) and Sachi Shah (@SierraPlatform). Check out our show trailer ⬇️Full episodes dropping later this month.

Altimeter is a happy investor in both @OpenAI and @glean. I also have an angel check in @perplexity_ai. We also own $meta, $goog, $msft, $amzn who are competing. We also own $tsla & @SpaceX & huge believers in @elonmusk. Grt founders & companies win or lose on the field. 🫡

Some fun news to share. Excited to finally announce this! glean.com/blog/glean-ser…

👇🏼this. One of the biggest use cases for @glean customers :).

Systems of record are a powerful thing. I'm willing to bet that no startups with 50+ employees actually churned off Carta despite the Twitter backlash.

@matt_slotnick @shensi @GilFeig @merge_api Can’t unsee

@shensi @GilFeig @merge_api i thought the top spelled avocado for a second

New office decorations ❤️

Thanks for reading! If you liked the content, please share it. I'll post a link to the PDF of the presentation in my Substack below later today. If you have any questions, please reach out! (15/15) michaelmiao.substack.com

The first priority is runway, followed by maintaining durable growth in the core business. The best companies are always investing in a needle moving Act II. Profitability comes later. Do all that & you give your company a shot at becoming an enduring market leader. (14/15)

Recently, @ajayvashee and I hosted our Annual State of the Market dinner with several @IVP portfolio company CFOs and friends of the firm. Here are the key insights from our discussion, paired with snapshots of the slides. 📊🧵 (1/15)