Kyle Connors

1/ Nearly 2 years ago, I took one of the biggest risks of my life - I quit my job with 2 kids at home (now 3) and started a company with my brother. Let's dive into the journey ⬇️

@googlechrome is there anyway to get in touch with anyone on the webstore team? You suspended our chrome extension (after we had previously done the verification you asked) and now we're stuck waiting...

@james406 I once worked with a project manager who thought dragging the Jira tickets between “dev” and “released” stages (either direction) had literal meaning for the corresponding code We had a couple of surprised customers as a result

the elites don't want you to know this, but you can just move all the cards in jira over to "done" yup, even if you haven't started working on them nothing can stop you

@asmartbear Finally the real secrets are revealed

Don't work too hard building a startup. Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg all had hobbies and weren't tethered to their computers. Levels doesn’t spend 11 hours/day coding and tweeting. Just relax and let the succeed come to you.

@bzises @jasonlk @candidatefyi Just bumped a prior thread to you @jasonlk!

@jasonlk @elykdotme @candidatefyi

I’d like to make one more venture investment before the holidays When does it get “harder”? For me it’s after Dec 18. Lots of travel, etc. after that. Harder, but not impossible. There are seasons in VC, but don’t overanalyze it. Just use common sense.

Just received a $100k Stripe payment from one of our customers Last year, we were happy to get a $5k deal - now we're hitting milestones we only dreamed about Next up, 7 figures!

@asmartbear And sometimes customers even pay multiple years upfront!

Charging annually is a form of financing. The best kind — from customers (not 3rd parties who don’t care), from people invested in your success, demanding that you perform. It is expensive though; “two months free” is like a loan at 17% interest.

Throwback to me and @Chris_G_Connors trying to start a business 20 years ago with a TI-83 and some natty lights 20 years later and we're rolling with candidate.fyi

I have 3 - 6, 3, and 1. I was commuting when the 6yo was a baby/young. I wouldn’t see her in the morning and my wife would try to keep her up so I could say goodnight before she went to sleep. I absolutely hated this and wanted to find a way to never commute again Once the pandemic hit, I began remote work and have been ever since. I have been able to see them in the morning and help put them to sleep I’d say I’m normally an “office person” but wouldn’t trade this time for anything

One of the best things about remote work is getting to see my 2yo son throughout the day and play with him as soon as I’m done. Working at the office or commuting would take some of that away. There’s always more work, but they’re only this young once.

@srcasm Why did you pass at the time?

Every VC has their "one that got away" story. I had a shot at investing in 30 Madison in the early days. Not just a small piece - I could have owned 20% of what's now a profitable $300M+ revenue company worth over a billion dollars. The price tag at the time was just a couple million bucks. And I missed it. Here's what I've learned since then: When you have conviction, you've got to back it. I was still junior in my venture career. Another investor talked me out of it. Those moments of clarity when you see something others don't is what this business is built on. What's fascinating about venture capital is how often breakthrough innovations can look deceptively simple at first glance. Just a few weeks ago, I sat in on a pitch about beer technology that many might have dismissed as incremental. But when you dug deeper, you could see how it could fundamentally transform an entire industry's economics. A 30% reduction in production costs across the board is the kind of leverage that reshapes markets. Here's the truth about VC: • You'll miss more than you hit • Misses will haunt more than wins lift • But you have to keep swinging for the fences Because that one breakthrough investment - the one that everyone else missed - can return your entire fund.

We're interviewing for our first support hire now I tell each candidate this is a very key position for us (one that I do now) and it's not about just answering questions It's about making our customers succeed If they see the same "question" being asked multiple times - the solution isn't necessary answering it It could be working with eng/product to build the product in a better way, so the question doesn't have to be answered

The purpose of tech support isn't just to answer questions. It's to make your customers fantastic at their jobs, using your product. That’s how “support” can become part of the value proposition. longform.asmartbear.com/tech-support-i…

@jasonlk It feels almost like a partnership - our customers love our hustle/support we provide them Seeing their requests & ideas turn into reality in days leaves them in shock most of the time

One thing I love: being someone's biggest client or customer - if they truly care You just get better support, ideas, and more of their best Remember this when you close your next biggest customer, too They know you're small. And they expect incredible hustle and support back

Need to read between the lines with most of it When it comes to enhancement requests, I often find it valuable to watch/learn from usage When it comes to directional things, it can be a distraction if not part of your core vision. But there's often stuff that can help you pick up on early trends on where the market is going

Customer feedback can sometimes lead you astray. ⚠️ Not all feedback is created equal. Focus on the insights that align with your vision and strategy, and be wary of trying to please everyone.

@MartinGTobias Feels like they’re just following the healthcare financial incentives (misalignment) standard

It is pretty sucky when service providers have incentives that are opposed to their customers. I see this all the time. Today's example: HSA providers. I have a self managed HSA. It is easy to make contributions and the service provider makes is VERY Hard to pay bills (make withdraws). Why? Their primary revenue source is float on capital under management, so they want your money to stay with them as long as possible. So easy to give them money, hard to get it out. Their incentive drives their behavior. And their behavior is adverse to their client's interest (me spending the money). Ugh.

@JesseTinsley I just reviewed about 1k applications we got for a cs role - I don’t think I looked at education once Really just cared about the experience

Let’s face it: Job postings requiring degrees.. Are bullshit. As employers, it’s in our interest to value skills and real world expertise. We’re not in business to admire pedigree. We're in business to delights customers and deliver results. None of which is correlated to a degree. Hire the people who’ve proven they can adapt, learn, and deliver results regardless of whether they have a degree or not.

This is tough. I can somewhat relate, but not nearly at the same level - I was at a family wedding when an investor decided to start doing DD just as everything was getting started Instead of enjoying time with family, I was mentally consumed with gathering all of the data needed/answering emails Ended up being a complete waste of time - some partner wanted to go in a different direction (even after all DD was positive) Not sure what the right answer is on how to handle these situations

Despite the newfound success with my startup, my personal life has been challenging Earlier this year, when I went to visit New York, I was really excited to spend time with my friend But when I arrived, I immediately got an acquisition offer, and I spent the whole month locked in my room preparing data and going through DD I didn’t even get to share one meal with my friend, and unfortunately she passed away shortly after I left New York I have enough money now to afford a table for two anywhere in the world, but it’s impossible to fill the other seat This past year I completed our largest acquisition yet, and it was quite stressful dealing with the lawyers, bankers, and accountants Speaking and thinking became so cumbersome that when I met with my girlfriend I’d regularly reply with grunts or nods She would chastise me and say that I was never present because I was so hell-bent on finishing this acquisition Well, I was able to get the deal done, but she broke up with me because she ran out of patience I told her that I could change, but she said it’s too late and that her heart had left me 🥲 It was hard to hear this from the person I planned to marry I fear that I’ve unintentionally made some Faustian Bargain What else would explain my cancer diagnosis right after hitting $1M ARR? Each new level of startup success came with it a new trauma Sorry to write a super personal post, I promise I will get back to the regularly scheduled positive + actionable startup advice soon But the fact of the matter is I have literally sacrificed everything for my startup There are other founders who seem to have a healthy social life while also running a startup, but I haven’t been able to figure out that balance I write this post because it’s clear to me now that if I don’t figure out this balance I may end up with a pretty lonely + sad life I’ve started going to therapy and trying to find things that make me happy outside of lowering churn and increasing user counts It’s led me to rekindle my love for creative writing and I take a lot more walks now Tbh I still miss my girlfriend and I still put a high number of hours into my work But each day I find new things outside of my startup that make me happy, and that’s been very encouraging I’ve got a lot to figure out, but for now, I’m cautiously optimistic about this more balanced life!

One real way AI has been a game changer for us - customer data migration It doesn’t matter what shape the data is in now We just tell AI the schema of the destination and it’ll provide the necessary transformation logic Days/hours to literal minutes

@jasonlk Taking on investors is one of the driving forces that keeps me going I feel indebted to them to prove they made the right decision Couldn’t imagine just walking away

A big generational change: When I raised venture capital, I viewed it as a do-or-die commitment to making them money, building something great or going down trying Fast forward to today, founders are happy to just quit having raised $2m, $20, $200m, $2000m in venture capital Is that better or worse? I don’t know But I think the ability to quit is akin to giving yourself an out. To not truly burning the bridges. I do believe burning the bridges at some point, at least after you have some customers, is the only way to go big

@levelsio Last I tried, it felt like too much work to even try and use the api vs openai easy to get going

Google AI absolutely getting murdered in this poll which is shocking, would have thought they'd caught up by now but no?

@joe_r0 @bzises @denk_tweets @beehiiv @Chris_G_Connors We don’t help you find/place talent. We improve the operational side of interviewing once candidates are in your funnel (interview scheduling, candidate exp)

@bzises @denk_tweets @beehiiv @elykdotme @Chris_G_Connors How/why is it better than oceans? Just had a call w/ oceans and growth assistant. Both solid.

today @beehiiv is made up of over 75 employees spanning nearly a dozen different countries I don’t think we’d be experiencing a fraction of the success if it weren’t for being a remote company here’s why 👇