Jason Yoong’s Post

Many people ask me: "How do I get time with Ethan Evans (retired Amazon VP) or how can I get my career question in front of Ethan?" Now's your chance. On July 8 (Mon), Ethan is hosting a Career Q&A. Here's how it works: First 30min, Ethan will answer pre-submitted questions we deem sharp. Then, for 30min+ Ethan will answer live Q&A (ask live or write live). Live attendance and the video recording are exclusive to Level Up Newsletter & Community paid members only. It's one of the many member-only benefits. If you are interested in joining, check it out: https://lu.ma/uz0ow70w

Sara Blakely (Spanx) asks her kids "What did you fail at this week?" because it reframes the definition of failure. It becomes not trying instead of the outcome. I LOVE this and cannot wait to make this a weekly conversation with my daughter. Here’s what Sara says in the video: "Growing up, my father used to ask my brother and me what we had failed at, at the dinner table, which was so interesting. And he'd celebrate it. And he'd actually be disappointed if I didn't have something that I'd failed at that week. So, I can remember saying: "Dad! Dad! I tried out for this and I was horrible!" And he would actually high-five me and say: "Congratulations, way to go!" And what it did was just reframe my definition of failure. Failure for me became not trying vs the outcome. So many people don't take risks for fear of failure. They don't start the business, they don't go create the art they want to create, or they don't go try out to be in the play, or whatever it is, for the fear of failure. And once you redefine that for yourself, and realize the failure is just not trying, then life opens up to you in many ways. My dad would encourage me -- anytime something didn't go the way I expected it to, or maybe I got embarrassed by a situation -- to write down where the hidden gifts were and what I got out of it. And I started realizing in everything there was some amazing nugget that I wouldn't have wanted to pass up."

Google engineering levels fun tidbit I read: To become a Google Fellow (Level 10) is to win an honor that will follow you for life. That said, there are 2 Senior Fellows (Level 11, equivalent to an SVP): Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean. Google’s engineers exist in a Great Chain of Being that begins at Level 1. At the bottom are the I.T. support staff. Level 2s are fresh out of college. Level 3s often have master’s degrees. Getting to Level 4 takes several years, or a Ph.D. Most progression stops at Level 5. Level 6 engineers (top 10%) are so capable that they could be said to be the reason a project succeeds. Level 7s are Level 6s with a long track record. Principal Engineers, the Level 8s, are associated with a major product or piece of infrastructure. Distinguished Engineers, the Level 9s, are spoken of with reverence. To become a Google Fellow, a Level 10, is to win an honor that will follow you for life. Google Fellows are usually the world’s leading experts in their fields. Jeff and Sanjay are Google Senior Fellows—the company’s first and only Level 11s.

Do's and Dont's when pitching early-stage venture investor Peter Mueller: (A) Do's 1) Warm intros move you to the top of the stack. >> Build relationships in advance (before you need them). 2) The best cold emails are 3-4 sentences: Introduce yourself. High-level idea of the company. Traction (e.g. number of people you’ve talked to, revenue, design partners, etc). Be clear on what your intent for a call is. Link your deck or even better a 1min Loom link running through your company/product/pitch. Calendar link for Peter to quickly schedule a follow-up if interested. >> To put this in perspective: Peter and team will review ~200 pitches for every 1 deal they do. (B) Dont's (3) If you see Peter at an event, do not go straight to “Hello, here’s my 90-second pitch.” Instead, introduce yourself, share what you are working on, start a back-and-forth dialogue, and then ask for a follow-up to go deep. (4) Do not email a 6-page document explaining everything about your company. (5) No cold calls. Signals a breach of respect. (6) If you have a 20min meeting, do not spend all 20min pitching (10min at most). Read all takeaways (and the video recording) for more insights on what VCs look for, signs if your pitch went well, what Peter thinks about AI, untapped niches, and the advantages of Seattle and Vancouver: https://lnkd.in/gsXpnQAD #startups #founders #ventureinvesting

James Clear (Atomic Habits) shares that if you improve 1% each day, you end up 37x better at the end of the year. The 4 stages of habit formation: noticing, wanting, doing, and liking. "One way to think about it is just kind of basic math if you just look at the numbers if you were able to improve by 1% each day for an entire year and those gains compound you would end up 37x better at the end of the year and if you were to get 1% worse you would whittle yourself almost all the way down to zero... ...what's interesting here is that everybody wants a transformation everybody wants a radical improvement rapid success but we fail to realize that small habits and little choices are transforming us every day already."

Recently, we've had 2 hiring managers post the following 2 job openings in our Slack Community and asked people to DM them directly. It's great to see more high-impact roles open up: 1) Director of Planning & Delivery at Microsoft (L66) 2) Group Product Manager at Weave (full-time, based in India) In addition, the community has been vibrant in helping each other with resume reviews and interview prep. Multiple people asked me to send forwardable emails to the hiring managers and one of the hiring managers replied: >> "Thanks for doing the extra effort to get them to share a bit about themselves - very helpful." It's great to see these types of win/win/win. #community #jobopenings #hiring