The document contains advice from early employees of Zapier on lessons learned from working at a startup. It includes tips such as creating scrappy solutions, embracing change, focusing on hiring and culture from the start, prioritizing customer understanding, having fun to build team cohesion, establishing clear values and plans, accepting that mistakes will happen, measuring outcomes not just effort, avoiding unclear code ownership, focusing on current problems before future challenges, helping all employees understand their impact, preparing for constant change, learning to delegate as the company grows, avoiding "playing business" until necessary, continuing innovation, and hiring experienced people who remain scrappy.

1. Jane Smith
Title
Company
@Twitter

2. @wadefoster
Lessons from Zapier's early employees

3. Create scrappy solutions that
get you 80% there. They'll last
longer than you think.
Zé #21
@wadefoster

4. Jordan #20
Don’t brace for change.
Instead, learn to love
reinvention.
@wadefoster

5. Vicky #19
When you’re in the high
growth stage, solutions to org
problems have around a six
month shelf life.
@wadefoster

6. Adam #18
Invest in a strong hiring and
onboarding process from
day one.
@wadefoster

7. Paolo #17
People are more passionate
about the work if they have a
good understanding of the
product and customers.
@wadefoster

8. Stephanie #16
Startups are hard enough. Be
someone you would want to
work with.
@wadefoster

9. Ben #15
People come first.
@wadefoster

10. Steve #14
Keep the values, change the
mechanics.
@wadefoster

11. Linds #13
Have fun! It builds
camaraderie and makes
people want to stick around.
@wadefoster

12. Joe #12
Don't hire for the sake of
hiring. Ensure you have a clear
six-month plan for all new
hires.
@wadefoster

13. Andrew #11
Core values will stick with
you as you grow. Take the
time to be mindful about
those values, hire for those
values, and live those values.
@wadefoster

14. Rob #10
Even when you have positive
intentions, you’re going to
make mistakes.
@wadefoster

15. Statwonk #9
Measure outcomes, not effort.
@wadefoster

16. Justin #8
Beware of teams sharing code
without clear ownership.
@wadefoster

17. Jesse #7
It’s easy to get ahead of
yourself. Focus on solving
current problems, before
thinking about solutions for
future challenges.
@wadefoster

18. Danny #6
There’s no such thing as a small
role. Help employees
understand their impact
regardless of if they’re a
manager or individual
contributor.
@wadefoster

19. Cooksey #5
Equip employees to prepare
for a constant state of
change. It’s inevitable that
org structures will shift and
processes will break down.
@wadefoster

20. James #4
As you grow, it becomes
important to move away from
a mindset of “I can do it all!”
and instead become
accustomed to delegating.
@wadefoster

21. Micah #3
Don't 'play business', until you
have to.
@wadefoster

22. Mike #2
Don't forget to invest in
innovation or you’ll risk
getting left behind.
@wadefoster

23. Bryan #1
Hire senior people sooner.
People that have been there
and done that, but are still
scrappy.
@wadefoster

24. Wade #0
Break the rules. Best
practices get you the same
outcomes as everyone else.
@wadefoster

25. In conclusion
• Put people first
• Values matter
• Change is constant
• Be scrappy
• Focus on the fundamentals
@wadefoster