“I'm a big believer that a startup, at the end of the day, is a series of experiments to unlock some type of learning or user psychology.” – Vivek Sodera
Vivek Sodera (@vsodera) is Co-Founder of Superhuman, a platform striving to be the fastest email experience in the world. He is also an investor, with a portfolio of companies including Framework, UtilizeCore, Rewatch, Bunches, and Playbook. He previously co-founded Airseed and LiveRamp, though he started his career in nuclear engineering.
To listen to Vivek’s bonus interview and learn more about the his habits and routines, click here.
For more, explore the transcript of this episode.
Chapters in Part 1 of this interview:
- Vivek’s background and road to entrepreneurship
- On early failure and learnings as a CEO
- Vivek’s connection with Rahul Vohra and Superhuman
- The many roles of the non-CEO co-founder
- The difficulty of the startup environment
- Advice for entrepreneurs
- Empathy and the CEO role
- Building an amazing team
- Failure is life’s greatest teacher
Links from Part 1
- Connect with Vivek Sodera: Twitter | LinkedIn | Superhuman
- Superhuman Raises $75 Million for Its Waitlist-Only Email Productivity App – Forbes
- UC Berkeley
- Auren Hoffman
- Rahul Vohra
- Rapportive
- Elon Musk
- Conrad Irwin
- Twitter thread on the non-CEO co-founder
- Galvanize
- Kristen Hayward
- Zenefits
- Flexport
- Airtable
- Zapier
- ADHD
- NLP coach
- Ruby
- Javascript
- IVP
- Y Combinator Demo Day
- Uber
- Reality distortion field
- Salesforce
- Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson
- The Matrix
Learn More About This Topic
The Founder’s Dilemma – HBR
An oldie but goodie, this article gives a great overview of how startup CEOs must choose between wealth and power, and how their level of control must vary based on their investors and structure.
How to Find a Technical Co-founder – Y Combinator
Vivek emphasizes the importance of having a technical background when founding a tech startup; Y Combinator has put together a few tips for finding a partner if you don’t have that background yourself.
Founder, Not A CEO - Some People Need To Start Companies, Not Run Them – Forbes
A great feature on reasons founders may choose not to be CEOs, and how that can be a good thing.
The benefits of failure – TED Talks
Vivek discusses how helpful it can be to work through failures and learn from them. This series of TED Talks features talks from Elizabeth Gilbert and more on embracing and learning from failure.
75 Impactful Company Core Values Examples – Builtin
Builtin has compiled a list of 75 companies and their core values here; from Hyatt to Facebook, there are plenty of examples to review when creating your own company’s values.
