Episode 385 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Julia Austin – Board Member, Executive Coach, HBS Senior Lecturer, Operator, Angel Investor, and now – Author.
Another repeat original guest! Julia was a guest for Episode 30 of The VentureFizz Podcast back in 2018 where we do a deep dive into her background plus cover lots of interesting topics like what it takes to become a great Product Manager and others.
In this interview, we catch up to discuss her new role as an author and the details about her new book called After The Idea – What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup.
Julia is a seasoned operator who has served in leadership roles at several scaled technology companies like Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean. She has also advised hundreds of founders and startups.
In this new book, which I believe will become a new staple in the entrepreneurial startup circles, she helps entrepreneurs navigate the complexities and challenges of building a startup like important matters around product, people, operations, and more. What I also appreciate the most about this book is the fact that it is very comprehensive, yet easy to understand and implement.
In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like:
- A quick run through Julia’s background – check out Episode 30 for the deeper dive.
- How Julia became a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School and the impact of The Startup Operations course that she created.
- The inside look at what it’s like to write a book.
- How proper discovery can help avoid false positives.
- Why entrepreneurs don’t always need a co-founder.
- The importance of ABR – that being Always Be Recruiting – for founders.
- The difference between Founders & Joiners
- Comparing the Boston and NYC startup ecosystems.
- And so much more.
