First Round (@firstround) — posts, photos & videos

@firstround reposted

@geddes

I often find myself pushing hiring managers to do more reference calls and to do them better. Lots of great advice on doing it right from @brettberson

> At the end of every single reference call, I ask the reference for the names of other people who would have a perspective on the candidate and use that to expand my list of potential people to call.

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Brent Beshore

@BrentBeshore

Oct 8

Followed Brett for a long time and this is one of the most helpful things he's shared.

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Ashwin Ramaswami

@AshwinRamaswami

Oct 8

This is a very thoughtful piece!

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Nicolas Kopp

@nicckopp

Oct 8

@btrenchard at @firstround was our first backer.

We had no customers, revenue or proof that anyone could build an agentic ERP from scratch.

He saw the vision early, backed a hard build, pushed us where needed and supported us when things didn’t go well.

Thank you Bill. Couldn’t have done it without you.

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First Round

@firstround

Oct 8

What it's like working at @maticrobots: Build your own desk, then start making robots.

3:24

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@firstround reposted

Liz Wessel

@lizwessel

Oct 7

No one is as good at reference check calls as @brettberson. Period. And now he’s kind enough to share his wisdom with us all 🙌

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Colleen McCreary

@Chiefpplofficer

Oct 8

Finally, a post about references worth resharing. References are only as good as the quality of questions you ask - front door or back door - and how they determine the match with you and what you want to build.

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Andrew Siah

@theandrewsiah

Oct 7

great post. i agree that references has much higher signal than interviews.

in this highly agentic world where the capability to output a work is easier (claude this codex that)

the decision making process a person makes daily and their team fit is much more important.

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Josh Kopelman

@joshk

Oct 7

Super excited to partner with Josiah and the Healthleap team. The size (and the speed) of their patient impact is unlike anything I've seen before.

Josiah Meyer@josiahbuild · Oct 7

Announcing $38M Seed & Series A from Sequoia, First Round, and Hummingbird.

Healthleap's mission is to improve the health outcomes of as many people as possible.

Results so far:
• faster healing resulting in 1.6 shorter hospital stays per patient flagged as at risk by HealthLeap (Penn)
• 39% more appropriate diagnoses, same staff (Cedars-Sinai)
• 3 → 50+ hospitals in the past year

We're hiring across all roles.

2:48

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@firstround reposted

Dan Siroker

@dsiroker

Oct 7

💯

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Josh Kopelman

@joshk

Oct 7

It amazes me how often people fail to conduct good references when hiring. @brettberson shares so many good tools, tactics and frameworks for improving your reference checking process...

Brett Berson@brettberson · Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Brett Berson

@brettberson

Oct 7

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with references, so I decided to sit down and write out some of what I’ve figured out. x.com/i/article/2107…

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@firstround reposted

Chris Fralic

@chrisfralic

Oct 6

So cool - you can feel the scrappy / maker culture at @maticrobots in every part of this 6 minute @firstround "In Office" video. I love that they're building a museum of their products along with their desks.

5:47

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First Round

@firstround

Oct 6

Our latest episode of "In Office" with @maticrobots:

Mehul@mehul · Oct 6

This is where the Matic happens

I took @firstround on a tour of our HQ

> Matic-themed movie posters
> Furniture from Facebook Marketplace
> A brand-new production line

5:47

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@firstround reposted

Mehul

@mehul

Oct 6

This is where the Matic happens

I took @firstround on a tour of our HQ

> Matic-themed movie posters
> Furniture from Facebook Marketplace
> A brand-new production line

5:47

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@firstround reposted

Liz Wessel

@lizwessel

Oct 6

Very few of the “Act II” and “Act III” slides you see in seed pitch decks end up working out. When the @useflai team pitched us one year ago, I appreciated that they wanted to move from “just” voice AI to a more end-to-end system for car dealerships, including building out the system of record layer. After all, one of the biggest companies in the space was started in the 1800s (!).. and now, one year later, they’ve already proven this out.

I was a massive fan of @APolakof, @alen0vich & @juanalzugaray_ from the first meeting we had — at the time, I noted they were three of the most competitive yet authentic, hard core yet kind, and brilliant technologists I’d met. And every time I talk to them, I feel more and more that way.

Today, Flai is working with over 20% of the top 50 dealer groups, and they’re also announcing a $27M Series A led by @Base10Partners, with many of their largest customers as investors, including Toyota Ventures (their first investment in the category), Friedkin and Findlay. So proud @firstround gets to keep backing this team.

ari polakof@APolakof · Oct 6

Today, I'm thrilled to announce Flai's $27M Series A, led by Base10, bringing our total funding to $33M

This round also brings in some of the biggest names in automotive. With Toyota Ventures, Friedkin, and Findlay Automotive Group on board, we're now backed by the people who build, distribute, service, and sell cars.

A year ago, we announced our seed round with one product: an AI that answers the phone for car dealerships. Today, Flai is the first AI-native CRM for automotive, built for both the sales floor and the service drive.

Over the last year, @useflai has grown more than 20x, and we now work with over 20% of the top 50 dealer groups.

Dealerships still run on software from another era. One of the industry's biggest vendors started before the car was even invented. Dealer teams are buried in disconnected tools, and their customers feel every gap.

Flai changes that. On average, Flai generates ~$100K in additional monthly revenue for each dealership we work with.

With this funding, we'll invest aggressively in product and engineering to build the system modern dealerships run on.

I'm incredibly proud of our team and deeply grateful to our dealer partners for their trust in what we're building.

The round was led by @Base10Partners, with participation from:

@firstround
@Toyota_Ventures
@friedkingroup
@ycombinator
Findlay Automotive Group

We're growing extremely fast and hiring across every team: engineering, product, marketing, sales, and customer success. If you want to help rebuild how cars are sold and serviced, check out our careers page or reach out to me directly!

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@firstround reposted

@APolakof

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@firstround

Despite billboards and headlines claiming otherwise, demand for BDRs and AEs is going up. But finding truly excellent sellers to fill these roles is hard. We think some of the best talent isn't in sales — yet.

We're launching Sales Combine to bring in a new generation of sellers who may not have the "right" resumes, offering free training and direct intros to companies like @NotionHQ, @p0, @fal, @togethercompute, @reductoai and more.

firstround.com/sales-combine

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First Round

@firstround

Sep 17

AI is making the mechanics of sales easier, but being exceptional at the craft matters more than ever. In a new essay, we break down how to actually get good at it, sharing a preview of the training we'll cover in Sales Combine, our new program to build the next generation of sellers: firstround.com/sales-craft

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First Round

@firstround

Sep 16

The mechanics of sales may be automated away, but that was never the hard part.

We want to find and train the next generation of sellers who excel at the uniquely human craft of sales (and aggressively use AI for all the rest), so we’re launching Sales Combine.

Spend two days in SF for FREE training with extremely experienced sales leaders, and then we’ll introduce you directly to companies like @NotionHQ, @fal, @togethercompute, @p0, @reductoai, @Gumloop, @clay, & many others that are hiring new sellers.

Apply by 10/3: firstround.com/sales-combine

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