Archive - Hari Digresses

How to be an elite startup employee

The "social contract" for rockstar employees at many early-stage startups of <100 people, distilled from my imperfect and incomplete experience serving…

Jun 3 •

A Policy Framework for Radical Moderates

You’re probably wondering what the hell I’m doing writing about politics, rather than about startups, or valuations, or whatever. Somehow I haven’t…

Jun 1 •

May 2024

Your Startup is not your Horcrux

Guidelines for being a founder that I've learned, while serving as an (imperfect) 2-time founder & CEO, early-employee-COO, advisor, and investor.

May 22 •

An Ode to Early Employees

I once had someone tell me:

May 9 •

January 2024

Decoding Compensation, Part II: FairOffer.ai

Introducing FairOffer.ai, a tool to algorithmically estimate fair compensation — for any title, at any stage of company, anywhere in the world.

Jan 14 •

Decoding Compensation, Part I: Beyond Benchmarks

An algorithmic approach to fair pay

Jan 13 •

Carta's Conundrum

Crossposted from my Xeet(s) on Jan 7. The current events aren't exactly a masterclass in PR ninja moves. But public statements aside... this conflict of…

Jan 8 •

July 2023

Why Product doesn’t matter for Product-Market Fit

I know this is a controversial statement – almost nonsensical – especially for the CEO of a software startup. I swear, I'm not having a seizure. Bear…

Jul 28, 2023 •

July 2022

A better way to value companies

Want to use this calculator for yourself?

Jul 18, 2022 •

November 2021

The American Dream is on Life Support in the Bay Area

This is not a “fuck SF” post. This is a lament of what has been lost, and a wistfulness for what could have been.

Nov 27, 2021 •

April 2021

Are you a Nice Person, or Seem like a Nice Person?

A friend once said "I'm one of those people who seems like an asshole, but I'm a really nice person." Of course my former-consultant-brain put this in a…

Apr 20, 2021 •

March 2021

The Thoughtful Corporation

🖋️ When I was starting out on AbstractOps, I drafted a set of values, based on my own personal experiences. The current (fourth) version of AO's values…

Mar 16, 2021 •

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