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Enthusiasm peaks in the early days of a new job. New hires are creative, motivated, and often, a fresh dose of optimism compared to their more tenured teammates. Yet, in a matter of weeks, that initial enthusiasm plunges by an average of 22%. The innovation and discretionary effort that comes with new-hire enthusiasm are a strategic advantage for any organization. But to be impactful, new-hire energy must last beyond the first few weeks. Here are four tips to preserve that early days enthusiasm: 1. Give Context, Not Just Content Too often, new teammates find out how it works here through pushback, sideways glances, and a slap on the wrist over red tape they didnt know existed. As a result, the motivation to drive results is quickly outweighed by the fear of reputational risk or political consequence. Its a preventable comedown. Effective onboarding must go beyond role-specific content. Organizational context is what gives new teammates the foundation to dive in effectively. In the onboarding process, answer questions like: How do different teams typically work together (or not)? Are there cultural norms around offering feedback? Is the decision-making hierarchy fluid or more rigid? What metrics are most important to the organization? (Beyond individual OKRs) Who determines whats considered urgent, and how is that typically communicated? This foundation enables new hires to make an impact fast, without fear of stepping on a cultural landmine. 2. Prove a Failure Tolerance If your organization needs to progress, failure inevitably comes with the territory. Yet, the prospect of failing can send a shockwave through someone eager to impress. A Move fast and break things poster does not have enough credibility to inspire risk-taking. Instead, prove an organizational failure tolerance by citing specific examples in onboarding. Share stories about failed launches, the buggy beta version, or internal projects that didnt pan out. Talk about what was learned, how the organization adapted, and most importantly, that the people behind those efforts are still here. 3. Follow-up on the Invitation for New Ideas The onboarding process can be overwhelming. Between setting up passwords, learning names, and attempting to decipher health insurance, there isnt much brain space left for innovation in the first few days. If you want new hires to speak up and bring a fresh perspective, follow up on that invitation after theyve had time to settle in. Go beyond Got any ideas? Ask pointed questions that show your interest in their perspective. Try prompts like: Im curious about your take on thisdo you think were missing anything? If you could start this (project, process, product) from scratch, what would you change? Were there any moments where you thought, Why do we do it this way? Showing new hires that We want new ideas!” isnt just a perfunctory corporate welcome. 4. Share the Metrics, But Dont Start the Clock Ambitious new hires want to know the criteria for success. Even if they dont ask, share the metrics a new hire will (eventually) be evaluated against. Whether its delivery timeline, revenue targets, or client satisfaction, be clear about what good looks like. But dont start the clock right away. Give new hires time to build relationships and develop a meaningful understanding of how to achieve those numbers effectively. If metrics are not shared up front and only surface during a later performance review, it can feel like the rules are being made up mid-game. On the flip side, starting assessment on the first day can feel overwhelming or even unfair. Align early on key metrics of success, but delay starting the “clock” for 6090 days in performance-based roles. Be transparent, but not premature in applying pressure. Will every day of work be as exciting as day one? Probably not. The adrenaline of a new job is impossible to sustain. Yet, with intentionality, preserving new-hire enthusiasm is possible.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Trump administration has frozen, stalled or otherwise disrupted some $430 billion in federal fundsfrom disease research to Head Start for children to disaster aidin what top Democrats say is an “unprecedented and dangerous” assault on programs used by countless Americans.Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut on Tuesday released an online tracker that is compiling all the ways President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are interrupting the flow of federal funds, often going up against the law.“Instead of investing in the American people, President Trump is ignoring our laws and ripping resources away,” said Murray and DeLauro, who are the top Democrats on the Appropriations committees in Congress.“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they are owed,” they said.The tally is far from complete or exhaustive, the lawmakers said, but a snapshot in time. It comes in a rapidly changing political and legal environment as the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits from state and local governments, advocacy organizations, employees and others fighting to keep programs intact.At 100 days into Trump’s return to the presidency, the project showcases the extent to which the White House is blocking money that Congress has already approved, touching off a constitutional battle between the executive and legislative branches that has real world ramifications for the communities the lawmakers serve.The White House and its Republican allies in Congress have said they are working to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government. The Trump administration is in court fighting to keep many of the administration’s cuts even as Musk, whose own popularity has dropped, says he will be cycling off DOGE’s day-to-day work.And Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget intends to soon send Congress a $9 billion rescissions package, to claw back funds through cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and others.Murray and DeLauro said they want to “shine a light on President Trump’s vast, illegal funding freeze and how it is hurting people in every zip code in America.” They said it’s time for Trump and Musk “to end this unprecedented and dangerous campaign.”While Republicans have also stirred with concerns about Trump’s spending cuts, many are reluctant to do so publicly as they try to avoid Trump’s reactions. Instead, they tend to work behind the scenes to restore federal dollars to their home states or other constituencies that have been put at risk by Trump’s actions.The powerful Appropriations committees in the House and the Senate, where Republicans have majority control of both chambers, draft the annual funding bills that are ultimately approved by Congress and sent to the president’s desk for his signature to become law. Lisa Mascaro, AP Congressional Correspondent
Category:
E-Commerce
The startup playbook that built Uber, Airbnb, and DoorDash is becoming obsolete in real-time. As AI compresses jobs that once required hundreds of employees into algorithms, we’re witnessing the birth of a new company archetypecapital-efficient, immediately profitable, and surprisingly small. With a variety of software to use for all aspects of building a businessfrom Shopify for e-commerce to Stripe for paymentsand low operating costs, innovation just keeps making everything that much more efficient. Advancements in AI are turbocharging this even further. Now, companies not only need less software and less capital for solutions to get off the ground, but they also simply need fewer people. From marketing to design to data management, AI can perform and accelerate many processes that take place in a growing company. Whether its automating website copy and social posts, assisting with interface and ad design, or even processing data sets to inform strategic decisions, many are already using AI to do this and more. This means it now takes the least amount of money it ever has to grow and scale a company. As a result, revenue scale is being achieved with the fewest number of employees ever and profitability is soon to follow suit. Acquisitions and IPOs are out of date Starting a company the old way was coming up with an innovative idea, followed by creating a minimal viable product and getting users. Raising venture capital to fund additional growth was the traditional next step, with ownership of the company being diluted every step of the way as new and necessary capital came in in which was needed to reach true scale. An ideal outcome would then be an exit through an acquisition or an IPO, but the odds are actually often against the company in that instance. In fact, only 11.5 percent of companies actually reach a good exit within the first five years. And when they do exit, the teams ownership has often been so diluted that their stake in a $100M sale could be less than if they raised just a few million and sold for $25M. Sometimes, consistently batting singles and doubles is better than trying to swing for home runs. The $100M company with one employee More and more stories like this are surfacing. Companies are reevaluating the need for venture capital and how much, if any, money to raise. Theres a lot of talk about the first $100M revenue company with just one employee because of AI, and were getting closer to that every day. In general, companies utilizing AI to its maximum potential are proving to be extremely efficient in terms of revenue per employee, because there is less needed to achieve the same growth trajectories. The best case study for this may be Midjourney, a company which has raised no outside capital at all but was last projected to be valued at more than $10B, in 2023, if they were to go out and fundraisea number that is likely even higher now given the companys continued growth. Because its easier than its ever been to start, grow, scale, and become profitable, the question now is, How much money companies should be raising? When theres so many more viable options, some have begun to wonder why raise money at all. New forms of financing All of this raises another fundamental question: What does this mean for the future of the tech ecosystem? The new normal may become financing through debt. If companies can turn a profit sooner than ever and the ability to get there requires far fewer employees, there are a lot more financing options for EBITDA-positive companies, including raising debt from banks, which is relatively inexpensive, or securing financing using revenue as the collateral. Because raising money from VCs requires diluting ownership and answering to shareholders, it is far and away the most expensive capital a company can find. If theres a world where capital can just come from debt, companies will get the best of both worlds: scaling the business on their terms while retaining ownership the entire way. This is likely going to be one of the most popular options in the AI-first era. Disrupting the conventional VC model VCs, meanwhile, will have to adapt their approach to adjust for a world in which their capital is simply less interesting to a company. Traditionally, their model is to get outsized returns from a handful of investments, which offsets the losses from the majority of the investments that dont return anything. VCs usually do this by investing and gaining significant ownership stakes in companies over time, reinvesting in round after round of the winners in their portfolio. These companies historically have come back for more capital because that was the way it was always done. That looks a lot different now when the companies they want to invest in only need to raise very little capital and in turn they dont get the ownership stake they need to generate those outsized returns. To keep up, VCs can look to new models and find companies outside of their normal view. It may look a bit less like software, and more like service-based companies that they previously avoided. These businesses are still ripe for disruption and have the potential to experience a dramatic lift from incorporating new technologyspecifically AIinto the mix. Investing in these types of businesses gives VCs the chance to capture the traditional types of returns over time, even if it starts to look more like private equity. The model becomes less about picking a handful of big winners, and more about ensuring that the majority of the companies they invest in are successful, even if just modestly. An existential question The next decade won’t just transform what startups build, but it will fundamentally reinvent how they’re built. The companies that thrive won’t necessarily be the ones with the most capital, but those that strategically deploy technology to maximize impact with minimal overhead. For companies and investors alike, adapting isn’t optionalit’s existential.
Category:
E-Commerce
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