Haley Bryant | always moving forward
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This blog is about me, but it's about you, too. You! Maybe not you, but someone close to you. Or someone who used to be close to you who you've distanced yourself from. You aren't me, but maybe you know me a little.
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
2y ago
I’ve been angel investing for 2 years with intentional focus on getting practice and creating more process in h2 2021.
I started angel investing to support founders from and/or supporting underrepresented communities. Since starting, I’ve reviewed >200 deals and written 27 checks. That said, I’m no expert, and this is not investment advice! Sharing some takeaways below but I’d recommend reading Elizabeth Yin’s Learnings from a 6x angel investment portfolio for a more nuanced, experienced perspective.
Done well, angel investing can be a great way to learn, support founders and causes you car ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
2y ago
Last month, I fell down the web3 rabbit hole with some help from heyday.xyz on the research front.
I’m reflecting out loud on my exploration so far to encourage others to form their own opinions. In this article, I share how to form your own opinion about crypto/web3 by:
working with the best practitioners
learning through research
learning by doing
learn from working with the best practitioners
Spending time with early adopters through angel squad and ?? investing in general has made web3 a big topic of conversation in the 2nd half of this year.
While the concept of cryptocurrency ha ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
2y ago
?Founding startups
Dillon Zhang Forrest, founder of Steady Capital, spent the first 3 years of his startup career working nights and weekends.
"Not a lot of people [around me] were entrepreneurs at the time. But I would see these Paul Graham and Chris Dixon essays online and that's what made me feel connected to everything."
Seeing his then startup CEO succeed, he took the plunge.
"I just thought if he could succeed, there's no reason why I can't succeed."
That was in 2011, a decade before he launched Steady.
Signup for Steady Capital's waitlist here.
? Getting started without an idea
At t ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
2y ago
Oliver drew a picture of me at school. When he shared it with me, I cried. So I turned the picture into an NFT…naturally.
Proceeds will go to Oliver’s 529 and to support Agano, an org furthering litercy in Washington, DC ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
2y ago
At the beginning of the year, I said that I wanted to make Animalz the best agency to work with and for. A funny thing happens when you say that out loud: people tell you all of the ways that you are not and/or will never be the best. Surprisingly, there is no “best” on off switch for a company. “Best” is a continuous growth experiment, forcing conscious decisions in everything you do: what you say yes/no to, how you communicate with people, how you choose to use your time and help others use theirs. “Best” requires a commitment to continuous progress: am I, are we, better today than we were y ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
3y ago
The best way to get to know a company us to get to know the people. Of every high-level executive onboarding I’ve done, getting to know the team has been the most important activity. It both gives you the opportunity to listen and learn, and to see the power dynamics at play throughout the organization. Who actually gets the work done? Who are the peer leaders who make change happen…or stand in the way? Who are the go to people. While senior leader ship might be able to describe the way we think our business works in the culture we think we have it is the employees… the oldest employees, and t ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
3y ago
Last week, we had a major problem in our financial model. Our forecast significantly shifted and we were surprised by that shift. We were surprised because we, I, had not followed our process to a T. Understanding the why took the better part of the week, and by the time I presented the problem I had not only a deep understanding but solutions in mind to fix the problem as well as reframing to help us evaluate our assumptions. I expected to be met with anger, fear, frustration etc: the emotions that come from leading below the line. Instead, I was greeted with questions, context and a zoomed o ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
3y ago
If you want to change a behavior, which can change a culture, you have to have a place for that behavior to be examined consistently. Asking the same question over and over every day or every week makes expectations very clear. In some cases, a weekly or monthly report is sufficient: a space to report on work done and progress towards goal. For more pressing matters, a daily update/standup may be more appropriate. If a key area of the business isn’t doing well, bringing all stakeholders with ownership together regularly to share why it isn’t going well. to get unblocked, to be encouraged and t ..read more
Haley Bryant | always moving forward
3y ago
When I was hired as the Director of Customer Ops at Animalz, Walter Chen (founder and former CEO) sent me two books:
Trusted Advisor
Setting the Table
I devoured Trusted Advisor, picking up the book that seemed like the most natural way to level up my customer success skills shifting from SaaS into professional services. Setting the Table collected dust but I returned to it this spring when working with our now Director of Customer Ops to codify the first principles of customer management at Animalz.
While the book was wordy for me (the first chapters flowed like an intro to Chef’s Table ..read more