Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy
Business:Investing
My guests today are Jack Altman and Miles Grimshaw. Jack is the co-founder and CEO of Lattice, an HR software platform. Miles is a General Partner at Benchmark, an early investor and Board Director at Lattice, as well as a former guest on Invest Like the Best. Jack started Lattice in 2015 and has scaled it into a multi-billion-dollar business that already serves over 5,000 organizations. In our discussion, we look at all aspects of building and scaling a software product from both an investor and operator’s perspective, which made this particularly fun to do. Please enjoy my conversation with Jack Altman and Miles Grimshaw.
Listen to Founders Podcast
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
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Show Notes
(00:02:55) - (First question) - How Jack & Miles met at Y Combinator in 2015
(00:04:22) - Lattice found a niche in mid-market HR software
(00:07:55) - Discovering Lattice's true market need
(00:11:14) - Fear of stalling drove the need for business growth beyond initial product
(00:12:06) - Deciding on multi-product focus over up-market expansion
(00:17:01) - Prioritizing quality of usage over frequency for customer health scores
(00:20:06) - Balancing customer health scores and actual needs
(00:24:31) - Prioritized community by spotlighting HR voices
(00:28:20) - Building community helps companies sell a vision or lifestyle
(00:31:05) - Cultivating broad awareness instead of hard-selling
(00:35:33) - Overcoming the culture of 'perfection’
(00:37:22) - Flywheel effect makes suites efficient: lower go-to-market costs, more focus on product
(00:41:06) - The challenges of juggling current needs and future demands
(00:46:27) - Navigating disagreements and trust-building within a company
(00:50:36) - Investors' roles extend beyond founders, focusing on their own goals and interests
(00:51:52) - How transparency eases the founder-investor dance
(00:55:16) - The changing employer-employee relationship
(00:58:37) - Navigating growth from startup to public equity
(01:05:43) - Lattice's ultimate aspiration
(01:07:42) - Evaluating founders' authenticity
(01:11:18) - What Jack & Miles are most embarrassed about, the most proud of, and the most excited for
(01:14:30) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Jack and Miles
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Marc Lasry - Making Bucks in Credit and Sports - [Invest Like the Best, EP.371]
Bill Gurley & Michael Mauboussin - Putting Theory into Practice - [Invest Like the Best, EP.370]
Tim Ferriss - Curating Curiosities - [Invest Like the Best, EP.369]
Ken Langone - The American Dream - [Invest Like the Best, EP.368]
Robin Dunbar - Optimizing Human Connection (Dunbar's Number) - [Invest Like the Best, EP.367]
Sean Feeney - Reinventing the Restaurant Business - [Invest Like the Best, EP.366]
Dave Fontenot - The Monastery of Code - [Invest Like the Best, EP.365]
Anne-Marie Peterson - The Capital System - [Invest Like the Best, EP.364]
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Ali Hamed - Building an Investment Firm - [Invest Like the Best, EP.362]
Cyan Banister - Investing for a Higher Purpose - [Invest Like the Best, EP.361]
Danny Meyer - The Power of Hospitality - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Chuck Akre - The Three Legged Stool - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Alex Telford - Unlocking Innovation in Pharma - [Invest Like the Best, EP.360]
Madhavan Ramanujam - How to Price Products - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Daryl Morey - Systems Thinking in Sports - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Michael Ovitz - Knowledge Is Power - [Invest Like the Best, EP.359]
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