Kathryn Minshew
Kathryn Minshew
Kathryn Minshew is the CEO and co-founder of The Muse, a career-development platform...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinesswoman
Date of Birth30 October 1985
CountryUnited States of America
team people entrepreneur
You know, as most entrepreneurs do, that a company is only as good as its people. The hard part is actually building the team that will embody your company culture and propel you forward.
want
What do I want to do with my life?
balance definitions hours
Most weeks, I work 100-plus hours on TheMuse.com. There are definitions of 'work-life balance' that would say I have none.
want building-something causes
One of the top causes of startup death - right after cofounder problems - is building something no one wants.
mistake technology hands
So many of my rookie mistakes could have been avoided by first-hand exposure to other, more experienced technology entrepreneurs.
company new-company
When you start a new company, you have to do it all. Yes, all of it.
jobs fun passion
Sure, it's fun to chat with people with interesting backgrounds who seem to have a passion for your company. But a job interview is not a friendly chat. You need to determine whether candidates, can they really do the job. So ask them to prove it.
advertising muse length
We knew when we started the Daily Muse, we wanted a recruiting-focused business model rather than an advertising-focused one. We felt like publishers were being forced to go to more and more extreme lengths to monetize through advertising.
bit second third time
The first time you meet someone, they're a new acquaintance, the second time you have a bit of an understanding, and the third time you meet them, you're old hats.
colleagues hard learned lessons looked missing raise resource spoke
There were so many lessons I learned the hard way: missing out on a raise because I didn't know to ask, having colleagues consistently get credit for my ideas because of how I spoke up in meetings. When I looked for a resource that addressed the challenges I was facing, I couldn't find it. There was nothing.
founders job
Work-life balance for founders doesn't look like work-life balance for everyone else. Starting a company isn't a nine-to-six job - or a nine-to-nine job, or a nine-to-midnight job.
answer ask critical launch people possible product quickly
When talking to first-time entrepreneurs, I often ask them: 'How do you know that people want your product or service?' As you can expect, the answer is often that they don't yet, but will know once they launch. And they're right. That's why it's critical to launch as quickly as possible so you can get that feedback.
believed deeply few imperfect site
The most important thing in startups is getting a product to market, as imperfect as it may be, and then iterating on it and continually making it better. A first rev of a site that has a few typos may not be perfect, but it was the start of something that I deeply believed in.
build cool data gather ideas initially integrate job launch launching love muse numerous personal rich social sure together tools users
When The Daily Muse initially wanted to launch a job board, our first ideas were insanely (and needlessly) complex. We wanted to integrate with social networks, gather rich personal data to build predictive algorithms, and put together numerous cool visualization tools before launching out to the world. We were just sure users would love it!