🔎 Issue #26: The Antidote for Micromanagement
The keys to avoiding micromanagement, some dirt-y data, and a brand new year
💬 Welcome to issue #26 of Between the Lines
Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to January. Miles spent the holidays in Portland and brought home his family’s pizza-making championship while Josh spent the time off in Chicago with family losing to 6-year-olds in an oreo taste test challenge. You didn’t know your BTL authors hailed from such greatness, did you?
BTL is excited to be back in action for 2022. We have lots we’re cooking up for this year. To get things started, check out this thought-provoking piece on macromanagement by Paige Costello, learn what Aravind and the DIRT team have in store for the consumer analytics world, and catch up on the latest Claremont entrepreneurship and technology news.
~ Josh & Miles
📢 👥 Community Voices: The way to success is fostering a culture of macromanagement
Author: Paige Costello
In stressful times, leaders often dive into the details and try to drive the work with their direct reports rather than teaching or coaching. When this happens, it’s like two people with their hands on the steering wheel—it doesn’t really work. The person ‘taking over’—even if they’re trying to be helpful—will cause the other person to hit the brakes or swerve. That’s a terrible outcome. The driver’s skill doesn’t improve, and the destination isn’t reached as quickly.
Claremont’s very own Paige Costello, Core Product Manager at Asana, writes in Fortune about her advice on fostering a culture of company success. She succinctly breaks down the differences between a ‘tell model’ versus a ‘teach model’ in management and shows how the ‘tell model’ can eventually lead to high employee turnover. Check out the full article to hear Paige’s tips on promoting greater employee engagement and impact with macromanagement.
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Aravind Swaminathan
Aravind Swaminathan is one of our newest Claremonsters! After cutting his teeth at Box and Vungle, Arv is now co-founder of a rapidly-growing consumer insights platform, DIRT.
Their mission is to take consumer neuroscience research out of the lab and into product roadmaps of consumer-centric brands. Using biometric tools like eye tracking and sensors that measure exactly what the brain is paying attention to moment-to-moment, DIRT quantifies the value of human, emotional connection to anything an audience is engaged with. They are uncovering what truly moves people so clients can make better decisions and bring their most powerful ideas to life. A note from Aravind:
Currently, we are working with some of the biggest global companies such as TikTok, Twitter, Zynga, and Noom helping them evaluate and strengthen their work, and connect with their audiences in ways they’ve never been able to before. And the technology platform we’re building is going to change everything across many different business verticals. If you want to know more about how DIRT can quickly dig in and help solve your biggest challenges, please feel free to reach out.
📣 Pardon the Announcement: Jake Berber & Kosher Pig
Meet Claremont alumnus Jake Berber (& his pigs)! By day, Jake is getting an MBA at Tel Aviv University. By night and weekends, Jake manages a digital pig pen that some are calling an “Oinking Cult.” What’s the cult? An NFT collection of 1234 pigs that live on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain. Each Kosher Pig is randomly generated and one of a kind in his different combinations of accessories, facial expressions, and skins.
When 25% of the pig pen has been filled, we choose a non-profit to donate. When 50% have sold, Kosher Pig merch will be available to pig owners. At 75% pig pen capacity, the Kosher Pig DAO will be created! Each pig represents one vote. When we sell out, the Kosher Pig DAO will decide what we do with the funds. It is up to the community!
If you’re interested, find out about the origin story on his website, and check out the Pig Pen and Kosher Pigs on Discord, Twitter, and OpenSea. If you want a pig now - reach out to Jake. Pigs go live here on January 8th. 🐷
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Apto Payments is a leading developer-centric payments card developer platform. Apto recently acquired Vertical Finance, founded by Claremont alumnus Matthew Goldman, who is now Chief Product Officer. Contact Matthew directly if you want to learn about Apto, learn about all of the roles, or just want to talk about payment cards!
Analyst, Product Strategy (Remote) - 2+ years of experience in ops or consulting; you would be performing strategy to help build models, review vendors, and define new products
Sr. Product Managers (Remote) - 4+ years experience in product, ideally startup and fintech. We are growing rapidly and have opportunities in core processing, credit processing, developer experience, and more
Make sure to check out the other 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, make sure to create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 750+ remote jobs, 180+ internships, or 30+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention Claremonsters!
As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top read 🔥
CEO of LanzaTech, Jennifer Holmgren, shares how LanzaTech and Zara are working together to create sustainable fashion with fabrics made out of carbon emissions.
Everything else you need to know….📖
Peter Zajac is a Claremont alumnus and the Co-Founder and CEO of SurgLogs. Peter and Co. just raised their Series A round to help lead a movement in digital healthcare.
Congrats to Claremont founder Jason Christiansen and his home insurance company, Young Alfred, on their recent acquisition by Credible!
Can’t get enough Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter.
🍽️ BTL Snacks:
💎 A Cultural Anomaly….. how CEO Sam Corcos and Levels are solving a civilization-scale problem. And, why they just might have the most distinct company culture out there.
🏠 Why spending $100K on your LA home might be in your best interest….. Julian Buckner, Claremont founder and CEO of Vesta, talks about L.A.’s hot real estate
🐶 Breaking down barriers in higher education….. Read about how Coursedog and its Claremont founders, Nicholas Diao & Justin Wenig, just raised their Series A to create a modern academic operations software company
🎮 AAG Ventures raises a private round for their earn-to-play & learn-to-earn business….. Check out what Claremont student Robert Liu and AAG have been up to
Feedback? We love to hear it. Hit us with an email. 👊🏼