“Managing people is hard, and I don't have time to get better at it.”

Most startups are badly managed. And of course they are.

An illustration of a calendar exploding.

When you're in a startup, you're working in an environment where things are always breaking, where you never have enough resources, and where managers won't have much time to improve.

Most management advice aren't written for people in startups. Instead, they're written for managers in big, stable companies. They talk about managing politics, not preventing politics. They talk about tweaking department processes, not throwing out and writing a new playbook every six months or so.

If you:

  • find yourself overwhelmed in a small but rapidly growing company,
  • worry that you're not doing right by your people,
  • fear losing the people you do have ...

Then, well, MFS is for you.

Let's get started:

Guides

Book cover of The Starter Manager Guide

The Starter Manager Guide

The Starter Manager Guide is the bare minimum you need to know to be an adequate manager. Short enough to finish in 3 hours. Contains ideas that'll take 6-8 months to master.

Read for free →

Book cover of Keep Your People

Keep Your People: The Startup Manager's Guide to Retention

Keep Your People is a book about employee retention, written with the startup manager in mind. You spend a great deal of time hiring and training your subordinates. You shouldn't fear losing them.

Learn more →

Latest Articles

Don't Be The Manager That Constantly Changes Directions

How to prevent yourself from becoming 'the manager that constantly changes directions'. Written with the startup manager in mind.

Managing From Home

The global COVID-19 pandemic has hit most of us pretty hard. Some tips for those of you who are forced to manage your team from home during this period.

Keep Your People Is Out!

I'm really happy to announce that the Keep Your People — The Startup Manager's Guide to Retention is available for purchase today.

The Hard Thing About Disagree and Commit

Jeff Bezos popularised the concept of 'disagree and commit'. But what do you do when your boss decides to do something that your entire team disagrees with, and you have to do it anyway?

Latest Podcast Episodes

#35 Find Failures Early

A method for dealing with job uncertainty, especially when you're transitioning into a new managerial role.

#34 The Two Things You Need To Be A Good Manager

A useful framework for evaluating management skills — be it yours or others.

#33 Taking Care of Yourself Before Taking Care of Others

Things to do to help reduce the mental weight of this trying period.

#32 Managing From Home

What to do and what to watch out for when you're managing a team from home.

#31 Beware Idea Bombs

Why constantly sharing new ideas and techniques and 'things we should do!' with your team is a bad idea, and what to do to fix this.