--- title: "Leadership" description: "7 posts about Leadership, summarised, each linking to the original." --- # Leadership > 7 posts about Leadership, summarised, each linking to the original. ## Articles ### [Bridget Harris on bootstrapping your startup - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/bridget-harris-on-bootstrapping-your-startup-the-intercom-blog.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 12, 2026 - Type: Explainer Bridget Harris bootstrapped YouCanBook.me, a SaaS scheduling tool, to their $1 million in annual recurring revenue and profitability without taking any venture capital funding. The company, now serving more than 10,000 customers including Atlassian and Shopify, emerged from a freemium scheduling tool called When is Good after businesses showed willingness to pay. Harris argues that VC interests often prioritize rapid growth and timely exits, which can conflict with a founder’s long-term vision, but bootstrapping still requires exposure to external ideas. She draws on her past as a busker to explain the need for adaptability and risk tolerance in bootstrapping, and she has banned internal email at her remote company to encourage productivity and collaboration. The key to bootstrapping, according to Harris, is finding problems that can be solved incrementally through agile and lean principles, enabling sustainable growth without external funding. ### [Skyliner's Marc Hedlund On Engineering Management](https://yomu.fyi/post/skyliner-x27-s-marc-hedlund-on-engineering-management.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 12, 2026 - Type: Explainer Marc Hedlund, a veteran engineering leader and former VP at Stripe and Etsy, discusses his experience shutting down his startup Skyliner and the lessons learned. He explains that Skyliner failed because its value proposition was not compelling to a wide enough market, and because Amazon released a competing product, Code Star, which he advises entrepreneurs not to build solely on AWS. Hedlund contrasts the rational decision to close Skyliner with the emotional difficulty of shutting down his earlier startup Wesabe, where customer impact was deeply felt. He emphasizes that startups should focus on making users happy quickly rather than pursuing long-term hoped-for outcomes, and that founders must be honest about market signals. Hedlund addresses tech diversity through his board work with Code2040, sharing that simple actions like smiling and saying hello to Black and Latinx visitors can significantly impact recruitment. ### [2021 in conversation: Learnings from the podcast - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/2021-in-conversation-learnings-from-the-podcast-the-intercom-blog.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 8, 2026 - Type: Explainer In this 2021 year-end compilation, Intercom reflects on insights from its podcast series Inside Intercom, featuring conversations with business leaders and pioneers like CEO Karen Peacock, Hubert Palan from Productboard, and Amanda Renteria from Code for America. They discuss leadership, product strategy, customer experience, and the challenges of running a business during the pandemic, including building world-class customer experiences and addressing diversity gaps. Speakers like Farhan Virji from Later share how B2C support strategies can inform B2B teams, while Will Larson of Calm explores technical leadership careers beyond management. The episode also marks Intercom’s 10th anniversary, with founders Des Traynor and Paul Adams reflecting on maintaining speed as the company scales and avoiding unnecessary processes that slow progress. Zanade Mann and Janeen Uzzell offer insights on allyship, diversity, and ensuring knowledge equity in government services, as well as the importance of advocating for underrepresented groups. ### [The Ticket: Simon T. Bailey on the platinum service principles that create lifelong customers - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/the-ticket-simon-t-bailey-on-the-platinum-service-principles-that-crea.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 5, 2026 - Type: Explainer The blog post recounts a podcast episode from The Ticket featuring Simon T. Bailey, author of Be the Spark, who discusses platinum service principles to create lifelong customers with Intercom VP of Customer Support Declan Ivory. Bailey’s pivotal realization came while sweeping streets at Disney, where he understood his true purpose was to create magical moments for families seeking a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He argues the platinum standard for customer service supersedes the gold standard by emphasizing personal connection, engagement, and making people feel valued rather than merely completing transactions. Key enablers include employee empowerment through recognition and sharing success stories, and leadership that avoids pitfalls like micromanagement while modeling the behaviors that enhance experience. Cultivating resilience and a genuine customer-love mindset drives loyalty, advocacy, and positive business outcomes, enabling teams to maintain high-quality service despite challenges. ### [CX leader Camille Acey on the evolving dynamics in customer service - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/cx-leader-camille-acey-on-the-evolving-dynamics-in-customer-service-th.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 5, 2026 - Type: Problem & solution Camille E. Acey, a seasoned CX leader and consultant, describes the profound transformation underway in customer service, driven by AI, layoffs, and rising customer expectations. She advises startups to avoid over-hiring senior full-time roles and instead use fractional CX leaders who can establish strategy while junior or mid-level staff manage daily operations. Camille emphasizes that AI cannot replace human empathy and should be deployed first on repetitive, low-hanging tasks, preserving simpler issues for junior talent development. She notes that layoffs will degrade service quality unless leaders secure organizational buy-in, communicate resource impacts, and prioritize essential functions. Customer service teams must partner with product to prioritize requests that deliver the most value for the right target users, not fulfill every wish. ### [Training the next generation of support leaders with Peak Support’s Hannah Steiman - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/training-the-next-generation-of-support-leaders-with-peak-support-s-ha.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 5, 2026 - Type: Explainer Hannah Steiman, President of Peak Support, argues that leadership enablement is critical for support teams in high-growth companies, since many leaders lack formal training and must be developed internally. Key challenges include retraining agents from rule-following to proactive problem-solving, coaching using performance data like DSATs, and engaging teams to maintain motivation. Steiman emphasizes that skills such as proactive thinking, vision setting, transparent communication, and ethical decision-making can be taught and are essential for guiding teams through change. For change management, the best approach is gaining buy-in from key influencers, encouraging transparent feedback, and explaining reasoning behind changes. When implementing AI, Peak Support advises optimizing the knowledge base and automating existing processes first before adding AI to avoid overpaying and poor bot performance. ### [Discover the secret sauce of innovative companies, according to Stanford professor Behnam Tabrizi - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/discover-the-secret-sauce-of-innovative-companies-according-to-stanfor.md) - Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md) - Published: Oct 5, 2026 - Type: Explainer Stanford professor Behnam Tabrizi discusses his book ‘Going on Offense,’ which analyzes 26 companies to uncover the culture of perpetual innovation, based on a survey of over 6,000 executives, academics, and industry experts. He explains that Microsoft’s renaissance under Satya Nadella came from elevating engineers, prioritizing cloud computing, and making early bets on AI, creating a startup mindset. Tesla’s unique culture aligns with a holistic approach to cultivating change, inviting active participation across the company and a fierce dedication to overcoming challenges. Legacy companies often fail because they make cautious, incremental bets rather than bold moves like Nvidia’s 2018 bet on AI, which made it a trillion-dollar semiconductor leader. Tabrizi argues AI will not eliminate jobs but will displace those who fail to leverage it effectively, urging organizations to go on offense by deploying AI for growth and productivity.