Workspace for remote teams with Christophe Pasquier of Slite

Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital

In this episode, Christophe talks about Slite’s customers, mission and values about remote culture, high performance in leadership, biggest weaknesses, experience with YCombinator, how has Christophe chawed as a leader, and much more!

Timestamps

Introduction [00:00:00] Host Rohit Malhotra introduces the Life Self Mastery podcast and guest Christophe Pasquier, founder of Slide.

Starting Slide [00:00:52] Christophe talks about how he unintentionally got into the remote work game and how Slide started as a note-taking app for teams.

Building the First 1000 Users [00:03:50] Christophe discusses how they initially got their first users through their own network and by selling to teams, and how they eventually got their first real company customer. He also talks about the launch on Product Hunt and how it helped them gain more users and interest in the market.

Lessons from Slide's Challenges [00:08:09] Christophe Pasquier shares the challenges Slide faced in its first year, including co-founder burnout and competition with companies like Notion and Confluence. He discusses the importance of resilience and not underestimating the difficulty of cracking a market.

Benefits of Y Combinator [00:13:18] Pasquier talks about his positive experience with Y Combinator, including the financial benefits and the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs. He also acknowledges some of the challenges, such as the large batch size and the pressure to sell to other companies in the cohort.

YC Experience [00:16:06] Christophe talks about his experience at Y Combinator and the benefits of being a part of the program.

Remote Work and Culture [00:20:13] Ravi asks Christophe about his advice on building and retaining company culture while working remotely, especially in the early stages of a company.

Remote Work and Unicorn Experience [00:21:29] Christophe discusses the possibility of building a unicorn company while being remote and how the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up more opportunities for remote work.

Building Culture in Remote Teams [00:22:25] Christophe talks about the importance of transparency, shared ownership, and synchronous activities in building company culture in remote teams.

Remote work culture [00:24:05] Discussion on the culture of remote work and how it varies among teams.

Social media management [00:25:06] Introduction to Social Pilot, a social media management tool, and its benefits for businesses.

Hiring process [00:25:44] Discussion on Slide's hiring process and how they attract the right talent through their brand and culture.

High performance leadership [00:27:59] Definition of high performance leadership and the qualities valued by Slide's leadership team.

Founder's journey [00:29:42] Christophe Pasquier's journey as a founder and the different phases of leadership he has experienced over the past six years.

Building the product [00:32:14] Christophe talks about the early stages of building Slide, focusing on the core product and building workflows for remote teams.

Importance of visibility [00:33:05] Christophe discusses the importance of being visible as a company and how it can be detrimental if not done properly.

Biggest weakness [00:33:51] Christophe talks about his biggest weakness as a founder, which is not being visible enough and not putting themselves out there.

Mistakes made [00:35:54] Christophe reflects on mistakes made during the early stages of building Slide, including hiring too quickly and trying to differentiate too early.

Favorite online tools [00:38:45] Christophe shares his favorite online tools, including Slide, Slack, and Superhuman.

How to reach Christophe [00:39:27] Christophe shares his Twitter handle as the best way to reach out to him and learn more about Slide.