Heard Around The Grove
By Blake Newcomer • March 2, 2026
This one is short & sweet, as we have some special editions dropping in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes open!!!
We were lucky to catch Serena Dao in a transition period: incoming Chief of Staff at an early-stage clean tech startup and former Ecosystem Builder at The Engine.
She's put her time in after years of helping deep tech start ups get from nothing to IP to market.
One of her biggest takeaways~
People are the basis of everything
This week's issue is about building startup teams that last. Let's dive in.
In this week's issue
- On building early-stage teams
- On hiring
- On firing
- On feedback culture
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On building early-stage teams
It's easy to prioritize product development when you're building something that the world has never seen. Kind of a "duh".
Serena argues mission statements & cultural values are the first things to get right once your IP leaves the lab. Every people decision that follows will either have something to reference or it won't.
The mission and values of your organization need to reflect what the founders actually care about beyond the technology. This is a working document that answers: what kind of people are we and what do we expect from each other?
That clarity becomes a hiring filter, a conflict resolution tool, and a retention signal for the people you most want to keep.
On hiring
The instinct to hire someone you knowor to take a strong recommendation at face value is natural. This is especially true when you are moving fast.
Serena has seen this pattern cause serious damage across multiple companies. The nature of the recommendation got weighted more heavily than the team's actual read on the person.
Two critical ideas to shape the interview process at the sub-ten-person stage:
- Make sure every co-founder and every team member gets meaningful time with the candidate so that it's not just the founder bringing them in.
- Ask direct questions about communication preferences, how they like to receive feedback, and how they want to be managed.
When you are fewer than ten people, every individual affects every other individual daily, and the cost of a mismatch compounds fast.
On firing
When you have six months of runway, every day with the wrong person in a seat is a real cost.
If you cannot make it work with someone after two months, and you are operating on a short runway, that should be your threshold.
The harder question is distinguishing between someone who needs more time and someone who is genuinely wrong for the role. Serena's diagnostic cuts in two directions.
First, ask whether you have set this person up to succeed — are the expectations clear, is the information accessible, is the support there? If the answer is yes and the results still aren't coming, that is meaningful data.
Second, pay attention to whether the team can work with this person. At the pre-seed stage, team friction is super hella massive friction.
The structural safeguard against getting here in the first place is the interview process. If you are already in it, the most damaging thing a founder can do is wait too long out of discomfort.
Every week of avoidance is a week of runway, team energy, and organizational stability that does not come back.
On feedback culture
Founders can be more unapproachable than they realize. Even in a flat, informal, small-team environment, there can be distance between people with different titles.
Serena's point is that this dynamic is predictable and that countering it requires active, deliberate effort from the founder.
Two practices she recommends that are immediately applicable:
- When someone brings feedback, stay neutral. Do not explain, defend, or redirect.
- Ask qualifying questions, then go process your reaction privately.
The sequence of listen, clarify, feel your feelings elsewhere keeps the channel open. "If you stay calm, they will stay calm." In a company where candor is your only early warning system, keeping that channel open is not a leadership nicety. It is an operational requirement.
Build in regular moments where input is expected and normal, not just permitted. Remember that the people giving you feedback are there because they are committed to what you are building. They deserve the same level of commitment!
Feedback
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With love, Blake
See you next week!
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