👋 welcome to building pave
👋 hello friends! if you’re reading this, i am hareem, and a little over a month ago, i officially started at pave. if this month is any indication of how much there is to learn, iterate on, and grow in – i’m fired up about the future and what it holds for us.
you might be wondering what brings us to substack... it’s a great question. here’s a little backstory for ya:
what makes companies special
i joined pave after about four years at segment. segment was the best job ever — an unbelievable hub of talent, growth, inclusivity, and execution. i always describe it as full of talented and kind people who were deeply unaware of how kind and talented they were — my favorite kind of people to work with.
i still remember the feeling of immense joy so many people had when news of the segment acquisition was announced. it was this amazing outcome for so many people who had worked so hard to make segment successful — but especially this outsized feeling of pride for people who joined early, and shaped segment through decisions big and small in its inception.
i kept thinking... man, how incredibly cool it is for those people especially — to have played such an pivotal role in making segment what it was. the people who joined in the early years became the bar for quality work and amazing culture that made segment what it was. the early leadership team defined what it meant to elevate that bar with every stage of company growth.
i so wanted a behind the scenes look into how leaders thought about the decisions they did, what they wished they knew, mistakes made, lessons learned, and things they’d do all over again if they could during those first few years. in fact, i wanted this view so badly that when it came time for me to think about where i wanted to go next, i filtered on exactly that: being able to find a place where i could maybe even be the kind of hire — and work with the kind of hires — that i call inflection point hires ™ – able to change the trajectory of a company (even slightly!) by virtue of joining.
what makes pave special
candidly, pave was one of the only companies i talked to that felt like exactly that. it reminded me of segment in its earliest, most exciting days: buzzing with energy, PMF, talent, and a plethora of fun problems to solve. i joined for a lot of reasons – matt: who is an amazing and special leader, the team: who is genuinely A+ as both builders and humans, the product: which customers rely on deeply.
but like, especially the people. i mean here, again, was a place that prioritized hiring, growing, and rewarding A+ talent, and actively designing a culture that ensured people could come and do the best work of their lives. here was a team hungry for all the levers of growth it could get its hands on: feedback, iteration, clarity, focus, and vision.
and speaking of the vision... talk about an opportunity ahead of us. we get to paint the future of a world where compensation just... makes sense. compensation: this thing that is viscerally personal, emotional, can be tough to get right but tougher still when its wrong, this thing that is the love language companies use to communicate value but is still this opaque, foggy artifact that is reminiscent of most of the antiqueness of most of the technology it is built on.
there is so much to learn
as i close a fun, rewarding, exhausting, and hard month one, i’ve been reflecting on how this is definitely what i craved: a front-row seat into the decisions that shape a fast-growing company for years to come alongside incredible people. i also know this time will fly by, and the lessons we learn will pass us by before we realize it.
the reality is, every day we stumble through decisions that in retrospect were wrong, right, or more commonly, just right enough. it’s been so much learning — so much that we think it’s worth opening the hood up a bit, and learning in public. this substack is an attempt to do exactly that. we think it’ll be fun to share pieces of this journey with you, as we navigate all kinds of things... like:
how to onboard an entire product team that all joined within a month of each other to a company that has never had formal product management before, and just as importantly, onboard the company to product
problem hunting: how do you determine what the right place to spend your time is... when there’s so much to do?
brainstorm sprees: we have been on an absolute brainstorming spree at pave on everything from our data model to our future. which brainstorms have been the most effective? why?
org design and hiring at fast-growing places, what to optimize for
how we think about empowering teams to move autonomously
functional leadership vs management - do you interview them the same way? yes, no, maybe? at this stage, what’s really the difference?
unlike many places... pave is a mostly in-office culture (R&D is 3:2 in-office:remote). what impact has that had on how we collaborate and work with each other, if any? why do we work this way?
and so much more 👀
if this sounds interesting, subscribe! we’ll be updating it as often as possible, and want to learn back as much as possible from you as part of this journey, too. send us your favorite reads, reflections, thoughts, and everything in between.
excited for this journey of learning together!