I’m Cyril Michino
Building Chaptr Global,
Built Zindua Coding School
Entrepreneur focused on education. Data Scientist professionally with experience leading startup product and growth teams. Based on my experience, I write/build resources on startup ops and product dev.
My main quests
I am currently involved in two startups focused on the Education industry in Africa.
Explore my resources
Based on my experiences, I build resources and tutorials for entrepreneurs and developers.
Popular blogs
I write about startup operations, growth, and product dev based on my personal journey in entrepreneurship & tech.
5 top productivity tools I use for my life
Cloudron Everything – One-click self-hosting for open-source apps
The Startup OS – Ultimate Notion Template for Startup Operations 2024
Algebra of startup ops
Below are my encoded equations for startup operations that I live by and I wish I learned earlier.
Equation 1: Keep teams small and define a customer for every team
I stole this from Posthog’s company handbook1 and it works like magic. Here are the core sub-principles on team building:
Equation 2: High-performing teams are anchored on simple and clear KPIs
Your business, every team, and every individual should be anchored one key performance indicator (KPI). This KPI should be tied directly to the customer job of your business, main objective of the team, and core responsibility of an individual. Note that KPIs will influence behaviour and make sure that you are always exploring how well that KPIs influence positive behaviour and is anchored to your main objective. Here are the core sub-principles on KPIs:
Equation 3: Speed of execution matters more than the decision itself
Equation 4: Systemise everything, document everything, and iterate
Equation 5: The hardest problems inspire the most extraordinary talent
Equation 6: The best ideas come from the least expected sources, decentralise and incentivise innovation
Equation 7: The toughest competitors are those that keep innovating and move fast, not those that have more money or higher valuations
Footnotes
- Posthog Company Handbook, Small Teams, updated March 5th 2024: https://posthog.com/handbook/company/small-teams ↩︎
- Hubspot – Katrina Kirsch, Conversion Funnels, published February 4th 2022: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/conversion-funnel ↩︎
Note: I am gradually updating these principles as I keep learning and unlearning. I am also gradually fleshing out the equations without deeper insights. ~ Cyril Michino