It's a little hard to believe. Fourteen years ago today, I launched Buffer from my apartment in Birmingham, in the UK. The launch came seven weeks after I started working on the project on the side as...
I'm delighted to share that we have introduced support for Bluesky in Buffer. This is an important moment for us as a company, and there are a number of reasons that adding Bluesky is personally...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. We’ve dedicated the week of August 22nd to a brand new internal initiative called Build Week. We’ll all be putting aside our regular work for a...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. I’m happy to share that we’ve established a long-term goal that salaries at Buffer will not be based on location. We made our first step towards...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. In July, we shared that we were looking for a product leader to help us take Buffer forward in our next phase. After speaking to an incredible...
Sometime in late 2018, the concept of having a support network clicked for me. This was the year that I started working with Mandy, my second Executive Assistant. Caryn, who I worked with in that...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. Today marks ten years since I launched the first version of Buffer. What started as a landing page to gauge interest, and then a very basic product...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. We've been building Buffer for coming up to ten years now. We’re currently a 90-person fully remote team with over 70,000 paying customers and $20M...
“When spring comes, snow melts first at the periphery, because that is where it is most exposed” - Andy Grove This quote comes from Andy Grove, Intel’s former CEO, and which I was reminded of in the...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. For the month of May, Buffer will operate under a 4-day workweek (at full pay) across the whole 89-person team. We’re in a period of time where...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. Ever since the world got turned upside down by COVID-19, it’s been “business as unusual” for everyone – Buffer included. I sent this update out to...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. In mid-2017, I hit burnout in a really big way and wound up taking a 6-week break to recharge. I want to fully share my story here and include some...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote this blog post about the next step in Buffer’s social media journey. I described Buffer’s multi-product...
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brian Rhea on the Bright & Early podcast. Listen above, and see more details here.
I recently the pleasure of being interviewed on the Heartbeat Podcast by Claire Lew. Listen above, and check out the full transcript.
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. Last month, Buffer spent $3.3 million – about half of all the cash we had in the bank – to buy out our main venture capital (VC) investors....
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. Working remotely and having the opportunity to work from home, coffee shops, coworking spaces, or wherever else I might feel the most productive,...
A lesser known fact about me is that I have invested in 9 companies. It’s something I’ve not written about yet (other than a quick mention on my /now page). So here we are. The first investment I made...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. Can you remember where you were seven years ago? I was in my apartment in Birmingham, UK, coding up the very first version of Buffer as a tool to...
I've recently found myself reflecting a lot on being a distributed team, and the nature of a company where the team works from remote locations to accomplish our work. Scaling remote working has been...
By now we have a fairly long history of doing retreats at Buffer. We’re now a 75 person team, and we just wrapped up our 8th company retreat in Madrid, Spain. Here’s a quick history of retreat...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. We’ve always done things differently at Buffer. For me, this has always come from a natural desire to question things. Why base your company and...
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog. In the past couple of months, I’ve had a number of thoughts around the growth Buffer has experienced in the last year and some interesting...
One of my favorite things to do is to help others who are at an earlier stage of the startup journey. I had a lot of false starts before Buffer. I enjoy sharing my lessons from those failed attempts,...
In December, my friend and co-worker Brian casually mentioned to me that he would love to go traveling and explore Asia. I love Asia. I lived in Japan as a kid for 3.5 years, and I lived in Hong Kong...
In my recent travels around Asia, I’ve had the great opportunity to meet a lot of local founders and aspiring entrepreneurs. One of the things that seems to come up many times is that people will ask...
We’ve been lucky at Buffer to receive a number of acquisition offers along our journey so far. When I mention this to people, a key question that often comes up is “how did you decide not to sell?”....
I think there's an interesting concept that's prevalent, which I believe could actually be quite dangerous. It's the idea that as a CEO or executive of a company, you need to shield your team from bad...
As a teenager I had a period of many years where I stopped reading books completely. I even remember a time where I couldn't imagine reading books at all. After I graduated and started to be...
Since the beginning of Buffer, we've always shared all of our learnings and failures. Over time this developed into a more defined goal and principle as part of the values of the company. Since we...
I think I’ve just about got to that point with Buffer where sometimes when I stop to reflect on things I think “wow, we’ve actually been doing this for a while now”. It’s about 3.5 years since I...
One of the incredible side-effects of doing retreats 3 times a year with my startup is that I get the opportunity to travel and experience completely different cultures. On top of spending a week and...
We’ve recently reached the point with Buffer where I’ve started to think about a lot of key higher level choices. As a CEO these can be difficult decisions to make. I’ve been taking time to reflect...
For the first two years of Buffer we didn’t use C-level titles. In February last year it started to make much more sense for me to use the CEO title, and soon after Leo became CMO. We had grown up a...
In the last 6 months, we’ve quietly shifted the direction of Buffer. Our adjustment is now almost complete and we’re charging ahead with our new vision. It’s interesting to reflect on how we came to...
I’ve always found it interesting to think about co-founder relationships. I’ve been in a few myself, some which were not completely successful and then more recently working with Leo for the last 3...
One of the most exciting parts of the culture we’ve developed at Buffer for me is our international retreats. It’s also potentially something we’ve not shared that much about and can be misunderstood,...
It’s no secret that I’ve personally been hugely impacted by Eric Ries’ work and the Lean Startup movement. Buffer would not be where it is today without his writings and videos opening my mind to a...
It’s often interesting to look back and think about how much I’ve learned in the past year or two. Especially areas where I almost had no understanding at all. Company culture is one of those areas....
I've written in the past about how I see the role of a CEO to be one where you are repeatedly firing yourself. Joe Kraus brought my attention to thinking about the role in this way, and it has been an...
It’s an exciting time for Buffer. Toby Osbourn just joined and we’re now 16 people. Toby joined us as a Backend Hacker, and he’s been a joy to work with so far. Within just a few days we can all feel...
Three of our key values at Buffer are “Always choose positivity and happiness”, “Have a focus on self-improvement” and “Live smarter, not harder”. As a result of these particular values, in the last...
One of the things I enjoy most about building a company is to focus on culture, and to think about how we can create a team which is a joy to be part of. A large part of this is creating a set of...
Buffer is a fully distributed team. It’s a decision I had to make at the end of 2012, and it’s interesting to reflect on that decision now. I am happy to report that I am in love with the choice we...
This article is inspired by Startup Edition in response to “What advice would you give young entrepreneurs?” I feel incredibly lucky that I managed to jump on board the path of building a startup....
I’ve written in the past about the evolution of our culture at Buffer. One of the things we started to do at around 6-7 people as part of the culture is that everyone has a 1:1 session with either...
As a CEO I often ponder how I can help the team be as productive and happy as possible. As part of our decision to be a distributed team at Buffer, there have been a number of amazing advantages this...
For the first two weeks of last month, I religiously tried to follow a new routine I created for myself: a 7 day work week routine. The idea was quite simple: I would work 7 days a week, rest 7 days a...
Something I’ve found difficult to completely embrace, but which understanding has been super important, is the idea that there is a ratio for everything. I’ve started to call this Ratio Thinking, and...
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. - Henry David Thoreau I can distinctly remember that for the month of December in 2010, and for much of January 2011, I...
I remember when I was 12, I was desperate to grow up. I think most of us are when we’re young. Similarly, when you’re getting your startup off the ground, it can be easy to wish ourselves ahead to...
It’s a long time ago now, however I still remember it very well. When I first went about creating the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Buffer, there was something I kept very clear in my mind. When I...
I’ve done a lot of traveling throughout my journey with Buffer. I started in the UK, and since then I’ve lived in Hong Kong and Tel Aviv as well as San Francisco where I’ve now settled for the longer...
My co-founder Leo and I are headed to Hawaii tomorrow morning for a 10 day trip. I just emailed the team, and I thought in line with one of our core values of defaulting to transparency, it might be...
"Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good" - Gretchen Ruben One thing I have realized for myself, is that although I have an existing solid routine of great habits, I often expect that a new habit will...
In the recent months I’ve realized I am very much in a bubble. Everyone I know is building a company. Amongst my circle of friends, that is the norm. This, however, is mostly out of choice: I believe,...
For a number of years now, I’ve found that I generally always had a “training partner” for my entrepreneurial goals. A few years ago, this was my great friend Khuram, with whom I consistently had a...
One of the most interesting and simultaneously challenging realizations I’ve had is that as a founder, especially the CEO, you essentially have chosen to never become an expert of anything. Oh, and if...
A few weeks ago I restarted one of my favorite habits: a daily evening walk. I want to share a couple of reasons why I love this habit so much, and how I recommend starting it if you find that you...
Through my journey from a founder whose role it was to essentially build the product and code all day, to growing into a CEO role with more management duties and a fast growing team of 7 people, there...
Often if I give a talk or I speak with someone about getting their idea off the ground, the topic of how solid the product should be comes up. In particular, people very frequently wait far too long...
One thing I realised over the holiday period is that my definition of failure in a couple of things had changed considerably since the year before. In particular, in the year of 2012 I built up my gym...
A couple of months ago, my co-founder Leo gave me an interesting suggestion: he said I should try disabling all notifications on my iPhone. I find this suggestion especially interesting because it is...
Startup ideas that involve two sided markets are notoriously difficult to get off the ground. It’s the age-old chicken and egg problem. You need lots of buyers for the sellers to be interested, and...
Yesterday I noticed the Who’s Hiring? thread pop up again on Hacker News. If you’re hiring, it’s a great place to share that fact. Since around half a year ago, we’ve been actively hiring and so I’ve...
"Those that get up at 5am rule the world" - Robin Sharma Those who know me, know that I love my morning routine. I’m always making adjustments to it, and at its core it revolves around waking up early...
I was recently back in the UK for two weeks and had the chance to speak at an event in London about the incredible journey with my startup in the last two years. When I speak, I try my best to share...
"We live in a vague world. And it gets vaguer all the time. In this environment, the power of the specific, measurable and useful promise made and kept is difficult to overstate." - Seth Godin It’s...
I often reflect upon the differences between my previous startup and Buffer, and think about what changes to my mindset affected the better outcome this time compared with my previous attempts. One of...
It’s now 2 years since I launched Buffer, and the company has grown from just myself (working from my bedroom) to a team of 7. In the last few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about culture and asking...
Before I had any success with Buffer, I helped many startups with their ideas. I attended events, spoke at events and even created my own meetup for startups. These were not particularly big events,...
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle I’ve been obsessed with thinking about, adjusting and building upon my habits for a long time now, and working...
Paul Graham has a fantastic article on the topic of scheduling work as a maker and as a manager, which I’ve drawn insights from and I know many others have too. Here’s a key part of it: One reason...
For some time, I’ve gradually realised that my day is not only occupied by tasks from my todo list. Often, there are lots of other tasks which deserve time in my day just as much as those I have in my...
There are a few key things which looking back I remember I was very bad at. One of them was asking people for advice. I think a key turning point with this was when we raised funding for Buffer last...
The other day I was listening to Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and and I found it amazing how this book, which has now sold over 15 million copies, originally started: I...
In the past couple of years, I’ve been through a number of interesting experiences through building Buffer. One of the things I’ve ended up thinking about a lot is the subject of whether you should...
Recently 37signals published an article titled Some advice from Jeff Bezos. This wasn’t your usual advice, and I found it interesting to read and how familiar it felt as I read each next line. The...
I’ve had a fascinating journey with Buffer, and having started in the UK and living in San Francisco for 6 months, I’ve also had the opportunity in just the last year to spend time in Hong Kong, Japan...
I’m a huge believer of the lean startup movement and the concept of validating ideas as quickly as possible. I think wasted time and resources are disastrous and no matter how much you love an idea,...
Update: I originally posted this article with the title “Incorporate your startup only when you’re forced to” and I had amazing feedback, particularly from Andrew Payne and David Hauser who have been...
I was recently talking with Eytan Levit, a really interesting founder who’s had a lot of amazing experiences. We were chatting about some of his current challenges, and amongst some things to do with...
Last week I had the great pleasure of grabbing dinner with Jon Bradford, and having him stop over at my place on his way to speak on a panel at an event in Jerusalem. The story of how I know Jon is a...
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." - Thomas Jefferson Around 2 years ago I stopped reading and watching mainstream news. I don’t read...
I’ve had a few different experiences in the last couple of weeks which made me reach a big realisation. What I’ve discovered is that the context of any situation is very important. Hiten Shah clearly...
The last two years have been truly incredible. What started in my bedroom in the UK has taken us across the world to San Francisco, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Tel Aviv. I’m now lucky enough to work with a...
"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to...
In the last week I’ve talked with a few early stage startup founders about pricing. It seems pricing is often a large block for many. It’s understandable, since there are so many decisions to make:...
Now that it’s almost two years since I first had the idea for Buffer, and with the year and a half before that which I worked on my previous startup, I’ve started to notice a few patterns amongst the...
Choosing a name is one of the parts of a startup I find the most difficult. It’s also something you can easily get hung up on. We all know that the key thing is to move on to actually building...
Right now I’m sat in a great coffee shop in Tel Aviv writing this blog post. It’s got a casual feel to it which is relaxing, yet there are people here with laptops hustling away. I come here every...
Last month I wrote about my discovery that helping others makes me happier than spending the time seeing a movie or doing some other “pleasure activity”. I briefly mentioned that I’ve been regularly...
I met with Jesse Nowlin a few days ago, a great founder who’s really hustling. We spent some time discussing his idea and I shared some of my experiences with Buffer. When we’d almost finished our 30...
This is the second article in my achieving overnight success series where I aim to dispel the myth of overnight success. To do this, I look into how founders who have achieved incredible milestones...
Buffer has been a crazy ride since I first had the idea back in October 2010. As we’ve grown the startup from nothing to 250,000 users, a $600,000 annual revenue run rate and a team of 6, we’ve done...
When you’re building a startup, the startup itself has a reputation and credibility around it. The startup has tremendous power. As the startup rocket ship takes off, the best thing you can do is to...
For the last 3 months I’ve regularly been meeting startup founders here in Hong Kong to try and help them with the biggest challenges they have. It’s been truly enjoyable and fascinating. I feel I’ve...
When to incorporate is one of those topics which comes up time and time again, and there is much conflicting advice out there. I’m lucky enough to have a number of different experiences and...
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie Earlier this week I took a...
I’ve realised there was a time I didn’t believe people would pay for a product. In my mind, it was a myth. As an entrepreneur, it’s so vital to overcome that. First, a coffee shop conversation I was...
Looking back to the start of Buffer, one of the things I think may have helped a lot with gaining traction fast was to involve users in the validation process and tell these people how crucial their...
Recently there have been a few occasions at Buffer where we’ve hesitated about next steps or thought about spending longer on certain tasks. As a result of my thinking around this, I’ve started to...
I’ve mentioned many times before on this blog that I learned a huge amount through my previous, not so successful startup OnePage which I spent one and a half years pursuing. A lot of the reason we...
This morning, my alarm sounded at precisely 5:50am. Within a few minutes, I was up and had my running shoes, shorts and a t-shirt on. Minutes later at 6am, I opened my MacBook Air, switched to the...
We’re lucky enough to have reached the stage with Buffer where we have had to start to think about growing the team. For the first 10 months the team consisted of just myself and Leo. When we arrived...
Whilst researching for the Achieving overnight success: Kevin Systrom piece I published two weeks ago, I was excited to see that one of Systrom’s earliest recollections of something that impacted his...
"Work harder on yourself than you do on your job." - Jim Rohn A long time ago, I came across the amazing quote above, which was said often by Jim Rohn. It stuck in my mind, and as the years have gone...
Frequently startups pop up and take over the press, framed as an “overnight success” taking just a year or two to reach some incredible milestone. For some time I’ve had a slight intuition that...
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet with some outstanding first-time entrepreneurs on a few different days during this week. In almost every case I can really feel the passion and determination they...
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is the idea of simply trying harder with everything I choose to spend my time on. It seems like an elusive thing, the idea of optimal focus and...
I recently received an email asking some advice about co-founders, specifically about whether a 50/50 ownership split makes sense for a startup. This is certainly a topic which has had heated...
It’s almost exactly a year since I started documenting my startup lessons learned through this blog, and since my first post last November, I’ve blogged 26 times. I’ve been lucky enough to have...
Over the past few years of my journey with building startups, I’ve made a conscious effort to absorb as much of the fascinating insights and learnings of those more experienced than me. Startups and...
It’s been a while since my last blog post, and I’ve recently been pondering why that may be. It’s not that I’ve been doing less than when I was regularly blogging, it’s in fact quite the opposite....
It is easy to look at successful founders and see them as genuises, as people who were without a doubt going to be triumphant. When we look at people in that way, it is completely understandable to...
A couple of things have happened this week that made me think a little about what failure means for startup founders. Firstly, one of my favorite startups Sprouter has announced that it is closing its...
Some of you may know that I just left everything behind in the UK and together with my co-founder Leo arrived in San Francisco to base ourselves and Buffer here for the next two and a half months....
I want to give a special thanks to my co-founder Leo who listened to and discussed some of these thoughts with me before I turned them into a blog post. In the last few months, and particularly the...
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about when the right time is to start marketing a startup. In my previous startup, we were hesitant to attempt to get press early. We were always waiting until our...
If you are a first time startup founder, or have done a few projects but are still working either full-time or freelancing part-time, you are likely to struggle to find investment for your startup...
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain When you’re building a startup, it’s very important to question assumptions. I think one of these...
I believe that when you’re building a startup, it is as much about developing yourself as it is about developing your startup. This week I’ve stepped up my gym routine and managed to go to the gym...
Last time I wrote about how to start your startup in 4 steps, and the first step I mention is to “Have an idea”. This can mean becoming serious about an idea you’ve had in the back of your mind, or it...
Having started my latest venture just over 5 months ago, and having just reached ramen profitability, I want to share some of the elements which made this startup “work” compared to some of my...
My first post on this blog was one where I pondered whether exercise is a requirement for sleep. The post was actually triggered by my inability to sleep, and I wrote it in the middle of the night....
When I look back on the times I’ve done the most productive work on my startup, it has always been when I’ve had a great balance of work and rest. It has also been at times when I have genuinely been...
Something I’ve mentioned before at the start of a post is that I often look back on quotes, blogs and books I’ve read by some of the great minds of startups and don’t fully take on board what they...
I’m writing this from Javea, Spain. I arrived here a couple of days ago and I’ve been pondering the relationship between work and rest in a startup. One reason I’m building a startup is to gain...
One of the most important differences for me personally in how I’ve run my current startup compared to the last one I founded has been how I treat the product at each stage of the process. With ideas...
As a fledgling entrepreneur in the midst of a growing startup, I try to read quite a lot around the subject. I’ve been deeply involved in startup culture for around two years now and I often find...
I often like to look back on when I was just getting into startups. I think there is a myth in entrepreneurship which not only do many newcomers believe, but could also be a key reason why many don’t...
"I’ve had many many many products, the vast majority of the things I’ve written, or created, the organisations I built fail, but the reason I’ve managed a modicum of success is because I just keep...
I’ve been pondering recently about how my latest venture has very much felt like cycling between creating order from chaos and then ending up with chaos again. I wanted to share my experiences and I...
Whilst building my latest startup, which I’m glad to say is picking up nicely, there have been times when things have started to go a little crazy. It might be being featured in a big blog, lots of...
A short while ago I wrote about one of the ways I think people could bootstrap a startup from zero funds. I called it "working in waves". Of course, there are more ways than one to get a startup off...
People who know me know that I like to make things systematic when I can, and doing so helps me make sense of things and have confidence in my actions. In addition to making things systematic, I also...
I would like to ponder whether making mistakes is actually a necessary part of the process of achieving whatever form of “success” we are striving for. I’d love your thoughts in the comments. A topic...
I’ve spent the last year and a half after graduating from the University of Warwick juggling working on startups and working as a contract web developer. I’d like to share some of my reflections on...
Recently I have struggled to get to sleep at night. When I need to be up at 8 and working away on either my own projects or exciting client projects by 9 it is vital that I wake up refreshed and ready...
