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Kathryn Minshew at Female Founders Conference 2014
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Kathryn Minshew, cofounder of The Muse, at Female Founders Conference 2014
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Meet Kathryn Minshew
Kathryn Minshew, co-founder and CEO of The Muse, shares her journey from aspiring Zorro to leading a career platform. She reflects on her experiences in the Y Combinator winter 2012 batch and sets the stage for her talk about the evolution of The Muse.
"so next you're gonna meet Kathryn Minshew fun fact when she was a kid Kathryn wanted to be Zorro now Kathryn is founder and CEO of the muse a career platform and job discovery tool Kathryn was part of..."
From Suck to Suck Less
Kathryn discusses the early days of The Muse, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging the scrappy beginnings of startups. She shares her personal journey and the evolution of The Muse, highlighting the anxiety and challenges faced while developing the platform.
"everybody thank you guys so much for having me I'm actually really excited as Ellie mentioned we were actually the same batch so the last time I was up here was also our demo day in March 2012 we actu..."
Career Aspirations and Realities
Kathryn reflects on her childhood dreams of becoming Zorro and later wanting to join the CIA, influenced by her fascination with the TV show 'Alias.' She recounts her experiences interning at a US Embassy and working in management consulting, ultimately leading to her realization of the need for a better career navigation tool.
"of a lot of startups is this idea that by the time you often hear about a lot of the companies that are touted as you know as big kind of technology successes they've already gone so far past the poin..."
Launching The Muse
Kathryn shares the initial steps taken to launch The Muse, including the decision to start with a WordPress site due to their lack of technical skills. She discusses the challenges of targeting a niche market and the surprising user growth they experienced despite initial setbacks.
"McKinsey really interesting experience but I knew pretty quickly that I don't actually want to be a management consultant I moved to Rwanda and Malawi and worked in vaccines and I was like holy like e..."
The Power of Persistence
Kathryn recounts the pivotal moment when they decided to apply to Y Combinator after being turned down by multiple investors. She emphasizes the importance of determination and belief in their vision, leading to their acceptance into the accelerator.
"was a wordpress customized theme that provided career advice from different kind of professionals and managers and execs in a pretty easy to read formatted targeted at women in their twenties which in..."
Early Mistakes and Learning
Kathryn discusses the early mistakes made after joining Y Combinator, including hiring decisions and the temptation to overcomplicate their product. She shares insights on the importance of launching quickly and iterating based on user feedback.
"apply to I see and it's actually interesting we were not going to apply at all I had been with a previous company that Alex and I worked on together turned down from I think like 11 accelerators and s..."
The Importance of User Feedback
Kathryn emphasizes the necessity of putting ideas to the test and gathering feedback from actual users rather than relying on friends and family. She shares her experiences with early user interactions and the lessons learned about market demand.
"early-stage mistakes which was at first of all when we got into ICA we got so excited about the fact this was somebody that actually had you know was was sort of respected and they actually believed i..."
Navigating Metrics and Success
Kathryn discusses the importance of tracking relevant metrics for success, rather than getting distracted by less important data points. She shares her journey of identifying key performance indicators that truly reflect the growth and impact of The Muse.
"think it's really tempting sometimes to keep working on something and to keep it you know very quiet to wait until you have something beautiful and perfect to put out to the world because it's really ..."
Creating Velocity in Growth
Kathryn talks about the misconception that building a great product will automatically attract users. She shares strategies for actively seeking out and engaging with their target audience to drive growth and awareness for The Muse.
"corporate jobs so secondly has test everything but know what's actually important I think when we first launched the company profiles and the job listings on the muse we got so excited with the fact t..."
Leveraging Community for Growth
Kathryn explains how The Muse leveraged community engagement to grow its user base. She shares practical tips on reaching out to like-minded groups and making it easy for users to share their platform with others.
"among a very very large pool of potential people who don't necessarily want to share about your product early on as I said I've done two startups and the big difference between startup number one qi p..."
Building Brand Recognition
Kathryn discusses the importance of creating content to build brand recognition and SEO. She shares her experiences with guest blogging and how persistence in outreach led to increased visibility for The Muse.
"never could have accessed on our own the second point is you know to make it you've got to make it insanely easy for people to give you a word of mouth so I always think it's really interesting a lot ..."
Assembling a Passionate Team
Kathryn highlights the significance of building a dedicated team that shares the company's vision. She discusses recruitment strategies focused on passion and personal growth, emphasizing the value of a committed team in a startup environment.
"also great for SEO number four is build an amazing team I think a lot of people have talked about so this is part of not the entire but part of the muse team in fact two people from the muse team are ..."
Staying Grounded Amidst Hype
Kathryn concludes with a reminder to stay focused on user needs and not get swayed by industry hype. She emphasizes the importance of building something that truly resonates with users, leading to sustainable growth and success.
"the classic big sites you're LinkedIn's you're in deeds there's a lot of up and comers higher art Ellie's the muse angellist networks are big but I also find lurking to be very effective which I defin..."