Kate Ryder: Conviction, Seeking Advice, and Giving Teams Room to Explore

Verification notes (2026-11-02): This post excerpts Sequoia Hui's Chinese translation of an interview with Kate Ryder. Sequoia published the original English interview on November 20, 2019. The first-person voice is Maven founder Kate Ryder's; the early fundraising and user stories are her recollections at the time, not independent statistics. The description of women's and family health as not yet being a venture capital market reflects her view of the funding environment then; it does not mean there had previously been no investment whatsoever in the field. The original interview also says that interview answers can be inappropriate, and does not judge the early freelance designers to have lacked experience. Sources: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/itWyhBK4faZBavQQLHDaGA https://sequoiacap.com/article/seven-questions-with-kate-ryder/ ---- ▨ What advice would you give first-time founders? #Persist, and #HaveAbsoluteConvictionInWhatYouAreDoing. Conviction can sustain you through the many difficulties of the long journey of building a company. Maven is a good example. When Maven began, women's and family health businesses had not yet entered the venture capital market, and few people understood the sector. That is very different from today. Fundraising was difficult at first, and our patients' experiences kept us going. I vividly remember one day shortly after we started, when an investor had just turned me down. At that moment I received a text from a user. She was only 18, had just moved to New York, and did not know anyone. She had obtained a birth control prescription through Maven, was grateful to us, and had recommended us to her friends. I forwarded her text to the team so they would know: “Our product matters.” ▨ What experiences shaped who you are today? My early career as a journalist had a major influence. Back then, I needed a large network of sources to help me tell stories. Now I need those networks to help me make good decisions. #IAmNeverShyAboutAskingOthersForExpertAdvice. In general, I think journalism and founding a company have much in common, especially when you are opening up a new field. A journalist does not know at the outset what the story is. Just when you think you understand it, another conversation with a source may completely change it. The journalist's job is to keep solving problems and build structure out of chaos. The same is true of a company founder. ▨ What do you think is the best interview question? Once candidates have spent some time with our team and developed a clear understanding of the work ahead, I ask what they consider the three most important qualities for someone in the role, and ask them to assess themselves against those qualities. Of course, I have my own answers, but listening to other people's answers also helps me define the role better. There is more than one right answer, but there are inappropriate ones too: an answer for an operations role, for example, should not revolve entirely around sales. It is interesting to hear different candidates describe the same qualities. If one person talks about process improvement and another says “KPI frameworks,” you learn how each thinks. Their self-assessment also helps me see whether they clearly understand their own strengths and weaknesses, because rationality and honesty are very important qualities for everyone in management. ▨ What have you learned from past experience? Do not be too prescriptive when giving feedback. As a founder, sometimes your responsibility is to make clear what should be done. At other times, especially in business innovation, you should give others more room to explore. In Maven's early days, we had many freelance designers, and I had to tell them how to do things step by step. Now we have highly capable full-time designers, while my work has shifted more toward the broader direction of the business, letting them design the product. We do need to balance design innovation with launching products quickly, but even under time pressure, it is still possible to give specific feedback. ▨ What invention would you most like to see? I hope for an invention that helps promote people's kindness and generosity while curbing their worst impulses. When you read books such as Sapiens, you see how both extremes have shaped human history. The internet has not always guided us in the right direction. People cling to their own ideas rather than trying to understand other people's experiences or perspectives. There are many examples showing the virtues in human nature. It would be wonderful to invent a powerful tool—perhaps a machine people could enter, press a button, and emerge better able to express those virtues. Original: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/itWyhBK4faZBavQQLHDaGA