# oceans.ventures

> AI-optimized mirror of oceans.ventures containing 50 pages totalling 34,022 words of clean markdown content, structured data, and semantic HTML. Original source: https://oceans.ventures/. Last updated: 2026-05-21T20:32:11.166Z.

Each page is available as HTML (with JSON-LD structured data) and Markdown (text-only, ideal for LLMs and RAG).

## Homepage

- [site-root.html](/site-root.html) (1 words)

## Articles & Blog Posts

- [I have a fully conscious bias that there is nothing more important for a company than being able to recruit & hire effectively and with purpose. This is true at any size and stage, but especially true early on, because your first 25 employees are 10x more important than your next 250.  As you can imagine (and as you have probably encountered) culture, hiring, and recruiting are hot topics that someone with my background can write a few books on (if I didn’t already have a full time job actively supporting Oceans founders!).](/relationships-over-reqs/index.html): As you can imagine (and as you have probably encountered) culture, hiring, and recruiting are hot topics. (1,164 words)
- [jobs/index.html](/jobs/index.html) (1 words)
- [Hiring Diverse Talent](/why-hiring-diverse-talent-is-crucial-for-your-business.html): Hiring a diverse team is imperative for your success as an organization. It is clear now - more than ever - that it is both socially and morally imperative - period. That should be more than enough reason for growing organizations to start attacking this like you would other business opportunities today. Although we certainly don’t have all the answers, we know that now is not the time to be quiet and just “hope” things change; we all must do our part. We are each where we are today - founders, investors, partners, teammates - because we are leaders. So let’s lead. (1,096 words)
- [**Monday – The Internal Meeting ONLY Day**](/focus-as-a-foundation/index.html) (1,062 words)
- [blog](/founders-toolbox-decision-making-framework/index.html): We’ve committed to sharing our Oceans OS for founders and their team members to use. These frameworks provide a map and guidelines to accomplish what is at hand and allow some flexibility as we all know one size fits most, but not all. Regardless of your company’s mission, product, or size, effective communication is crucial for any early-stage business. With that in mind, we created a tool to help facilitate open and clear communication across a team; it’s what we like to call the PPPM/HPM. (588 words)
- [Privacy Policy](/privacy-policy/index.html) (1,520 words)
- [blog](/hiring-without-hr/index.html): Building early stage leadership teams is not only hard, it’s also something that should not be rushed. One bad hire can slow or kill a founder’s momentum. These are decisions that can negatively impact the confidence a founder and their teams have around what happens on the next hire. I witnessed this with one of the earliest founders we partnered with. I was able to rework their process from the ground up, and help rebuild their leadership team across almost every function. Here’s how we did it (1,339 words)
- [Everyone likes a good story.](/invest-in-your-story-it-pays-massive-dividends/index.html): Everyone likes a good story. It doesn’t matter if you are talking to a potential investor, an engineer you really want to hire, your college roommate or a reporter. A story well told is remembered and impactful. Some people are natural storytellers, able to weave together a narrative seemingly as an innate quality. For the rest of us, nailing our story takes focus and repetition - practice rivaling natural ability.  (887 words)
- [blog](/why-oceans-how-oceans-came-to-life/index.html): On February 15th 2016, I left Facebook after nine years. This is how Oceans came to life. (956 words)
- [Our Initial Hypothesis has Been Confirmed](/oceans-120-day-review-2/index.html) (897 words)
- [blog](/the-future-of-work-shaped-by-covid/index.html): While Covid continues to wreak havoc and turn our world upside down, one day it’s going to be under control and we’ll go back to business as usual.But we won’t.Every facet of every business has been thrown for a loop. None more than start-ups.The virus did a lot of damage but it also changed some things, confirmed some things and made us discover that many of things we relied on and were doing are just wrong or could be better. (807 words)
- [blog](/the-power-of-together-2/index.html) (851 words)
- [Partners](/team/index.html) (6,302 words)
- [blog](/meet-oceans-day-1-2/index.html) (589 words)
- [blog](/boardroom-theater-is-a-reality-part-1/index.html): Having led or been a part of over 50 board meetings over the last decade at Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple) and Foursquare, I know the pivotal questions founders need to ask themselves as they take on investors and put together their board. Because if you do it right, there will be far more boardroom and far less theater.  (644 words)
- [Guest Blog by [Mike Rognlien](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrognlien)](/crucial-conversations/index.html): Of those 20 years, I’ve spent about 15 of them teaching a program called Crucial Conversations, a program based on the 5-million selling book of the same name. I had an opportunity recently to sit down with some start-up CEO’s and the team from Oceans to talk about that book and some of the lessons in it for leaders, and I’ll recap a few of them here for you. (835 words)
- [blog](/founders-toolbox-os-edition/index.html): Our mission at Oceans is to make founders successful, and part of that is to make their jobs easier -- to give  them rudders to help navigate the turbulent startup waters. One of the ways we do that is to give them a series of assets to help them structure everything from their organization to the way they communicate so they can hit the ground running. (365 words)
- [blog](/founders-toolbox-pppm-hpm-edition/index.html): We’ve committed to sharing our Oceans OS for founders and their team members to use. These frameworks provide a map and guidelines to accomplish what is at hand and allow some flexibility as we all know one size fits most, but not all. Regardless of your company’s mission, product, or size, effective communication is crucial for any early-stage business. With that in mind, we created a tool to help facilitate open and clear communication across a team; it’s what we like to call the PPPM/HPM. (638 words)
- [blog](/focus-on-talent-not-hiring/index.html): For first time founders looking for a co-founder or perhaps your first C-level executive, we strongly suggest you take your time and focus on talent, not hiring. There’s a huge benefit to getting to know these important individuals personally and professionally. (551 words)
- [blog](/boardroom-theater-is-a-reality-part-2/index.html): Having led or been a part of over 50 board meetings over the last decade at Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple) and Foursquare, I know the pivotal questions founders need to ask themselves as they take on investors and put together their board. Because if you do it right, there will be far more boardroom and far less theater. Part 2. (730 words)
- [blog](/interns-haveem-then-useem/index.html): A great intern can provide the value of a good entry level employee. You just need to manage them correctly. Manage them like you would any direct report. Give them clear instructions and clear feedback, granted, the instruction might be more prescriptive and the feedback more gentle, but watch them, encourage them and keep them on the rails. (439 words)
- [blog](/founders-toolbox-pug-edition/index.html): Our mission at Oceans is to make founders successful, and part of that is to make their jobs easier -- to give  them rudders to help navigate the turbulent startup waters. One of the ways we do that is to give them a series of assets to help them structure everything from their organization to the way they communicate so they can hit the ground running. (515 words)
- [Facebook Is Producing A New Generation Of Alumni Investors. This Time, Women Are In Charge](/author/lvitas/index.html) (304 words)
- [In start-up utopia (start-up-ia?), everything goes gangbusters from Day O.](/as-far-as-valuations-go-dont-do-it-for-the-headlines-do-it-for-the-long-term-outcome.html): Don't raise capital for the headlines, raise it for the business you want to be. So forget the headlines. Because while it’s seldom sexy,  the fine print is where the deal is made. (489 words)
- [blog](/these-are-challenging-times-challenge-your-investors.html): Things could be better. Founders face many challenges, yet relatively few chapters were devoted to global pandemics in MBA textbooks. Good times.Fortunately, when it comes to overcoming obstacles, founders have a secret and frequently untapped resource right under their noses: their investors. (509 words)
- [A New Approach to Seed Investing: Oceans Ventures Fund I](/author/steven/index.html) (111 words)
- [news](/aloe-care-health-receives-2020-award-from-todays-caregiver.html): NEW YORK, Aug. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- NEW YORK, Aug. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aloe Care Health, the most advanced voice-activated medical alert and communication service for elder care, received a 2020 Today's Caregiver Friendly Award, awarded to products and services designed with the best interest of the caregiver and care recipient in mind. (7 words)
- [news](/spiketrap-raises-3-million-for-ai-based-social-media-intelligence-platform.html): Spiketrap has raised $3 million for its AI platform that helps brands understand how they are engaging with consumers on social media. The San Francisco-based company processes tons of text-based social data — like Twitter posts — to discern how consumers view a brand or a game in real time. When a big event happens, such as the launch of a new game like Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Spiketrap can collect the prevailing sentiment about the game. (7 words)
- [news](/remote-operators-in-mexico-are-driving-scooters-to-riders-in-this-atlanta-suburb.html): The pilot also marks a bit of a coup for Tortoise. Peachtree Corners passed an ordinance mandating that all shared micromobility devices must be capable of automated repositioning in an effort to reduce clutter on sidewalks that have plagued other cities with dockless scooters. (7 words)
- [news](/the-wrong-kind-of-individual-contributor-will-kill-your-company.html) (7 words)
- [news](/a-job-candidates-years-of-experience-are-meaningless-without-this-other-quality.html) (7 words)
- [news](/recruiting-efforts-arent-enough-to-build-a-great-team.html) (7 words)
- [news](/facebook-is-producing-a-new-generation-of-alumni-investors-this-time-women-are-in-charge.html) (7 words)
- [news](/6-reasons-why-you-should-start-your-company-in-new-york-instead-of-silicon-valley.html) (7 words)
- [news](/facebook-foursquare-alums-help-founders-spend-their-millions.html) (7 words)
- [news](/silicon-valleys-biggest-problem-is-that-theres-too-much-money-says-former-facebook-executive.html) (7 words)
- [news](/silicon-valley-cant-handle-hard-conversations-and-its-hurting-entrepreneurs.html) (7 words)
- [news](/former-facebook-google-employees-launch-mentorship-startup-for-local-founders.html) (7 words)
- [news](/8-common-mistakes-startup-founders-make-according-to-former-executives-at-facebook-and-foursquare.html) (7 words)
- [news](/tech-veterans-launch-mentorship-engine-oceans/index.html) (7 words)
- [Invest in Your Story, It Pays Massive Dividends](/author/brandon/index.html) (21 words)
- [news](/former-foursquare-exec-launches-a-nyc-based-mentorship-engine.html) (7 words)
- [Internships – more valuable than coffee runs.](/author/libbyoceans-ventures/index.html) (20 words)
- [Crucial Conversations](/author/mikerognlien/index.html) (15 words)
- [news](/exclusive-foursquares-president-starts-new-early-stage-venture.html) (7 words)
- [Luzid CEO on Agentic AI: Transforming SAP & Salesforce Implementations](/news/index.html) (152 words)
- [What Differentiates us](/about/index.html) (386 words)
- [Say Hello](/contact/index.html) (180 words)
- [Companies](/companies/index.html): We believe that a company is only as good as its people, which is why we share networks as well as knowledge. Leveraging our experience in hiring and evaluating talent, we work closely with founders to build dynamic teams and sustainable company cultures to power the business for the long-term. (8,946 words)

## Resources

- [Full Page Index](/index.html): Browse all cached pages with rich metadata
- [About This Cache](/content/about.html): Methodology, technical details, and usage guidelines
- [XML Sitemap](/content/sitemap.xml): Machine-readable sitemap for crawler discovery
- [Robots.txt](/content/robots.txt): Crawler directives