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Growing Pains: Disfunction to Cross Function
I like to think of startups in terms of dog years; 1 year in a startup is the equivalent of 7 in your average company. Things tend to happen quickly and sometimes, uncomfortably. This discomfort keeps things exciting and fresh. Although, when you’re trying to move at high velocity, you may forget to stop and […]
Making your life easier. One invite at a time.
Here at Breather, we understand that organizing and booking a meeting is a time suck that most people would like to avoid. You start by checking a bunch of schedules, deal with time conflicts, pick a location, prepare the agenda, etc…. We believe that anything we can do to make it easier for our users to book,invite, […]
Fresh Eyes: The Sober New Employee
“You were born with two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Does this quote ring a bell? It should, it’s fairly common and for the most part, sound advice. It emphasizes the need to think before you open your mouth and say something unwarranted or stupid. It can also have a negative effect, it […]
Smooth Seas Don’t Make Good Sailors
I was recently asked for career advice from someone in their early twenties. I decided to write from my own experience at that age. So, how do you accelerate your career in the most rewarding way possible? How can you learn, execute, and network at an uncomfortable pace? Uncomfortable is the key word here. When you coast, […]
Breather Series B: Twenty Million Thank You’s
Today we announced our Series B funding at Breather. We have successfully raised a 20 million dollar round, and over the past two years raised close to 30 million. This round was lead by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures with Participation by RRE, SOS Ventures and Slow Ventures. It’s 7:45 am and I’m sitting in our HQ […]
Design and Product at Breather
I don’t generally write a blog post surrounding articles about Breather, but this one is a little different. Invision did an interview with the Product team at Breather. The lens they chose was Design. Design is something we care deeply about, not just the product team and designers, but everyone from the engineers to customer […]
Where the fu_k is the forest?
Elation, anxiety and panic; rinse repeat. This is the feeling of being in a startup or any new business. Paul Graham mentions this in what he calls the Startup Curve. Two years into Breather I still suffer from the these symptoms, they come and go. Contrary to popular belief, raising funding and getting money in […]
Give a Shit, Get Hired.
I’ve spent the past 10 years of my life interviewing, managing teams and building product. Interviewing is a precursor to managing and building product. You need teams to build product and you need to interview to get people on your team. Interviewing can be a drawn out, laborious and soul sucking experience. Sometimes you’re sitting […]
Did I Mention Retention?
Retention…pretty self explanatory. It’s people who use your product and come back and do it all over again. These are the people who you should care the most about. It’s more efficient to reactivate a dormant user than to go out and spend a bunch of money to activate a new one. If you find […]
Failure’s Not Flattering
Three weeks ago I received some awesome news, I was nominated for a Notable Award. First reaction, epic! There was one small problem, I had no idea what a Notable Award was. I did some research and it turns out it’s an award given to young Canadian professionals who exhibit a series of qualities ranging […]
brandon reti 
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