“I WANT IT NOW!” First Veruca Salt, but most recently the title of this week’s Instant Gratification series by reporter Liz Gannes. For me one common thread ran through the stories: importance of operations teams in these new on-demand businesses. Strong operations leads are as valuable – and scarce – as great designers, experienced mobile devs and the other fabled unicorn hires. The customer experience for these companies may start with bits but it ends with atoms, and that’s why an Operations team can make – or break – your startup.

When Homebrew decided to focus on the Bottom Up Economy we knew operations would be a key area for many of the teams we backed. Satya and I were fortunate enough to spend many years at Google, beginning on AdSense where Kim Scott ran the Online Sales & Operations team for Sheryl. Kim, a whipsmart founder and leader…