Three-time NBA Champion Stephen Curry is more than a game-changing basketball star. He’s also been hard at work off the court establishing his bona fides as an activist, philanthropist, and tech investor. Curry and Miro CEO Andrey Khusid met at an event in 2019, and after learning about Miro’s product and vision for the future of collaboration, he decided to bring his passion for teamwork and commitment to excellence to Miro as an investor.
This week, Curry joined us for a Q&A session as part of our 2020 virtual offsite, an online gathering of our global team across our hubs in Austin, Los Angeles, Perm, San Francisco, and Amsterdam for learning and teambuilding. While Curry left us with many words of wisdom, in honor of his legacy we’ll boil it down to three points we’ll take with us throughout the year.
“The greatest gift you can give someone is time and love”
In sharing advice on building strong teams, Curry passed these words of wisdom from Davidson College basketball coach Bob McKillop onto our team. It’s advice he said is especially relevant now that he’s grown into the veteran role on the Warriors and has an opportunity to extend his leadership to a new class of young players.
“This quote inspires me to put in the extra effort to meet someone for coffee or drop by their house,” he said. “I try to make it not all about basketball.”
This sentiment resonated deeply with our team at Miro, who – like millions of workers – need to actively resist hopping from meeting to meeting and project to project without getting to know colleagues on a personal level. And with our company already growing by 158 people this year and continuing to grow by hundreds more in the next 18 months, Curry’s reminder to spend one-on-one time with new teammates and invest in mentorship was extremely timely.
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Strong teams power individual resilience
In the age of COVID-19, the question of how to remain resilient through challenging times is in the front of everyone’s mind. We asked Stephen how he’s managed to stay resilient through injuries and other difficult periods of his career, and he pointed to the power of loyalty to his teammates.
“I went through surgeries and came out not sure if I’d ever make it back to the court,” he told us. “But when you’re part of a team, you want to get back out there and rejoin that fight, and that’s what always helped me get out of bed in the morning.”
Curry’s words should ring true not only to athletes, but also to companies trying to maintain high levels of engagement with teams working remotely. By helping workforces build loyalty to each other and to the company’s purpose, you can help them remain resilient and motivated, even when times are tough. With this week’s virtual offsite, Miro is putting our best foot forward in putting this advice into action – even though we can’t gather in person.
The most impactful feedback isn’t always the loudest
It’s important to conduct post-mortems and find opportunities for improvement after every project, whether they are successful or not. Stephen told us that the day after a Warriors loss, the team reconvenes to review the game and study what they could have done differently. For some, it’s a chance to reflect on themselves, and for others, it’s a chance to level tough criticisms on underperforming players.
Curry said his approach to providing feedback is more personal. “I’m not the first person to speak up, and I’m not the loudest person in the room,” he said. “The biggest way I can make an impact is in one-on-one sessions, where I can pull someone aside and have a conversation – not just talk at them. I want to be impactful and timely.”
Thank you Stephen Curry for joining our team!
Stephen Curry’s reputation on and off the court extends far beyond San Francisco, and members of our team from around the world were delighted to have him join our offsite. The entire Miro team sends a huge “thank you” to Stephen for his time and for being a member of our team! When he told us “collaboration is the key to any type of success,” we knew our shared values made him a perfect addition to the Miro family.
