CEO Lessons: Bulls**t Mission Statements, Firing People & Saying ‘NO' (#505)

Both describe moving away from grand, vague "change the world" framing toward blunt honesty: they want to work on interesting projects with people they like, in a way that supports an enjoyable lifestyle and strong financial outcomes for the team.

Sam says he now prefers business models where he can pay high-quality hires a lot, because it’s more enjoyable day-to-day and enables higher expectations (e.g., a higher-paid sales hire expected to sell millions versus a lower-paid hire with a smaller quota).

Shaan argues getting the trademark early avoids painful surprises later, using the story of Native Deodorant’s sale complications when the trademark wasn’t owned and had to be bought at the last minute. Sam says he sold The Hustle without owning its trademark, and also says he previously underestimated branding.

Sam emphasizes reference checks as a major upgrade: he seeks unfiltered negative feedback by asking “How can they be a perfect 10?” and by finding additional references beyond the ones the candidate provides. Shaan adds his own tactics to elicit honest weaknesses and to judge whether the person was truly a top performer.

Shaan prefers paid tests over interviews, paying candidates (from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars depending on role) to do real work, because “words equal lies” compared to seeing outputs. He also describes learning sharper interviewing by observing a highly specific, numbers-driven interview style from a trusted friend/investor.