The Most Important Job I Have As A Founder
How spending three hours with a $425 million founder this week changed how I’m building HSR
I spent three hours this week with my investor Steven Bartlett, who is soon to be the biggest podcaster globally, and honestly, we had SO much fun. Aside from The Diary of a CEO, he’s founded Steven.com and FlightStory, which employs over 200 people, and as of October 2025 Steven.com was valued at $425M.
There is obviously a lot I took away from those three hours (and a lot I can’t share), but there was one thing in particular that made me completely rethink how I am spending my time as a founder right now.
And it has to do with hiring.
I’ve spent the last 12 years working in early-stage startup environments and now obviously building one myself. I also get the benefit of learning from my husband, who co-founded a $2B venture fund and has invested in 14 unicorns, so I have been around a LOT of conversations about what actually makes companies win.
I have always known hiring the best people is important. What I don’t think I fully appreciated was how much of MY job should actually be spent finding those people, and what needs to change inside HSR for me to have the time to do that.
At the same time, I was reading this Fortune article about the VERY non-traditional ways some of the most successful CEOs hire and it made me realize I also don’t really believe in the way most companies interview people. Especially when so much of what I actually care about is almost impossible to assess from someone sitting across from me for an hour telling me why they are perfect for the job.
I’ve been thinking about it alot this week and am going to share:
The % of his time Steven spends hiring and why I am working towards the same number, plus what needs to change inside HSR before that is actually possible.
Why I think the traditional one-hour interview is a complete waste of time, some of the VERY weird ways other CEOs are figuring out who someone really is and what I think you should actually be doing instead.
What we are actually looking for when we hire at HSR, including the two assessments we are now using and how I am balancing culture, skills, experience and potential.
Why I don’t completely agree with the idea that experience doesn’t matter, especially when you are a startup where relentless execution and speed are part of your competitive advantage, AND why I also think we need to rethink what “experience” actually means.
What I think you need to do once you actually hire the person, and why I am starting to think onboarding someone through storytelling and the Hero’s Journey might be one of the most important things we do next.
If you are a founder building a company and trying to figure out how the heck you actually find the people who are going to help you build it, keep reading. And if you’re thinking about applying for one of the roles we currently have open at HSR, I would DEFINITELY keep reading.
So let’s get into it.
Subscribe to Monthly to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Monthly to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
UpgradeA subscription gets you:
- A weekly HSR case study
- Ability to read and contribute to the comments section
