[The Knowledge Project Ep. #173] Frank Slootman: Doing Less, Doing Better

Here are the actionable insights from this episode:

1. When you come into a company or business as a new leader, the most important thing for you to focus on and fix is behavior. Get rid of people who are egregious violators of culture.

2. Great people need to be celebrated and rewarded and singled out in every way possible.

3. You must choose what to focus on. “Not choosing is the worst thing you can do because now you’re compromising everything.” If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

4. Hiring slower, but better, is more advantageous than hiring quickly and compromising the quality of your employees. Remember, a business is not a family; it’s more like a professional sports franchise.

5. Your sales team matters, but your product matters more. A great salesperson cannot sell a lousy product.

Shane Parrish: I think when I was thinking about where to start, I want to start with going into a new company and the playbook that you use for the first 90 days. Can you walk me through what’s done before [and] what’s done on day one, and give me some detail [about] how you look at the next 90 days because that’s really the time when you can transform a company?