Sublime

I think I care about the value of recruiting more than almost anyone I know. I think getting in amazing people at the start, in the middle, at the end, all the way through, having an ever-raising bar that someone has to clear, it's not quite everything, but often it's close.

What Sam is optimizing for in his career: spending all of his time with amazing people, get leverage on seeing what's around the bend, somewhere where patience and temperament are rewarded, build an ecosystem where trust is compounded, build fewer deeper relationships

Sam looks for digital breadcrumbs from someone's past that hint at their trajectory: "And so to the extent people have written blogs or posted things on Twitter or created some artifact that I think of that they've sort of buried in time that I can go find, that's often amazing, because you get a chance to see people over a long period of time."

I'm a deep believer that people are power law too, whether you're running a small company or whether you're running a big company, your ability to attract the best in the world I think is so incredible.

What Sam looks for in founders: breadcrumbs from their past that hint at their trajectory, outsiders with a unique insight, unusually strong in one area, cognizant of their weaknesses, understand where they need to focus right now, have a way to inspire and bring people together

Personally, I'm often looking for people who are quite pointy in one way or another, who are really unusual at one item here or there, and are cognizant of their weaknesses. And then the ones I really like are often open about their weaknesses and are keeping them their weaknesses, because they think it's an infinite game that you don't quite under... See more

What Sam wants to learn in an interview: how you learn, how you perceive the world, what you're interested in and how much you know about it, whether you're aware of the limitations of your knowledge, something unique that you know about the world, who you are and how you see yourself, where you want to be, is this the best fit for everyone's inter... See more