Brian Halligan

Relentless Hiring Standards Preserve Culture and Excellence

🚨🚨NEW EPISODE DROP  Sally Kornbluth, President of MIT🚨🚨 "If you take a lick of the lollipop of mediocrity, you will suck forever." I love this. She was talking about how MIT sustains excellence after 150+ years. And it applies to founders and CEOs who are trying to scale, more than ever. The thing is, the bar doesn't drop all at once. It drops one hire at a time, one exception at a time. It's better to have nobody than to let the standard slip even once. Every hire, every door, every message has to carry the same signal. That's how MIT maintains it's intensity.....just look at the list of grads like @vkhosla @gdb @drewhouston @mansourtarek_ @mntruell @_mohansolo @ChaseLochmiller I’ve watched this play out with the companies I work with. They hit 150 employees, the founder stops interviewing everyone, and by 500 they're asking what happened to the culture. Sally's answer: it's a lot easier to stop that slide than to recover from it. The fix is relentless consistency, clarity, and the willingness to say no far more often than you say yes. Worth remembering when growth feels urgent. ------ Listen to the full conversation with MIT President Sally Kornbluth on Long Strange Trip.👇