Founders trump everything else

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.comHow do certain early employees keep picking generational companies—again and again—before the rest of the world catches on? In this episode, we distill lessons from five such super-spotters whose resumes include Palantir, OpenAI, Facebook, Stripe, Linear, Figma, Notion, Slack, Box, Spotify, and Dropbox. You’ll learn the three rare traits they all look for, and how you can apply these signals to your own career and company-building.In this episode, you’ll learn:• How “ludicrous” ambition shows up• The underrated signs of founder greatness• How to evaluate an early product• What a “Jurassic Park” moment in startups means• How to think about risk as an early employee• Tactics to “optimize for serendipity” when breaking into rocket shipsReferences:• Alex Karp: https://x.com/PalantirTech• Bob McGrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmcgrew/• Box: https://www.box.com/• Christina Cordova: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinajcordova/• Daniel Ek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ek-1b52093a/• Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/• Figma: https://www.figma.com/• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/• Ivan Zhao: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanhzhao/• Linear: https://linear.app/• Meter: https://www.meter.com/• Notion: https://www.notion.so/• OpenAI: https://openai.com/• Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/• Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/• PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/• Rasmus Andersson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusandersson/• Sean Rose: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-a-rose/• Slack: https://slack.com/• Soleio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soleio/• Spotify: https://www.spotify.com/• Stewart Butterfield: https://www.linkedin.com/in/butterfield/• Stripe: https://stripe.com/• Terrence Rohan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrencerohan/Read the newsletter:• https://open.substack.com/pub/lenny/p/how-to-spot-a-top-1-startup-earlySubscribe to Lenny’s Newsletter:• https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribeSubscribe:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Substack: https://lennysreads.com/Follow Lenny:• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcastAbout:Welcome to Lenny's Reads, where every week you’ll find a fresh audio version of my newsletter about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career, read to you by the soothing voice of Lennybot.