Building a Cult-like Company Culture

Chris Hladczuk is the Co-founder and CEO of Hanover, where he’s building 1-click migration and 1-minute time to value fund administration for the $8 trillion in private market assets.

Chris takes us through his story of building an audience online at nights while working at Goldman, breaking into tech and going from an IC to Chief Revenue Officer at a Series A startup in nine months.

This episode is packed with advice on sales, getting your first startup role, and everything he’s up to at Hanover.

Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(02:11) Why B2B SaaS is dead
(07:20) Competing against companies that have “IT departments”
(11:37) Going from 0 to 100k on Twitter in one year
(19:06) The ASS networking framework
(25:17) Interviewing at 50 startups before quitting Goldman to join Meow
(28:41) Lessons going from sales IC to Chief Revenue Officer in nine months
(32:47) Using SSS to send good cold emails
(35:51) Learnings as a first-time manager
(40:46) How to make a good first impression
(47:22) Why sales and copywriting are underrated
(49:17) Navigating the startup idea maze to fund admin
(56:47) 1-click fund admin migration, 1-minute time to value
(59:46) Turning down Hanover’s first term sheet with no backup plan
(01:03:28) Using polite persistence to get customers
(01:08:41) Why the best companies are cults
(01:11:01) John D Rockefeller and vertical integration
(01:13:26) Doing culture fit questions at the beginning of the hiring process
(01:15:34) Chris’ favorite AI tools
(01:17:58) How to make founder-led content

Referenced
Check out Hanover: https://www.hanover.co/
Brick: https://getbrick.app/
Alex Hormozi’s Sales Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6YNopzKDGDwf0auIpPTIID
Sweetgreen: https://www.sweetgreen.com/
Chipotle: https://www.chipotle.com/
Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/
Turner’s episode with Jonathan Neman at Sweetgreen: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Emm6VOq6MCEfQlXv05q6U?si=hJMc8LhBTeeonYJGza4gxQ
The Hanover Manifesto: https://www.hanover.co/manifesto
Claude Sonet: https://claude.ai/
Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/
Hemingway Editor: https://www.hemingwayapp.com

Follow Chris
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrishlad
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hladczuk-b09204153

Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak
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