Ethan Evans
Founder, Level Up. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executivefounderhostauthoroperator@EthanEvansVP ↗LinkedIn ↗ethanevans.com ↗
During a 15-year career at Amazon, Evans rose to Vice President and led teams that developed Prime Video and the Amazon Appstore. Today, he operates the Level Up community and courses, coaching technology managers and senior leaders on career advancement and executive leadership.
2shows
2appearances
43statements
2resolved
1supported
0contradicted
50%fully supported
2said about them ↓ Everything Ethan Evans said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Evans: Remote work will triumph over in-person offices in the long term
“I have so much more faith in the opportunity to improve the remote experience. And so I think long-term it's going to triumph.”
Evans: Bezos preferred paying for redundant teams over forcing early collaboration
“I'd rather pay to get two of something because I find when I force people to collaborate too soon, they gridlock and argue about priorities, and what I actually get is nothing. And so I'd rather pay for two Then get zero, and if we're so lucky as to get two wo…”
Evans: Amazon employees directly confronted Jeff Bezos over taxes at all-hands
“I've seen people at Amazon actually tell Jeff Bezos, you run an evil company while working for it. Like, why are we evil? I had an all hands, a guy, you know, said, we seem to avoid taxes. Why are you such a tax dodger?”
Evans: Amazon employee jumped from $300K to $750K by matching Meta offer
“He went from making about 300,000 and making about three quarters of a million in one jump.”
Evans: Amazon Considered Dropping Ownership Principle, Retained It After Internal Push
“At Amazon, we had an ownership leadership principle, which is part of how Amazon runs. It has a set of principles. And at one point they were considering removing it and I led the fight to keep it. And some of the words in it That I helped create, say an owner…”
Evans: Damaging a boss's ego kills careers faster than losing company money
“Betrayal is the number one. Any sort of, and to some degree that's the letting me down where you promise something, like I'm counting on something and then it doesn't show up and it makes me look bad. Anything that hits people's ego or identity is actually mor…”
Evans: Bezos banned PowerPoint because nested slides buried the Challenger launch risk
“Jeff hated PowerPoint and the famous story why it it's old now, but when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, They went and found the PowerPoint slide had been used to justify the launch. And this PowerPoint had like seven levels of nested bullets and the ti…”
Evans: Exploitative managers who refuse to reciprocate help are rare
“There are of course exceptions where you have very exploitative managers who are like, oh, it's great. You're working harder. Keep doing that. And they won't do anything for you. But those are rare.”
Evans: Appearance and enthusiasm are the top factors in job interviews
“There's a lot of evidence that suggests that the number one and two factors in any interview are appearance and enthusiasm.”
Evans: The Fire Phone failure will permanently burden Jeff Bezos's reputation
“Jeff's, I mean, Jeff and fire phone, which, you know, it's like his, that'll be an albatross around his neck. You know, Jeff and fire phone will be a phrase of anybody who knows Amazon for the rest of his life.”
Evans: Beta testing and risk of leaks beat high-risk surprise launches
“The problem I came to say is the biggest thing I learned with surprise launches is that you're surprised by what doesn't work. And so I shifted the approach to let's do a lot of beta testing. We always Even if others don't agree quite and say, you're right. We…”
Evans: Corporate politics is people pursuing self-interest, not personal attacks
“The thing I wish I had known most about what's been called corporate politics is it's just other people trying to get ahead. Like they're just starting with what do they need and what do they want? And sometimes if you're in their way, it's not personal. They …”
Evans: Analyze why corporations reward political behavior instead of getting frustrated
“The key question is why is what they are doing working for them? That's the insight is stop being frustrated and start asking, well, why? Why is the corporation rewarding that?”
Evans: Built much of his career through reciprocal workplace dealmaking
“I think I made a lot of my career effectively by deal making, by finding people that I could align with what they wanted and help them get what they want, and then I would sometimes talk to them privately and be like, hey, I will help you get this, but like, I…”
Evans: Clear, Disagreeable Standards Beat Agreeable, Shifting Standards
“I'd rather have hard standards I disagree with than fuzzy standards that I don't know. If I have to pick, I'd rather be working for a boss I don't agree with, but who's really clear. Then one who sounds agreeable, but then shifts with the win.”
Evans: Talent Inflow and Outflow Is the Primary Signal of Boss Quality
“First, good boss or bad boss, are people leaving or are people coming? Because reputation travels. And if the first signal of a boss is, are they gaining talent or losing talent? If people want out, probably a bad boss. If people want in, probably a good boss.”
Evans: Good Bosses Always Bring Talent Followings When Changing Jobs
“Good bosses always have talent followings. They change jobs and they bring people with them because people are like, I don't care where I work. I care who I work for. So I'm coming with this person.”
Evans: 70% never ask for raises, but 70% who ask get them
“Second thing is, just statistically, 70% of employees never ask for a raise. This is probably foreign to me and you, because we're, A little aggressive. But, 70% never ask. And yet, of the 30% that do ask, 70% of them get something.”
Evans: Proactively offering help and failing hurts careers more than staying invisible
“The only way to screw up this loop is to go to your boss and say, how can I help you? And they say, oh, do this. And then you don't do it because that's much worse than if you just kept your head down and never gone in their office because they weren't thinkin…”
Evans: Managers Either Shield Teams as Umbrellas or Funnel Down Blame
“The manager is either an umbrella over the team kind of covering for that and getting it out of the way so that the team can work. Whereas funnel managers look like a funnel and they're catching all the crap, passing it by themselves and like, hey, you deal wi…”
Evans: Big corporations will continually absorb employee overwork unless boundaries are set
“Big corporations are machines. And if I'm paying you a 100,000 dollars and you'll work 50 hours, great. But if you'll work 60, even better. And if you'll work 70, why wouldn't I let you?”
Evans: Ask candidate references for secondary contacts to get truth
“My favorite trick for figuring out A players is everybody knows to give three references if you ask. My trick was I would call a reference and say, Hey, who else knows this person that I could call? And that way I would get out of their list of chosen referenc…”
Evans: Career growth requires at least solid baseline job performance
“The first one is you have to be doing your current job well. It's not possible to really grow your career if you're not considered at least performing at a solid level.”
Evans: Managers naturally reciprocate support by helping employees reach career goals
“And the reason this works is managers help those who help them. It's just human nature. We all do that. Generally, they're very open to meeting you halfway and saying, sure, you know, I need this. We can rearrange it. We can find a way to meet your goals over …”
The other half of the tape: Ethan Evans's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 2 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
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2025 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ethan's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 BIGDEALLEDGER | Founder, Level Up | 1 | 22 | 50% 1/2 | full record on BigDeal → |
| LENNY'S PODCASTLEDGER | Founder, Level Up | 1 | 21 | — | full record on Lenny's Podcast → |