Levine: Managers should ask if they would rehire employees at 30 days
Uri Levine · Lessons from a 2-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor and 20-time board member | Uri Levine · Jun 9, 2024 · at 56:57
Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze, explains his 30-day rule for managing new hires and making decisive personnel choices.
0:00 / 0:41exact quote · 41.8s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Every time that you hire someone new, what I really want you to do is mark your calendars for 30 days down the road, and ask yourself one question. Knowing what I know today, would I hire this person? At the end of the day, I'd like to nail that into Yes or no, right? Because this is where decisions are being made easily. If you ask yourself that question, if the answer is yes, then go to this person and tell them that you're really excited that they've joined, they're exceeding your expectations, and give them more equity, and you buy their loyalty for life. If the answer is no, fire them immediately.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Uri Levine
Levine: Founders should shut down and restart if investors reject pivot funding
“If you are unable to convince your existing investors to re to reinvest in the company in order to build the new part of the journey, the new the new journey, then you know what? Shut down the company and restart a new company that is doing exactly that. And t…”
Levine: Companies stop fundamentally changing their product once they reach PMF
“So once a company figure out product market feed, they don't change their product anymore. Because this is the value that they create to the customers, and you don't want to change that.”
Levine: Product-market fit is measured by only one metric—retention
“Product market feed in general have only one metric. Only one metric. Retention. Look, it's really simple. If you create value, they will come back. That's it. If they are not coming back, that means that you are not creating value.”
Levine: Founders should only quit if the problem vanishes or board breaks
“There are only two reasons that you would like to give up. One is that your mission is wrong, right? So, so the problem disappears. And if the problem disappears, your mission is no longer relevant or no longer valid, then you might want to consider to give. T…”
Levine: Retention is the only metric that defines product-market fit
“Product market feed have one metric. One metric. That's it. Retention. That's really simple. If you create value, they will come back. If they are not coming back, that means that you are not creating value.”
Levine: Navigation apps create far more value through certainty than time-savings
“If you ask people, what is the value of ways? Then it's not about avoiding traffic. It's about creating certainty. And certainty is way higher value than saving time. So, you know, exactly when you're going to get there. And this is a way higher value.”