Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
00:58:33 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[00:58:33] S0: I love that advice. And what I'm also hearing is you don't have to, like, one, you don't see how much people struggle doing this stuff. Like, you see this polished video, and you don't know they have to put a pen in their mouth for fifteen minutes first. [00:58:46] S1: Or cuts out their camera. Yeah. Like, even even my video that that went kind of viral on x, like, I think it's, what, a fifteen minute cut? It was probably... I did two cuts before that. That would probably take thirty minutes. And then I did that last one, which is probably, again, like, thirty minutes, and then I packaged it into a nice video. And it's like, I do this for a living, and I've managed our tribe group for the last seven months, and I know it like the like the back of my hand or whatever. And even then, I still struggle, like, going through and putting my thoughts concisely and going through everything, but it's not perfect, but I put the message out, I gave some value, and people enjoyed it. And, yeah, I don't think I don't think it needs to be perfect. [00:59:26] S0: That's so great to hear because watching that video, you're just so chill, so relaxed, just sitting there talking with a little iPad and, like, how... Yeah. People see that are like, I will never be as good at this. So that's really helpful to hear. When I think about starting to create a, being a content creator, feel like I need to get a little fuzzy mic or something. Feel like the step one or a tiny little iPhone. [00:59:43] S1: Yeah, it's a Canon of it's a Canon of having to.
00:59:43 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:59:43] S1: Yeah, it's a Canon of it's a Canon of having to. [00:59:46] S0: That's right. You're not a creator unless you have a tiny fuzzy little mic. Yeah. Let me ask you one final question along these lines. Say someone is like, amazing. I'm gonna do this. We're gonna commit to this. We're gonna hire. We're gonna find someone to run it. What are some of the most common mistakes you find companies people make when they're starting on this paid EGC route?
01:00:05 · Hector Serrano
[01:00:05] S1: I think a lot of the times is people will typically look in the wrong places and will maybe put out offers online or on LinkedIn or whatever with too high of salaries or too high, like, I guess, like, requirements, and you're not gonna end up attracting the best people. Like, if you put out an offer where you're gonna pay on a... You're like, oh, these people who are running UGC campaigns are in super high demand. I'm gonna put out a job listing for 250 k, 200 k base salary, generous equity. You're gonna end up attracting the wrong type of people. Like, when I joined Wispr and went to... Joined Wispr, I can tell you we were hurting nowhere near that. We were interns, and we're just hungry kids who wanted to learn and wanted to grow and, again, had some experience with content. And I think if you just think that throwing money out there and looking for someone with the best grades or the best school or the best experience isn't gonna get you the best hire to run this for you, you're in for a rude awakening. And, yeah, I would focus on just finding a scrappy kid who's hungry and willing to learn and, like, I don't know, you just get a good feeling from them. Like, yeah, I I was talking to Tanay recently as well the other day. Our first call... So I had a first call with Julia, which she was, like, leading our marketing team initially, one of those, like, four people. And then I had a second call with Tanay, and I remember, like, mind you, they're hiring me as a UGC creator. I'm 19 years old. I've never worked in a startup, and I've probably... I was not earning much money. And I told Tanay, like, I was like, I want equity in Wispr. And Tanay laughed and was like, I like you, man. And, like, maybe it was like a stupid thing to say, but, like, I think it showed how, like... I don't know. I was naive, but also hungry and, like, I believe in the company, and I wanna be part of the company. And just, like, cues like that where it's, like, a young, naive, hungry kid who just wants in and wants to learn and wants to grow. And and, yeah, I think don't look in the right place. Don't look in the wrong places because you're gonna track the wrong people.
01:01:57 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[01:01:57] S0: You had a couple of awesome tweets along these lines. One is that everyone looking for a marketer with the best resume is gonna end up hiring a bot. [01:02:04] S1: Yeah. [01:02:07] S0: And then the other is this really important tweet that the most successful founders, investors, creators I've met aren't the most talented. They're delusionally confident. They outwork everyone, and they love what they do.
01:02:18 · Hector Serrano
[01:02:18] S1: Yeah. I think that pretty much sums it up. And also another one that I that I resonate with a lot that I that I put out recently was, like, the sports outlook on hiring. Sports teams, like, I come from a very competitive sports background. I played over in Spain. I played for the and La Liga Academy. I played the MLS Next in The US. I played division one in college. And, like, we have all these structures for sports teams where it's like, you scout young talent, you bring them in, you coach them, you develop them for ten years. And then, like, if you're over in Spain or over in Europe, you eventually, like, get them as part of your academy, maybe the second team, and then maybe you sell them to a top club, or maybe they end up becoming a homegrown contract or... And they join, like, your first team. And it's like, I think a lot of startups should kind of adopt that mentality. Think there's a lot of companies that actually don't do internship anymore. They don't think they're valuable and I think they're one of the most valuable things and if you can find the right people, it's not a very expensive thing to do. It's not very time consuming and yeah, I think like taking a chance on young on young people and giving them some money to to test things with and giving them some freedom to test things with, and like allowing them to fail and continue learning. I was like one of the best models I think you can pick up from sports and like, obviously, it works. Like, I don't know if you're very familiar with soccer, but I mean, like, look at, like, won the World Cup at what? 19 years old, 18 years old? And, like, I think that same approach can be applied to to the startup world. Like, find young talent, invest in them, let them get real reps in the real world, and then eventually, they'll might become one of your a players.
01:03:47 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[01:03:47] S0: I love that. And I love that also part of this is giving them time to figure it out. [01:03:51] S1: Yeah. 100%. [01:03:53] S0: What's really interesting about this conversation so far I'm realizing is I don't think we've once mentioned AI as part of this work that you do, which is really interesting because it's, you know, it's it's all anyone talks about these days. And you actually had this tweet the other day, the best marketers are allergic to AI. Talk about just what you what you think with how AI plays into this and how AI should not play into this.