👋 Howdy! This is the Open Source CEO, the weekly newsletter that bridges the gap between ideas and execution. 

COMING IN HOT TODAY 🔥 

⭕️ We learn from a tech OG: Ladies & gents Yaniv Bernstein.
🍲 You’ve been served: Bill Gates open a can of whoop-ass on his team.
👀 Building in public: Behind the scenes at at a tech start.
✍️ Write like your life depended on it: The Boron Letters.

If you’re interested in sponsoring these emails, reach out. I’d love to share some ideas and see how we can work together.

PARTNERS 💫 

INTRODUCTION 🤷‍♂️

Today we get to hear from a true OG in tech, Yaniv from Circular. It’s a pleasure to be able to ask questions to people with cerebral horsepower of people like this. I like Yaniv. And I like Yaniv for three very important reasons.

1. He has great insights into how successful companies run through his time as a leader at Google and as COO at Airtasker.

2. He is now a Co-Founder & COO at Circular (YC22’), a delightful subscription e-commerce startup, with sustainability at its heart (circular economy).

3. He is an angel investor into my startup, Athyna. If you give me money one day, I will probably like you too.

Seriously though, this guy is gooood. He’s one of the people in which intimidate people in the best way possible. I seem to be finding myself in more and more of these ‘rooms’ (if you will) and consistently feel like a dolt.

If you want to continue to up your mental game, you better be feeling like an absolute dope on the regular as well.

Anyway, without further ado. Here is the big boss.

LEADER OF THE WEEK 🎙

Yaniv Bernstein - Co-Founder & COO at Circular

Yaniv Bernstein has an extensive career as a founder and technology executive from small startups through to some of the world's largest companies. He is currently Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Circular, a venture-backed startup with operations in Australia and Singapore.

Yaniv was formerly VP Engineering and then COO at Airtasker, where he took it through a period of growth and transformation culminating in a successful IPO. Prior to that he spent 10 years at Google as a software engineer and engineering leader across Search, YouTube and Google Maps.

Yaniv is an active advisor, mentor, and investor in the Australian technology ecosystem, and co-hosts The Startup Podcast, a weekly podcast with actionable insight for startup founders, investors, and operators.

What is your main day to day job as CEO?

My main job as COO is to build an organisation capable of achieving Circular's audacious goals. There's a lot that goes into that, but at a high level that's what I'm trying to achieve.

Explain your philosophy around leadership? How do you think about it?

It's hard to say anything here that doesn't seem like a cliche. I like the Steve Jobs quote “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

This doesn't mean anarchy though. I like to lead by enabling smart people to tell me what to do, and be right! That means giving them context, structure, support, resources to be at their best. And it means holding people accountable. Having access to excellent talent is a great start, but without enabling that talent you are simply wasting it.

At Circular, we have a weekly All Hands where we share our priorities and everything happening at the business: good, bad, and ugly. And we encourage people to ask us anything. You cannot expect people to make the right choices if they don't know the context in which those choices are being made.

How do you build culture?

Like with gardening, you cannot directly build a culture; you can only create an environment in which your preferred culture can thrive. Designing culture is therefore about firstly defining and articulating your preferred culture, and secondly creating the right environment for that particular culture to take root.

In terms of creating the right environment, there are a few things to consider. One is explicit cultural messaging: values can be good, but virtues (concrete behaviours that are encouraged) are better. These are of course only useful if they are a part of the conversation and are lived by leadership. At Circular we make reference to our values and virtues at nearly every meeting, assess them during interviews, and call each other out if we're not adhering to them.

Not that long ago, I proposed a new policy but one of my colleagues pointed out that we have a virtue "Prefer Principles to Rules" and suggested we communicate the underlying principle rather than imposing the policy. I took their suggestion!

Arguably more important is the incentive structure you put in place, whether accidentally or on purpose. Which behaviours are made easy and rewarded? Which are difficult and not encouraged? Make sure the incentives do not act against the culture you are attempting to create.

A common example of misaligned incentives is when a company claims to encourage risk-taking, but then punishes people if their bets are unsuccessful.

Detail your recruitment strategy. How do you hire all-star talent?

I try to write very short job descriptions (like my description of my role as COO above!); I hate long laundry lists of responsibilities and requirements. Especially as a startup, the real job description is about articulating what problem a person is being hired to solve, what outcome they need to deliver. The "how" I'm less interested in. Back to the Steve Jobs quote above, I hire folks so they can figure out how to "solve" their job.

I find that all-star talent reacts well to a recruitment process that emphasizes opportunity rather than exact responsibilities. They can see the freedom they are being offered in this way, it's a great self-selection filter.

The other thing I make sure to do when hiring is to have a decision-making process. It astounds me how many companies have interview after structured interview, but when it comes to making the actual hire/no-hire decision there is no process at all. I am careful to impose a relatively structured process for reviewing interview feedback and assessing the candidate's suitability for the role. It is absolutely not just up to the hiring manager to make the call.

How do you set goals?

Damn, setting goals is hard. Every time I think I have it figured out... I haven't. I am overall an advocate for OKRs, but when I work with them it feels like a bit of a wrestling match. The process of setting OKRs is grubby and exhausting.

Here's where my head is at right now: the most important part of setting goals is correctly setting objectives. What outcomes are most important for us to achieve? And the hardest and most important part of setting objectives is prioritisation: effectively, deciding what not to do. So many teams and companies never actually explicitly set objectives, so this is an easy way to level up. If you set the right objectives, you're probably 90% of the way there.

As for the rest: whether it's Key Results, KPIs, initiatives, I am becoming increasingly agnostic as time passes. Understand what you're trying to achieve, then use the right tools for keeping you on track towards that objective.

Do you run hybrid, on-site or remote and why?

We're hybrid. Why? We see benefit to spending time together in person, and even more to being in the same or similar timezones. However, the world has changed and it's an unreasonable imposition to tie people to coming into the office every day.

We love giving people the freedom and flexibility to do their job their way, and of course it's also true that the best talent in the job market demands and expects that flexibility.

That’s not to say that it’s easy though. If in-office is “black” and fully remote is “white”, hybrid is all the shades of grey in between. It takes a lot of intentionality to define and operationalise your hybrid culture. For example, one early issue we had at Circular was people in the office dominating discussion in meetings. To combat that, we developed the convention that every person joins a meeting from their laptop, even if they’re physically in the same room.

We also care about getting to know each other in person, which means that Circular pays for all staff to spend time together every six months at our company retreat. The location is somewhere pleasant (usually Bali!) and the emphasis in on togetherness rather than on getting work done. We find this helps keep the bond strong the rest of the time.

How do you get the best out of yourself personally and professionally?

It’s easy in one of these interviews to sound like you have your shit together.

Honestly, half the time I’m a bit of a mess and I certainly don’t always get the best out of myself. I try to be kind to myself when I’m not at my peak, and to make the most of the times when I am.

I have little to add to the vast literature on personal wellness and performance. It’s simple but not easy: sleep, exercise, diet, self reflection. What makes me effective personally is caring about people, and taking the time to understand them.

What makes me effective professionally is caring about people, and taking the time to understand them. Also, having the courage (and it turns out, it does take courage) to focus relentlessly on truth and first principles rather than politics or ego.

Who is the most impressive CEO/leader you’ve ever met and why?

Back at YouTube I reported to Oliver Heckmann, now VP Engineering at Coda. As a leader, Oliver worked magic. He really did clear a path for his people to perform at their best, pushing them and making them feel protected at the same time. It's something I've tried to emulate ever since.

One thing that stood out about what Oliver did was that he spent real time and effort with his strongest performers. Many managers default to focusing on fire-fighting rather than growing and promoting the interests of the people who were primarily responsible for making good things happen.

The trust and loyalty he earned from his strongest people is what allowed Oliver to run such a successful organisation.

And that's it! Connect with Yaniv on LinkedIn. Listen to The Startup Podcast. Subscribe to the latest tech with Circular.

TWEET OF THE WEEK 🐣 

BUILDING IN PUBLIC 🔎

Social media scheduling tool, Buffer, been leading the Open Startups movement since 2013. Here you’ll find information about Buffer that few other companies would publish.

They share openly because we believe in the power of transparency to build trust, hold us accountable to a high standard, and push our industry forward.

Pretty interesting stuff indeed. 

TOOLS & RESOURCES 🔥

Gary Halbert is widely regarded as one of the greatest copywriters in history. And you know what sells - copywriting.

It’s literally one of the most important skills of a founder today. Get to write good copy and you can persuade any to take any action you desire. Investors, advisors, users, clients, talent.

If you want to have them take action - you need to get good with words.

While in prison for tax fraud (oops 😬) Gary Halbert penned a number of letter’s to his son about business, copywriting and life. Here are those letters.

Fun fact: Gary’s son went on to be a great - you guessed it - copywriter.

That's it my lovelies. I hope it was valuable. I have one ask though: tell me what you thought of today's edition.

Also, feel free to reply to this email and spill your thoughts in a deeper more personal way as I'd love to hear from you.

Catch ya next week. 🏄‍♂️