SUMMARY

Leila Hormozi and Sharran Srivatsaa share unfiltered insights from his first 60 days at Acquisition.com, discussing culture, hiring, memos, and operational tactics for scaling businesses.

STATEMENTS

Everyone at Acquisition.com works intensely with packed calendars, reflecting abundant opportunities.
The team combines high competence with remarkable humility, unlike competitive environments like Goldman Sachs.
Culture is shaped by hiring and firing decisions that prioritize humility over ego.
Leaders who lack humility and step on others are removed to maintain team dynamics.
Hiring involves assessing if the candidate can close the gap from 80% to 100% on core values like sincere candor.
Environment provides a 50% boost to skills like giving feedback, making development faster.
Your surroundings act as thermometers, pulling you toward their level if misaligned with your goals.
Interviewing is a mutual process of assessing fit and selling the company's environment.
The interview serves as the start of onboarding, ensuring consistency to reduce churn.
Hiring focuses on discussing real problems the candidate will solve, rather than generic questions.
Acquisition.com receives thousands of applications for roles like general counsel due to effective core value operationalization.
Content and vulnerability in outreach filter candidates who align with leadership.
Separate cultural and technical interviews prevent draining candidates and ensure unbiased culture fits.
Job descriptions should target specific avatars based on skills from analogous experiences.
Leaders must write detailed job memos to frontload filtering and attract precise candidates.
Hiring addresses pains or future capacities by listing issues first, then solutions.
Writing crystallizes thoughts, leading to better clarity and outcomes, as seen in historical documents.
Memos prevent group chats and whining by separating people from issues via written artifacts.
Memos structure discussions: big idea, problem, solution, risks, and recommendation.
Effective meetings require pre-written memos read in advance for decision-making.
Daily writing practice improves memo quality and organizational thinking.
Memos enhance depth of knowledge for writers and readers, boosting organizational IQ.
Personal development memos de-escalate emotions and treat self like a business problem.
Framework for memos: why (importance), what (problem), how (mechanics), now (proposal).
Reading past memos onboards new hires quickly to key topics.
Leaders must accordion between future vision and present actions to build capacity.
High-capacity individuals thrive on diverse information without overwhelm.

IDEAS

Competence paired with humility creates a rare, high-performing team dynamic.
Firing egotistical leaders prevents cultural multiplication of negative traits.
Environmental boosts accelerate skill acquisition more than raw talent alone.
Thermometer-like environments either elevate or drag personal growth.
Mutual interviewing sells the company while assessing fit, starting onboarding early.
Discussing real problems in interviews reveals problem-solving approaches naturally.
Thousands of applications stem from vulnerability and content-driven branding.
Separating culture and technical interviews reduces candidate fatigue.
Avatar-based hiring targets swagger and skills from non-traditional backgrounds.
Frontloading detailed job memos outperforms vague postings for talent attraction.
Pain-first frameworks for job descriptions generate targeted, tactical language.
Writing memos transforms vague complaints into structured, actionable discussions.
Pre-meeting memos enable decisions without ambiguity or wasted time.
Shitty first drafts build momentum, mirroring student success strategies.
Unreasonable timelines shatter reasonable traps, accelerating project completion.
What-do-you-have-to-show-for-it questions reprioritize for tangible results.
Partnership language fosters collaboration across silos.
Treating contractors and entry-level roles with equal respect builds loyalty.
Asking new team members for advice disarms and accelerates integration.
Starting tasks immediately preserves perishable inspiration and momentum.
Creative conditions require blocking time away from routine meetings.
Hiring wrong precedes right; reps build hiring intuition.
Senior hires demand understanding opportunity costs for true scaling.
Capacity from partners enables 10x growth through shared mindshare.
Cultural fights arise from importing old habits into new environments.

INSIGHTS

Humility in competent teams fosters collaboration, preventing ego-driven conflicts.
Culture emerges from deliberate hiring and firing, multiplying desired traits.
Environments amplify skills, providing shortcuts to proficiency in valued behaviors.
Aligned surroundings propel ambition; misaligned ones hinder progress.
Interviews as onboarding beginnings ensure cultural continuity and lower turnover.
Problem-focused dialogues in hiring predict real-world performance better than resumes.
Vulnerability in leadership content attracts intrinsically motivated talent.
Bifurcated interviews maintain objectivity and candidate energy.
Precise job avatars streamline recruitment by matching ideal profiles.
Detailed memos clarify roles, drawing candidates who resonate deeply.
Articulating pains first in hiring reveals essential responsibilities organically.
Written artifacts depersonalize issues, enabling objective team resolutions.
Memo-prepped meetings elevate collective intelligence and efficiency.
Embracing unreasonable goals compresses timelines without sacrificing quality.
Daily output reflection shifts focus from busyness to impactful results.
Reframing contributions as partnerships dissolves organizational silos.
Uniform respect across hierarchies cultivates inclusive, high-performance cultures.
Seeking advice from teams builds instant rapport and cultural insight.
Immediate action on assignments harnesses fleeting creative energy.
Curating conditions unlocks creativity in structured environments.
Iterative hiring failures refine judgment for future successes.
Senior partnerships amplify capacity only if leveraged for greater value.
Imported habits erode unique cultures unless actively countered.
Transparent operations demystify leadership, inspiring team alignment.

QUOTES

"I'm really surprised by the competence to humility ratio."
"You shape the culture by who you hire and fire."
"The environment can is like 50%."
"Your environment, the people around you plus your environment are thermometers."
"The interview process is almost like the beginning of onboarding it."
"Nothing great ever happens without it being written down."
"Write a freaking memo."
"How you prepare shows just how much you care."
"The person writing it gets this deep understanding of what they're presenting."
"You have the ability you are very adaptable meaning you can talk about the future and you can talk about the present."
"I like to do hard things otherwise I'm just I don't feel challenged."
"Just give yourself permission to be a little bit unreasonable."
"What do you have to show for it?"
"You want a super fast shitty first draft."
"Inspiration and momentum are perishable."
"Until you've hired the wrong person, you won't get the right one."

HABITS

Maintain packed calendars to capitalize on opportunities while prioritizing high-impact tasks.
Practice sincere candor daily to build feedback skills in a supportive environment.
Write detailed memos before meetings or discussions to clarify thoughts and reduce ambiguity.
Seek advice from every team member upon joining to foster connections and gain insights.
Start assigned tasks immediately to capture fresh inspiration and build momentum.
Reflect nightly on "What do I have to show for it?" to reprioritize for results.
Block time for creative work, like writing, away from routine meetings.
Use pain-first lists when planning hires or projects to focus on solutions.
Partner across teams by offering collaboration without seeking sole credit.
Treat all roles, including contractors, with equal respect and inclusion in communications.

FACTS

Acquisition.com received 1,000 applications for a general counsel position.
Leila fired four prominent leaders over three and a half years for lacking humility.
At Goldman Sachs, ego was tolerated among super-smart individual contributors.
Environment boosts can elevate feedback skills from 0% to 50% instantly.
Memos replaced group chats, using dashboards at a previous company like Real.
Jeff Bezos's model involves 15 minutes of silent memo reading at meeting starts.
Sharran met nearly everyone at Acquisition.com in his first weeks via one-on-ones.
A Nigerian contractor's family joined the team after receiving a swag bag during COVID.
Businesses like Gym Launch celebrated international contractors' birthdays despite logistics.
Hiring three bad executive assistants preceded finding the right one for Leila.

REFERENCES

Book: Multipliers (on how hires multiply through organizations).
Jeff Bezos interview/book (on memo culture and meeting processes).
Amazon model (writing and reading memos at meeting starts).
Trevor (friend who shared studies on ineffective meeting thinking).
$100M Offers, $100M Leads, $100M Money Model (books by Alex Hormozi).
Declaration of Independence (example of great written documents).
Magna Carta (historical written artifact).
Gym Launch (previous company with contractor celebrations).
Goldman Sachs (past competitive environment).
Real (previous company using dashboards instead of memos).
Win Resort and Casino (source for executive assistant avatar skills).

HOW TO APPLY

Assess team culture by evaluating competence-humility balance during hiring.
Fire leaders who exhibit ego-driven behaviors to preserve collaborative dynamics.
Design environments that boost key skills like candor by 50% through support.
Align personal surroundings with ambitions to avoid being pulled downward.
Treat interviews as mutual sales pitches, discussing environment and fit early.
Focus hiring conversations on specific company problems to gauge solutions.
Use vulnerability in content to filter and attract aligned candidates.
Separate cultural interviews (by unbiased peers) from technical validations.
Define job avatars with clear swagger and skill proxies for targeted searches.
Write detailed one-page memos for roles, listing pains before solutions.
Structure memos with why (importance), what (problem), how (mechanics), now (proposal).
Replace ambiguous discussions with #WFM (write a freaking memo) prompts.
Read memos pre-meeting for efficient decisions, or use silent reading like Amazon.
Seek one piece of advice from each team member to build rapport quickly.
Challenge reasonable timelines by aiming for 60-day completions on six-month projects.
End days asking "What do I have to show for it?" to refocus priorities.
Frame cross-team work as partnerships, offering knowledge without credit grabs.
Assign respectful titles to all, including VAs and contractors, for cultural inclusion.
Start projects or assignments the same day they are given for momentum.
Curate creative conditions by blocking non-meeting time for deep work.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Embrace humility-driven hiring, memo clarity, and unreasonable timelines to scale businesses exceptionally.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize humility in hires to avoid multiplying toxic traits organization-wide.
Leverage environmental boosts for rapid skill development in feedback and candor.
View interviews as onboarding starters to ensure consistent messaging.
Craft pain-focused job descriptions for precise candidate attraction.
Implement memo culture to eliminate ambiguity and elevate team IQ.
Separate culture and technical interviews for unbiased, efficient hiring.
Ask new team members for advice to disarm and integrate swiftly.
Challenge reasonable goals with 60-day sprints for accelerated progress.
Reflect daily on tangible outputs to shift from busyness to impact.
Use partnership language to break silos and encourage collaboration.
Treat entry-level and contractors with equal respect to build loyalty.
Start tasks immediately to harness perishable inspiration.
Write shitty first drafts quickly to build momentum on projects.
Understand opportunity costs before senior hires to maximize scaling.
Counter imported habits actively to preserve unique company culture.
Block creative time away from meetings for innovation.
Frontload hiring with detailed memos for better filtering.
De-escalate personal issues via written self-development memos.

MEMO

In the high-stakes world of business scaling, Leila Hormozi and Sharran Srivatsaa pull back the curtain on Acquisition.com's inner workings. Hosted on their new Operator Podcast, the duo dissects Sharran's first 60 days at the firm, revealing a culture where packed calendars signal opportunity rather than overload. Contrary to his expectations from a Goldman Sachs tenure marked by sharp elbows and egos, he found a team blending razor-sharp competence with disarming humility—a rare alchemy that fosters collaboration over cutthroat competition.

Hiring emerges as the linchpin of this environment. Hormozi recounts firing four key leaders for lacking humility, emphasizing that culture is sculpted through deliberate choices: "You shape the culture by who you hire and fire." They advocate separating cultural and technical interviews to avoid exhausting candidates, while frontloading detailed job memos to attract precise fits. One standout: 1,000 applications for general counsel, filtered by vulnerable content that draws those eager to join not just the company, but its leaders.

Memos, a cornerstone practice, replace Slack rants with structured clarity. Drawing from Jeff Bezos's playbook, they mandate pre-meeting writings outlining why a problem matters, what it entails, how to solve it, and next steps. This "freaking memo" habit, as Srivatsaa dubs it, depersonalizes issues and boosts organizational intelligence. Even personal development benefits—team members draft memos on their constraints, treating self-growth like business strategy, which de-escalates emotions and sharpens focus.

Unreasonable ambition threads through their approach. Srivatsaa challenges six-month projects to 60 days, urging leaders to question "reasonable traps" like quarterly goals. Hormozi echoes this, reflecting on days lost to busyness: "What do you have to show for it?" This mindset, inspired by Alex Hormozi's future-oriented vision, pushes for immediate action on assignments, preserving "perishable" momentum and creativity through blocked, meeting-free time.

Collaboration defies silos, with Srivatsaa thriving on diverse projects—from events to taxes—framed as partnerships that share credit. They warn against importing old habits, like corporate jargon, into fresh cultures, and stress uniform respect: contractors receive swag bags, entry-level roles get meaningful titles. A Nigerian team's outperformance after such gestures underscores treating everyone as vital contributors.

For fearful entrepreneurs eyeing hires, the advice is blunt: You'll hire wrong first—Hormozi needed three bad executive assistants to find her star. But reps build intuition, and senior partners amplify capacity exponentially if leveraged wisely. "If I have double the capacity, what can we both do that's worth more?" they ask, turning trepidation into acceleration.

Sharran's onboarding ritual—asking every team member for advice—disarmed skepticism, forging bonds through humility. It revealed patterns in operations, guiding his integration. As Acquisition.com scales, fighting entropy means constant vigilance against imported toxicities, ensuring the firm's unique blend of adaptability, high capacity, and bold timelines endures.

Ultimately, their unfiltered exchange distills scaling to essentials: humility over ego, writing over whining, unreasonableness over routine. For business owners, it's a roadmap to not just survive growth pains, but thrive amid them, building teams that multiply success rather than mediocrity.