Hire your Customers

I was reading Kings of Crypto by Jeff Roberts and came across the story of Olaf Carlson-Wee. Olaf was customer number 30 at Coinbase, and employee number 1. I don’t have to tell you how that turned out.

In the book, Olaf distills his startup experience into one piece of advice: Hire your customers. Reportedly, the legendary Phil Knight of Nike laid the foundation of his shoe empire by starting with a small team of devout sneakerheads as well.

This got me thinking. As many of you know, I’m working for Howard Lindzon, the founder of Social Leverage and StockTwits, among many. And after working for him for a few months I realized I’ve also been a customer. I’m using beehiiv for my newsletter. I use StockTwits and Koyfin, and Robinhood to invest. I use Introvoke to record podcasts. And finally, I’m using Rally to fractionally invest in cars I love. Like the Aston Martin below:

It probably doesn’t mean anything, but I’m grateful for the opportunity. At least half the products mentioned I was using before I started working for Howard, but it’s nice to be playing long term games with long term people.

Disclaimer: All information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. I have a disclosure policy.

Originally published at https://peteweishaupt.beehiiv.com.