Supra Insider

Why do so many strong candidates make it deep into an interview process and then quietly lose it on the take-home?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez record one of the morning writing blocks they usually have off the record. Ben has been coaching people through take-homes and noticed almost everyone approaches them the same way: clear the calendar, disappear into a cave, submit. He walks through what he sees when people send him the assignments that didn’t pass, and the two distinct problems those submissions tend to have.
They explore how much you can plan before the prompt even arrives, why you often have more say over the timeline than you realize, and the support system Ben now tells people to build in advance, with one person checking whether the story lands and another qualified to judge whether the ideas are any good. Marc pushes on when to act on which kind of feedback, and Ben makes the case that nobody can evaluate an idea they can’t find.
If you have a take-home coming up, you’re coaching someone who does, or you’re a hiring manager wondering what separates the submissions that stand out, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:25) Marc breaks down the different flavors of take-home assignment
* (04:40) Why take-homes are the least predictable vector in an interview loop
* (06:46) The default approach: treating it as a heads-down solo assignment
* (09:20) Plan day by day, and use the agency you have over when the clock starts
* (10:14) The spectrum of candidate calendars, and why everyone still gets the same five days
* (14:04) The two reasons submissions fail: legibility and weak substance
* (16:53) Why the bar has moved, and how AI raised both the floor and the ceiling
* (21:24) Recruit one or two people to help before the prompt arrives
* (22:08) The 30-minute session to chew on the prompt together
* (25:42) The two reviewer roles: legibility and subject matter expertise
* (34:28) Why none of this guarantees a pass, and why it’s still worth doing
* (39:38) The story is the packaging, and why nobody can judge ideas they can’t find
* (44:31) Why a strong artifact has the longest shelf life in any interview loop
* And more!
Links:
* Insider Loops: https://www.insiderloops.com/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What if part of the drive that built your company began as a childhood defense mechanism?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Dr. Gillian O’Shea Brown, a psychotherapist, complex trauma specialist, and NYU adjunct faculty member whose second book, Psyche’s Awakening, comes out in September. Founders started finding her without her ever setting out to work with them, and she explains what she has noticed in that rare window into a guarded mind: that success often functions as a thermostat for psychological safety, and that the goalpost tends to keep moving even after the exit.
They explore whether healing your wounds costs you the edge that got you here, what a gut feeling actually is and how Gillian connects intuition with nervous-system regulation, and why some companies rely more on process and less on intuition as they scale. Gillian also walks through how she helps people find the patterns underneath their behavior, using questions Marc and Ben put to her about their own lives.
If you’re a founder wondering what’s underneath your drive, an operator trying to build somewhere that feels psychologically safe, or anyone curious how childhood patterns show up at work, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:49) How founders became Gillian’s clientele without her ever setting out to attract them
* (05:19) Success as a thermostat of psychological safety, and what people chasing chips actually want
* (10:33) What surfaces after the exit, when the goalpost moves and you’re finally alone with yourself
* (12:14) Marc’s fear that healing costs you your edge, and sublimation from Phelps to Schwarzenegger
* (14:25) Listening for your “I am” beliefs and mapping your psychological Achilles heel
* (23:16) What a gut feeling actually is, and why intuition needs a regulated nervous system
* (29:49) Why companies trade intuition for process as they scale
* (39:43) Ben’s origin story, and how Gillian reframes the work he does now as a corrective experience
* (43:04) Is a wound ever fully healed? The scar tissue metaphor and repetition compulsion
* (48:37) Marc brings up their worst argument, and Gillian names it as an abreaction
* (54:08) How to find your own wounds, plus the erotic-emotional map
* (58:39) On choosing a partner: don’t mistake contention for passion
* (1:04:11) Gratitude Corner: Gillian thanks her daughters Genevieve and Juliet, and her husband Grant
* And more!
Links:
* Pre-order Psyche’s Awakening: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/psyches-awakening-dr-gillian-oshea-brown?variant=44639204999202
* Gillian’s website: https://www.drgillianosheabrown.com/
* Gillian’s Substack: https://drgillianosheabrown.substack.com/
* Gillian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.gillianosheabrown/
* Gillian’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.gillianosheabrown
* Dr. Gillian O’Shea Brown: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgillianosheabrown/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What does it tell you about a company when every single person it hires, in every function, has to pass the same interview about culture?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez set the guest format aside for a conversation Marc started because he noticed something new. After two years of coaching people through interview loops, this was the first time he’d seen Ben genuinely fascinated by one specific interview at one specific company. Ben walks through what he’s pieced together about Anthropic’s culture interview: the no-exceptions policy, the rapid-fire format of ten or more questions in a single 45-minute slot, and the fact that anyone at the company, from marketing to IT, can be trained to run it.
They explore the questions that actually get asked, what Ben believes is being evaluated underneath them, why “why Anthropic” demands more depth than the same question anywhere else, and whether the filter holds as the company gets hotter and more candidates learn to say the right things. Then they turn to the question Ben finds most interesting: why almost no other company does this, and what happens inside a company when employees are calibrated to evaluate culture.
If you’re preparing for an interview at a frontier lab, thinking about how your own company screens for values, or just curious what a well-designed culture filter looks like from the outside, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (02:55) Anthropic’s no-exceptions policy: every candidate, every function, the same interview
* (04:55) The format: ten to fifteen questions in 45 minutes, not two or three deep stories
* (13:15) The two Dario Amodei essays candidates are pointed to, and the light and shade framing
* (16:17) A sampling of the questions that actually get asked
* (19:15) How Ben coaches the revenue versus safety question by first questioning the premise
* (23:55) What he thinks they’re evaluating: communication, intellectual honesty, and authenticity
* (26:59) Walking through Anthropic’s seven values and what each one signals
* (31:39) Why “why Anthropic” demands more depth than the same question anywhere else
* (39:40) The cult comparison, and why you mostly have to convince them you belong
* (44:12) Missionaries versus mercenaries, and whether the filter holds as the company grows
* (46:52) The bigger question: why doesn’t any other company do this?
* (55:55) The flywheel: calibrating employees as interviewers reinforces culture internally
* (1:13:49) Why the STAR method backfires here, and how to read the rapid-fire dynamic
* And more!
Links:
* Two essays required for Anthropic’s Interview:
* Machines of Loving Grace by Dario Amodei (2024): https://darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace
* The Adolescence of Technology by Dario Amodei: https://darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology
* Anthropic’s values: https://www.anthropic.com/careers
* Acquired on Sequoia Capital: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1
* Insider Loops: https://www.insiderloops.com
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

Note: this episode contains screen sharing, so it’s best watched on YouTube.
What does a recruiter actually see in the ten seconds they spend on your LinkedIn profile, and what makes them scroll past?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Chris Lee, founder of Product Scout, a boutique firm that helps early-stage founders make their first product hires. Chris explains the idea he calls candidate market fit, why he refuses to give profile feedback until he knows what role you’re aiming at, and why a profile built to appeal to everyone ends up resonating with no one.
Then he opens his actual tooling and walks through a live search for a head of product role at an AI-native pharma startup, showing the rubrics his agents score against and why almost everything at the top of the funnel comes down to keywords. He finishes by reviewing Marc’s and Ben’s own profiles against that role, out loud and unfiltered, and passes on both.
If you’re job searching and unsure whether your profile is working, weighing how specific to make your story, or a hiring manager curious how sourcing really happens now, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (02:46) Candidate market fit: why a profile built for everyone resonates with no one
* (06:01) The dimensions Chris asks about first: company stage, level, and domain expertise
* (08:26) Why he filters out anyone outside the metro for in-person roles, even if they’d relocate
* (11:40) The ethics of setting your location to a city you haven’t moved to yet
* (16:38) Multiple shots on goal: position for the dream role, test, iterate, then pivot
* (19:58) Why a mixed bag of parallel interviews muddies your narrative
* (23:08) The first two minutes, and what separates a crafted pitch from a life story
* (27:37) The live search setup: a head of product role at an AI-native pharma startup
* (34:36) How Chris sources: Claude for research, then his own agents to score profiles
* (38:04) The five rubric dimensions his agents grade every profile against
* (41:38) Director versus principal IC, and why four years as a director reads as too removed
* (44:46) Why he almost never looks at resumes
* (49:14) The review begins: Chris walks through Ben’s profile and explains his pass
* (58:14) Marc’s turn, and the sub-one-year stint that gets skipped over
* (1:05:30) Where Marc and Ben would actually be strong candidates
* (1:06:41) Practical fixes: meaty bullets, real metrics, and narrative over recap
* (1:11:35) Gratitude Corner: Chris thanks Colin Smith, Charlie Ruiz, and Marc
* And more!
Links:
* Product Scout: https://product-scout.com/
* Charlie Ruiz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-ruiz/
* Colin Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/execnow/
* Chris Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechrislee/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What happens when you pass every interview, get approved for an offer, and then hear nothing for five months?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga interviews Ben Erez about team matching, the stage at large companies where an approved candidate waits for a hiring manager to claim them. Ben walks through how the process actually works from the inside, drawing on his own path into Facebook and what he has since heard from people going through it now.
They explore why hiring managers exhaust internal candidates first, what a company-wide reshuffle does to everyone waiting outside, the reported changes at Meta that have left candidates in silence, and the moves that are still within a candidate’s control, including how to see the roles that never get posted publicly and what to say when you reach out.
If you’re sitting in team matching wondering whether to keep waiting, preparing for a generalist loop at a big company, or a leader trying to understand why your approved candidate pool keeps growing, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (00:56) What team matching is, and the difference between specialist and generalist interview loops
* (07:19) Why you don’t get numbers or a written offer until a team claims you
* (12:04) Inside the hiring manager’s head, and why internal candidates always come first
* (15:35) How Meta’s reshuffle left external candidates behind a deep internal bench
* (23:36) Ben’s own path at Facebook: a recruiter sending him roles and matching on the third manager
* (27:33) The reported changes at Meta: capped conversations, limited “bullets,” recruiters pulled out
* (31:55) A tale of two cities: the AI talent war versus the buyer’s market everyone else is in
* (39:42) The controllable controllables, starting with the roles you can’t see from outside
* (42:23) Working recruiters, insiders, and cold DMs to manufacture inbound interest
* (49:49) What to actually say in the outreach message
* (53:53) Be visible, then be legible, and why specificity beats generalist positioning
* (1:01:33) Should this practice exist at all? Marc and Ben take opposite ends
* (1:11:31) How people mess it up, and why staying stuck beats matching badly
* And more!
Links:
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com