Supra Insider

What changes about hiring an executive when the best candidates suddenly have fifteen generational companies to choose from and no reason to pick up the phone?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Nolan Church, who was the first head of talent at DoorDash, then chief people officer at Carta, and who now runs executive searches for a small number of companies at a time. Ben worked for him directly at Continuum, and the two of them walk through what has actually shifted in the executive market: why the clearing price for a great hire is no longer about compensation, why the executive who talks a lot and does nothing has seen demand for their services collapse, and what founders are really buying when they bring in an outside recruiter.
They explore the framework Nolan builds every search around, how he gets almost anyone on the phone cold, why he treats relationship building and assessment as separate modes that companies routinely collapse too early, and what he thinks great executive assessment looks like given that structured interviews are only so predictive.
If you’re hiring your first executives, thinking about your own next move at that level, or curious how the top of the talent market actually works, 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:
* (01:30) Why Nolan calls this the craziest moment in tech history for executive hiring
* (03:14) The clearing price isn’t just comp, it’s life design
* (07:16) “I don’t believe in work-life balance, I just believe in life,” and where 996 actually fits
* (09:55) The three things an executive is really hired to do
* (10:52) The empty suit, and why demand for that kind of executive has gone to zero
* (19:14) Why Elon never pays for an outside recruiter, and what VCs now have to offer instead
* (28:44) What counts as a successful executive hire, and hiring for the next nine to twelve months
* (30:45) Why the best executive search is about removing asymmetry
* (35:49) The MOC framework: mission, outcome, competency, and why it beats a job description
* (42:15) Executives are like flowers in the spring, and why speed at all costs is a fail state
* (46:09) His secret sauce: 98% of the people he talks to start as cold outreach
* (52:02) Why he thinks really good recruiting is a moral good, and the tax that comes with it
* (59:13) What executive assessment actually looks like, and why interviews give weaker signal than people assume
* (1:09:55) Gratitude Corner: Nolan thanks his parents, his wife, and the people who bet on him early
* And more!
Links:
* “The Empty Suit Executive” by Tyler Hogge: https://www.tylerhogge.com/blog/the-empty-suit-executive/
* Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4989687-who
* Andreessen Horowitz executive hiring guide: https://a16z.com/executive-hiring/
* Andrew Munday: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-munday-51479612/
* Tony Xu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/
* Henry Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heward/
* Jeff Clavier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffclavier/
* Chad Packard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-packard-2397022/
* Nolan Church: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/
* 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

When every individual on your team can suddenly move ten times faster, what stops them from moving ten times faster in ten different directions?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Andrew Somervell, co-founder of Hamster, an AI-native workspace for product teams. Andrew and his co-founder built Taskmaster, the open-source tool that shipped plan mode before the major coding tools had it, and the question that kept coming back from users was how to take it to work. He explains why that pointed at a team problem rather than a tooling problem, and why he doesn’t believe PMs want to live in a CLI.
They explore the artifacts Andrew thinks a team actually needs, why he killed the PRD and what he ended up building in its place, the three meetings his team runs every week, and Ben’s repeated pressing on the harder question underneath all of it: what genuinely changes when AI becomes multiplayer rather than a set of people each working alone with it.
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:
* (01:33) How Taskmaster led to Hamster: solving context locally, then hearing “how do I take this to work?”
* (05:55) The Cursor Cafe conversation, and why he let go of the open-source moat
* (12:41) Marc and Ben walk through their own clunky brief workflow, and Andrew’s verdict
* (15:35) The three artifacts: a brief for stakeholders, a spec for engineering, a plan for delivery
* (21:52) Killing the PRD, and the graveyard of draft briefs that followed
* (23:28) Their three meetings a week, and why discovery is the one he loves
* (25:27) Treating ideas like pets, and what happens when anyone can ship a huge PR
* (28:03) Direction setting: strategy on a page, tied to live metrics
* (32:14) Ben presses on what’s actually different about multiplayer versus single-player
* (35:33) Andrew’s answer: alignment first, then speed and cohesion
* (40:35) The nine challenges that surfaced from 70-plus calls with product leaders
* (55:43) Ben’s takeaway on why two co-founders stay aligned, and what breaks when you add people
* (1:05:09) Gratitude Corner: Andrew thanks his co-founder Eyal and his Supra group
* And more!
Links:
* Hamster: https://tryhamster.com/
* Hamster community Slack: https://tryhamster.com/slack
* Eyal Toledano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eyaltoledano
* Andrew Somervell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsomervell/
* 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 do you do when you’re putting in the same hours, running the same playbook, and the numbers stop moving?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez talk through the slowdown their business hit over the summer and how they worked their way out of it. They walk through the blockbuster April that became a false baseline, the moment in late June when the trend was undeniable, and what the analytics revealed once they finally looked properly: traffic was down, and the traffic they had wasn’t converting.
They explore why Marc thinks burnout comes from inputs not matching outputs rather than from working hard, what momentum actually is and why losing it is so hard to shake, the content system they built that produced consistently bad posts, and the realization that no amount of good execution rescues a weak idea. They also lay out the protocol they’d use the next time one of them stops having fun.
If you’re running a business through a flat stretch, building a content engine that isn’t landing, or working with a partner and wondering how to say the hard thing out loud, 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:
* (01:32) Marc on the first signal: more hours going in, and the numbers refusing to move
* (03:28) The blockbuster April they mistook for a new baseline
* (05:51) What the analytics showed once they looked properly: traffic down, conversion worse
* (08:56) Why Marc thinks burnout comes from inputs not matching outputs
* (09:45) Naming it out loud, and why that gave them permission to change things
* (12:50) Ben defines momentum, and why he couldn’t enjoy a beach vacation without it
* (17:50) Why paid acquisition was premature, and how go-to-market became a content problem
* (23:21) The system they built to draft posts end to end, and why the output was bad
* (26:19) Spending zero time at the idea level, and executing ten out of ten on a two out of ten
* (29:17) Morning writing blocks: using their most productive hours on the actual bottleneck
* (33:56) How a LinkedIn post about rejection turned into an episode booked on the spot
* (45:09) Why “why are you interested in this?” produced a post ten times better
* (50:15) Working up the leverage ladder, and the co-founder benefits they didn’t expect
* (1:12:12) The protocol for next time: name it, check in, find ground truth, scope a step
* And more!
Links:
* Ben’s post about how he handles rejection: https://benerez.substack.com/p/how-i-handle-setbacks-and-coach-resilience
* Episode about Rejection:
https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/120-how-to-stop-taking-rejection
* 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:
* 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 are hiring managers actually looking for right now, when everyone has a polished resume and nobody knows what the job will look like in a year?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez welcome back Jori Bell, VP of Core Experience at Hampton, where she runs the peer group experience for high-growth founders. Jori sits at an unusual intersection: she has spent the past year hiring for her own team while also coaching product leaders through the existential side of this market. She explains the mindset she screens for, borrowed from the drama triangle, and why she would rather hire someone adaptable than someone who has done the exact job before.
They explore why a brand name on your resume opens doors but no longer closes them, the “why you” question most candidates never answer well, what actually makes an outreach message worth acting on, and what a year of hiring taught her about connections, in-person onsites, and treating a job posting like a marketing campaign.
If you’re job searching and unsure what to lead with, hiring and rethinking your process, or a product leader trying to figure out what this moment asks of you, 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:
* (01:28) Jori’s three vantage points: leading Core at Hampton, coaching product leaders, and her own path
* (03:37) The drama triangle, and why she hires for a creator mindset over a victim one
* (06:54) Why brand names open doors but no longer close them
* (10:29) What to do when your company restricts your tools, including extending STAR with the hypothetical
* (13:07) Why LinkedIn is now the first artifact she looks at, and the resume comes later
* (14:49) Storytelling as marketing: the headline, and the “why you” most candidates fail to answer
* (21:31) Specialization versus adaptability, and why having done the job can be a hindrance
* (26:26) What actually stands out on LinkedIn, and it isn’t the profile
* (31:39) If you need something from someone, do the work and make it dead simple
* (37:13) Leaving people excited, and the mind-meld moment that earns a second conversation
* (45:40) A year of hiring: connections, in-person onsites, and the clown car
* (49:25) Where she lands on take-homes versus case study interviews
* (58:14) Running a job posting like a marketing campaign, with a hit list for outreach
* (1:09:48) Gratitude Corner: Jori thanks her coach, Mike Lewis
* And more!
Links:
* Jori’s Substack, Product Therapy: https://www.joribell.com/
* Jori’s hiring for: https://joinhampton.com/careers/Moderator-Success-Lead
* Mike Lewis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikelewis/
* Jori’s first appearance on Supra Insider:
https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/67-untangling-identity-from-job-title?r=486xld
* Jori Bell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jori-bell/
* 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

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