Learn from the hidden partners and operators behind the world's best founders and creatives. Confidants is live on Spotify and Apple Podcast.

Joined January 2013
Episode 8 on Paul Allen and Microsoft is out now!
The bets that built early Microsoft didnt start with Bill Gates. They started with the guy beside him. Paul Allen was a guitar-playing sci-fi reader who spent his teens in library stacks. He saw the Altair on a magazine cover in Harvard Square and rushed to show Gates
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In honor of Tim Cook's last day at Apple, check out Episode 7 where I go into the secret sauce between him and Jobs and what made his run at Apple so special. open.spotify.com/episode/2K4…
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Here are some my favorite Roy Disneyism and the lessons I learned from studying his partnership with Walt Disney.
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The full episode on Tim Cook is on Spotify and Apple Podcast.
Lessons I learned from studying Tim Cook: 1. Speak with "And 50" Precision 2. Founders set the ceiling. Operators set the floor 3. Leave room for people to impress you 4. Preparation creates leverage 5. Listen to your gut The breakdown is below
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This what Confidants is all about.
When hiring executives, @travisk prioritizes one skill above all others: the ability to solve hard problems. "There's two things you want an executive to do. You want them to be able to organize, manage, and lead at scale. You also want them to be epic and strategic problem solvers... the best executives are the ones that are doing both well." "I have come to the conclusion over my years, that problem solving is the most important thing. If you get somebody who organizes and manages well but cannot solve a problem, they're going to be doing ridiculous stuff in a super organized way. The only constraint on your imagination is management capacity. But what is management capacity? It's really problem solving at scale."
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Voice and POV come before taste. Perkins knew how important it was to protect and nurture the author's voice.
Max Perkins on staying true to a creators voice: "The process is so simple. If you have a Mark Twain don't try to make him into a Shakespeare or make a Shakespeare into a Mark Twain. Because in the end an editor can get only as much out of an author as the author has in him."
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For George Martin, producers needed taste and tact to get the most out of artists.
George Martin on tact: "Tact is the sine qua non of being a record producer. One has to tread a fine line between, on the one hand submitting to an artist's every whim, and, on the other, throwing one's own weight about.
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Roy Disney's philosophy on building a business was go for your independence and the rest will fall into place.
From Roy Disney: "Our difficulties are one of being undercapitalized. We still own our business one hundred percent and have avoided taking in any outside interest to secure capital. We've had several squeeze plays tried on us, but we have been able to avoid them all so far."
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Episode 6 is out now.
Max Perkins didn't write novels. He made them possible. He saw what Hemingway and Fitzgerald could be and made moves to unlocked their careers. The confidant whose entire craft was making other people's work undeniable. New Confidants episode. open.spotify.com/episode/6zJ…
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Every visionary needs a translator. Someone who can take a bold idea and make the world understand it. This episode is about Joy Covey, the CFO who translated Jeff Bezos’s vision into something investors could believe in.
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Here are the 5 big lessons from Episode 4 on George Martin
5 things George Martin understood about great collaborations:
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Check out Episode 4 on George Martin and The Beatles!
Most people think the Beatles were four people. But in the studio, there was a fifth. His name was George Martin. He blended classical music and pop music, experimented with tape loops and recording in reverse, and turned the recording studio itself into an instrument.
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"The thing is, it's very easy to be different but very difficult to be better." - Jony Ive
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