65% of startups fail because co-founders can't get along. Well, we’re happy to consider ourselves in the 35% of those that do. I never planned to interview my own co-founder on this show. But here we are!!! Here's the backstory: @BlakeHudelson and I met at Atomic, a startup studio in San Francisco. A mutual contact introduced us and something clicked. So I did what any totally reasonable person would do… I suggested we work on 3 *companies at the same time* to see what sticks. Blake said yes. Which tells you everything about him. That was six years and roughly a thousand late-night calls ago. We've been through near-death moments, leadership changes that hurt, a Covid basement where I may or may not have screamed into a wall, and more pivots than either of us likes to count. We finally landed on @BoomPopHQ's direction in 2023 and haven't looked back. This episode gets real and raw on our co-founder dynamic and some lessons we’ve learned that hopefully you can apply to your own co-founder relationships (or really ANY relationship, professional or otherwise). Blake tells you exactly what drives him crazy about me (including a habit of mine he's named the "super poop"). I'll admit what I should have done differently. And we share the stuff we genuinely wish someone had told us in year one. What we get into: - The one exercise every co-founding pair should do in their first 30 days - Why our most important pivotal moments have always come from our disagreements - What we learned from hiding problems from our team (spoiler: don't) - The difference between a co-founder who complements you vs. one who mirrors you - How radical transparency became the most powerful thing we ever did for our culture New episode of Don't Be a Jerk with my co-founder Blake Hudelson is live now everywhere you get your podcasts!!!

This former prosecutor went from sending people to prison to then building the legal system to bring them home. In our newest episode of DBAJ, we talk all about why she made this 180º career pivot and what she’s doing to flip the narrative around prison sentences. @hillaryblout left the DA's office and built an entirely new legal pathway to bring people home from prison. Not by fighting prosecutors but by making them partners. Her nonprofit, For The People, has helped resentence over 1,000 people across six states. The recidivism rate is 3-8%. The savings in one county alone is up to $287 million. This is one of the most powerful conversations I've had on Don't Be a Jerk. We get into: - Why the person you think is your opponent might be your best collaborator - How she convinced "tough on crime" prosecutors to revisit their own cases - The trauma-to-prison pipeline for women (500% increase since the 1980s) - Why second chances produce better outcomes than punishment, with the data to prove it - What perspective-taking looks like in practice, for leaders in any field

I've been obsessed with this question lately: how does someone FEEL in the moments after they interact with me? As Maya Angelou famously said: “At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” It turns out this answer matters more than most of us realize. When people feel respected, trust skyrockets. When they feel dismissed, defensiveness kicks in almost instantly. So I did a solo episode on exactly this. 7 things you can do to be a genuinely great person. 5 traps that make you look like a jerk, even when that's not your intent. What you'll walk away with: - Why praising in public and giving feedback in private changes everything - The "three times" name trick that makes people feel instantly seen - Why the most likable people in any room talk the least about themselves - What happens neurologically when you smile at someone (it's a little wild) - How to change someone's mind without ever making an argument This is one I'm really proud of.

“If there isn’t a why, it’s very hard to get people to join your company.” This was one of my favorite conversations on DBAJ yet! @briannekimmel grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. Moved to Australia alone at 22. Came back craving connection that the internet kept failing to give her. Started writing $1,000 angel checks to founders most people overlooked. Now, she has 9 unicorns in her portfolio: @webflow, @Deel, @supabase, @Clubhouse. Here’s her thesis: Work made us all corporate people. The best founders are the ones Silicon Valley keeps ignoring. And AI (perhaps counterintuitively) might be the thing that gives us back the 100 things the internet stole. What you'll learn in this episode: - Why she says the MBA founder almost always starts a generic company - Why the plumber has more job security than the Ivy League engineer in the AI era - The "culture sourcing" strategy that gave her more deal flow than anyone chasing it the conventional way - Why Gen Z hates dating apps and bad workplaces for the same exact reason - What a book about the collapse of bowling leagues taught her about building one of the most human-first venture firms in Silicon Valley - What "get outside the bubble" actually means as a leadership philosophy and why it matters more right now than almost anything else Brianne is one of the most original thinkers I've had on this show. Full episode is live everywhere you get your podcasts!